We include here a number of articles that we think will be of interest to our audience. Some are printed articles like Eric Sevareid’s “Letter to a Grandfather I Never Knew.”
A very interesting article is “Norwegian Life in the 1800’s”, by Neil Hogland. He includes a section by Theodore Blegen which is also helpful. this is quite a factual and also emotional story of the hardships of the Husmann, the cotters or tenant farmers and the precarious life they lived in Norway in the mid-1800’s.
The church has been important, whether the Eidsborg Stave Church near Dalen in Upper Telemark, so entwined with several of our families, especially the Mandts, or Winnebago Lutheran Church, near Lakes Mills Iowa, in the life of the early immigrants. Frederick Olson Tvedt , ancestor to Sadie Suby, who immigrated to America late in his life, was known as a free thinker who protested the harsh control that the established state church of Norway. He hosted Hauge movement speakers in his home.
Phil Holtan has written several articles examining our ancestry from a particular point of view, The first examines “What does it mean to come from the Telemark district of Norway?” about the distinctively religious and poliitical views to be from the totally rural and non-city district of Telemark. Another notices how many pastors there were in our Norwegian Heritage, especially early after the Reformation, often coming from noble families in Denmark. To be a well-educated pastor in those days was a rather elite status, and was a worthy vocation from a wealthy family, especially if you were a younger son and didn’t inherit the manor. It brought many pastors to rural backwaters like Telemark where they married and left their descendants. Read his first draft in Pastors Prest in our Family History TBC
Here is a chart on which generations of immigrant families in our ancestry actually came to America. Bendick Tweeten was the latest of our immigrant families to arrive, but his parents did not come. Almost all the other families, who were quite poor, all came, including the very elderly grandparents. Often the young couples came first soon after their weddings, then as they were established, brought their parents and even grandparents. Without their children to support them in Norway, there was no future for them there. Of special interest to some of our family is that Hans and Margit Holtan paid for their 2 Tweeten nieces and nephew Bendick Tweeten, whose descendants, Stan Holtan and Ruth Tweeten married each other. Immigration dates and information for Holtans 2-16-25 TBC
Another article by Phil looks at a pattern in our immigrant families that after all the older sons became farmers, many of the youngest went to college and got advanced degrees and professional careers. Younger Brothers Go to College
Finally, here’s an article from the Hallingdal Lag newsletter, translated by Edna Rude, one of Ruth Holtan’s relatives and fellow genealogists, that shows how in medieval times, an Icelandic priest trace a wealthy farmer’s genealogy back through Norwegian kings to Norse and then Greek gods all the way to Adam and Eve. What a ride! Please be aware that the two pages are reversed in order and turned sideways. The rotation is easy, just go to the top and punch the rotational button. We’ll get that fixed eventually. Roots from Viking Kings to Adam and Eve