Norwegian Emigrant Museum and Research Center Show Segment
HERITAGE: If you are of Norwegian ancestry, information on how to trace your roots can be obtained from the Norwegian consulate nearest you. In Norway, for assistance in those conducting genealogical research, contact : The Norwegian Emigration Center, Bergjelandsgate 30, N-4012 Stavanger Tel. +47 51 50 12 67 Fax +47 51 50 12 90; E-mail: denut @telepost.no A minimum fee of $30 is charged for each written request. The Emigration Center is a genealogical and research center with sources covering all of Norway, including parish registers, passenger lists, national censuses and local history books. The Norwegian Emigration Museum is both an open air museum with buildings made by Norwegian settlers in the US, as well as a research center with archives, church books, letters, photographs, and other useful information. The open-air museum operates from May through September. requests for genealogical services can be mailed to The Norwegian Emigrant Museum Genealogical Society, Akershagan, N-2312 Ottestad, Norway. Internet-http://www.hamarnett.no/emigrantmuseum/ e-mail; knut.djupedal@emigrant.museum.no;
THE NORWEGIAN EMIGRANT MUSEUM History and Purpose: between 1825 and 1960 , over 900,000 Norwegians emigrated to overseas destination. Seen as a percentage of the total population, no other country except Ireland had such large numbers of emigrants. Furthermore, it is documented that these emigrants had over 4 million descendants around the world. In other words, the Norwegian “ethnic groups” worldwide is as large as the entire population of the home country. The Norwegian Emigrant Museum commemorates this massive movement of people. First establishes as a part of the Norwegian Folk Museum in 1952, it was moved to Hamar in 1973, and became an independent institution in 1988. Today the Norwegian Emigrant Museum is Norway’s only museum devoted solely to the history of Norwegian migration. They collect and conserve relevant historical material and disseminate knowledge of the migration through exhibitions, publications, lectures and other media. There are two area, the research center and the open-air museum. The Research Center is housed in a new building at Akershagan, just outside Hamar. It includes reading and work areas for those who wish to make use of the Ingrid Semmingsen Research Library and archival materials. These materials include: ca. 7, 000 letters from America ca. 5,000 photographs An emigrant agent archive Archives from Norwegian missionary activity 450 tape-recorded interviews with emigrants Microfilms of church records from about 2,000 Norwegian Lutheran Congregations in the United States American census information A collection of objects related to emigration
The open-air Museum was dedicated by His Majesty King Olav V in May 1989. this section gives visitors a taste of Norwegian America at the turn of the century. At present, the section includes two log cabins, a granary, a corn crib, and a barn. With support from the Norwegian Department of education and religion. The Oak Ridge church from Houston, Minnesota was brought to Norway. When rebuilt, it will be dedicated as the Norwegian Emigrant Memorial Church.
SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE MUSEUM Reading and work areas are available for visitors who wish to use our library and archives. Microfilm records and some books may be loaned for use at public record offices state archives and university and high school libraries. Advice and assistance is available for those interested in genealogy. An internship program is available for college students interested in migration studies. In cooperation with the Norwegian American Historical Association, Norwegian Section, we publish a triennial collection of essays. Newsletter is published quarterly.
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION In the United States, 3.9 million people indicated on the 1990 census, that they had ethnic roots in Norway; and there are similar groups in Canada , Australia, New Zealand and other emigrant destinations in Africa and South America. Perhaps as many as a quarter of all Norwegian emigrant later returned for good to the old country, Indeed, in 1910 the emigration took on the character if a labor migration rather than a permanent settlement in new lands. In more recent times, many older emigrants have returned to spend their retirement in the land of their birth.
Norwegian LAND DIVISIONS
Fylke: the whole of Norway is administratively divided into fylkes. Presently there are 19 fylkes. Sogn og Fjordane is a fylke.
Kommune: each fylke is again divided into kommunes. Presently there are 448 kommunes in Norway, and 36 kommunes in Sogn og Fjordane.
Husmann: a man who lived in a cottage on a farm, at a site called husmannsplass. Usually he had some petty farm land of his own. He had specific duties on the farm. There were many husmannsplasses in Sogn og Fjordane.
Bygdelag: a member society belonging to a specific community, kommune or local district.
Stol: a mountain croft used by the farmers in the summer.
Sokn: a church and its congregation. Several churches and congregations constitute a prestegjeld (parish)
A fylke is a political and administrative unit with a governor at the top. The whole of Norway is divided into 19 fylkes, of which Sogn og Fjordane is one of the largest. Each fylke is divided into a smaller administrative units called a kommune. Presently Sogn og Fjordane consists of 26 kommunes, each is headed by a mayor. in addition one usually talks about three major districts in Sogn og Fjordane, Sunnfjord, consisting of 7 kommunes in the middle of Sogn og Fjordane and Nordfjord, comprising the 7 kommunes around the Norfjord. in the USA we find bygdelags using these district names/ Sogn og Fjordane got its present name in 1919. Before that is was known as Nordre Bergenhus Amt (amt=fylke) Emigration from the Sogn og Fjordane began in 1839 from the kommune Vik and lasted nearly 100 years. The district of Sogn had the earliest and most extensive emigration. Around 43,000 emigrant left the fylke and about 30,000 of these emigrated from the Sogn district. Since the early emigration was heavy, it is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 700,000 descendants in the USA. The farm was the basic unit of the old Norwegian society. For Americans searching family in Sogn og Fjordane (and generally in Norway), the use of farm names as family names may cause problems. The farm names were not only family names but also addresses. If for instance a boy was baptized Ole and the name of the father was Anders he became Ole Andersson (son of Anders). A girl baptized Anne with a father named Andersm became Anne Andersdotter (daughter of Anders). If the parents of Ole, at the time of Ole’s birth, lived at a farm called Hovland, Ole would be known as Ole Andersson Hovland. Hovland denoting the place where Ole lived. If Ole later moved to and settled at another farm, for instance at Moen, he would be known as Ole Andersson Moen. Moen then becoming his new family name and address. In this way a person could change his name and address (and family name) many times during a lifetime. This practice is often bewildering for Americans searching family in Norway. When the parson or the harbor authority in Norway noted the name of an emigrant, they mostly included the farm name at the time of departure. Coming to America, many immigrants kept the farm name as well as the family name. That is why we still today in America find so many Norwegian farm names as family names, though often Americanized and very different from the original Norwegian farm names. A problem may occur when the immigrant took another farm name as family name than noted by the parson or harbor authorities in Norway. emigrating as a Natvik (farm Ardal) might in America become an Offerdal (another farm name in Ardal). This change could depend on the time a person had stayed in a farm, or he might choose as his permanent family name in America the name of the farm he was born at.
Going back to the last century (1880) you may come across the following parishes (and parts thereof) and kommunes with the spelling of that time.
