O Canada! Like a Close Cousin

As an American descended from Norwegian and Celtic ancestors, I can't help but feel a close affiliation with, and longing for, certain other countries like Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.  Though I personally identify more with my mother's Norwegian family heritage, the sound of bagpipes combined with a flash of tartan never fails to stir my soul.  But, also vying for position near the top of the list is a country a little closer to home---a distance of only 75 miles to the border, in fact:

 Canada

My mother has always maintained that she is 100% Norwegian-American, but admits she might have just enough Swedish genes to lay claim to the area taken up by one little toe.  Perhaps it is the same with me and my various links to Canada, but in this case, the claim is also made on emotional territory.

My adopted father was a native Canadian.  Dad was born in Vancouver, British Columbia to an ex-patriot American father and a Scottish-born mother.  His mother died when he was five years old, and his father died a few years after that, so he spent the majority of his childhood in a Vancouver orphanage and foster homes.  When he became an American citizen in the mid-1940s, Dad left behind the graves of his parents and three siblings in Vancouver.  He moved to California where his sister lived, but a second sister had been adopted out to an unknown Vancouver family soon after her birth.  Happily, Dad was able to make contact with the unknown sibling a few years before his death.  In 1973, he made a trip back to Vancouver to meet his little sister for the first time, and also visited some beloved family friends and locations important to him as a child in Canada.

Since I am Norwegian-American on my mother's side, then I surely also have Viking blood ("Oh, so that's where all the tenacity comes from," I can hear some smirking!).  Vikings arrived on the shores of Newfoundland (Canada), over 1,000 years ago, looking for new trade goods.  They left the ruins of their Icelandic-style dwellings to be discovered centuries later.  You can read more about the first European discovery of North America on the Smithsonian Institutes's Natural History Museum website:  Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga.  Hmmm... if the Vikings were the first Europeans to set foot on North American soil, then why is Columbus Day (October 12) more prominently celebrated than Leif Erikson Day (October 9)?  Perhaps it is some consolation to Scandinavian Americans that Leif Erikson Day comes before Columbus Day on the calendar.

Canada also served as the point of arrival in North America for the majority of my more recent Norwegian ancestors.  During the 1850s and 1860s, many immigrants coming to America, especially from Ireland and Norway, arrived on sailing ships at a detention station at Grosse Île, an island near Quebec.  From there, my great great grandparents and their families made their way by land to locations within the United States.  You can access surviving records online from the quarantine station at the Library and Archives Canada site for Immigrants from Grosse Île.

If my Norwegian ancestors had not formed prior plans to meet up with friends or relatives in Wisconsin and Minnesota, they might have been tempted by the wild beauty of Canada.  Some men in the family later revisited the idea of settlement there.  A few years ago, I connected with an entire branch of the Winje family that was descended from Edward Winje, who left Minnesota for farming in the open fields of Saskatchewan and later moved with his son to British Columbia.  I have many Canadian cousins from that Winje line, and I know the British Columbia residents are proud, and rightfully so, of their beautiful province.

For twenty years, my husband and I regularly spent Week 50 at a timeshare in Whistler, British Columbia.  The objective was to enjoy the unparalleled scenery from the ski slopes of Whistler/Blackcomb, as well as the ambiance of its international village.  We could not help but notice the level-headed friendliness of Canadians who crossed our paths.  We also watched their government in action and marveled at how it did not waste any time as far as preparing for the 2010 Olympics was concerned.  Stretching from North Vancouver to Whistler, B.C. is the stunning ribbon of a coastal road romantically named the Sea to Sky Highway.  It was evident that the Highway 99 corridor, often narrow and sometimes treacherous, needed to be widened in some areas to safely accommodate the increased traffic expected for the Winter Olympics. The year after the contract for the 2010 Olympics was secured, we were surprised to see the roadside blasting had already begun, with 9 years left to go before the deadline!  Now, that is being proactive, and the sight won my respect for the Canadian powers-that-be for their ability to expedite the inevitable infrastructure repair in such a manner.  No one was going to catch the Canadians asleep at the wheel when the world came to visit, no sir!  

I'm not the only one who has a warm and fuzzy feeling for our hefty and well-mannered neighbor to the north.  It turns out that Canada is at the top of the international popularity list for the third year in a row.  In June, Forbes published its annual list:  The World's Most Reputable Countries, 2013.  Thousands of consumers from G8 countries were asked to rate nations based on four things:  overall reputation, good feelings about the country, whether it was admired and respected, and last but not least, trustworthiness.  I'm happy to say that Norway (this is a Norwegian genealogy blog, after all) also made the top section of the list, coming in at #5 after Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia.  A reality check is that the United States currently rates #22.  Come on, America... we can do better than that!  Let's roll up our sleeves and get some good old team spirit in action.  A little spit and polish never hurts, either.  We are not a nation of quitters!  Okay, enough cheer leading.

The United States will always be my home, but Canada will always have a little piece of my heart. In addition to the personal reasons I have already described, Canada has value because although it is the second biggest country in the world, it has less population than the top 30 of countries worldwide, therefore, it has a lot of wide open space.  Canada also has more coastline than any other country, plus a diverse geography with many mountains, lakes, and waterways that brings tourists from near and far.   Based on the evidence, the attraction is understandable, eh?

Grandma's Silk Scarf Had Meaning

In today's world, our individual belongings become increasingly depersonalized as we rapidly acquire lots of "stuff" due to availability and affordability. I think our ancestors treasured the things they owned far more than we are capable of. They scrimped and saved and watched every penny, and when they were finally ready to purchase something, they had only a few choices of color and style, if any. With our cheap and rapid 21st century manufacturing, consumers have learned to desire more and more, but the tremendous variety and availability seems increasingly unsastisfying. For example, if you offered someone a dish of the fanciest, most delectable gourmet ice cream in the world, how much would that person enjoy it if already full-up (to the ears) on plain vanilla?

Let's go back 150 years, to rural Norway. If every penny came through an entire family's back-breaking labor, by toiling every minute of every day, then how often do you think that family would buy anything? Easy answer: not often. So, when purchases were made and gifted, they were gifted with a tremendous amount of forethought and importance, like the fringed silk scarves given to my female Norwegian ancestors.

Thibertine Johnson, ca. 1870s

I have precious few likenesses of my ancestors who actually made the ship voyage from Norway to North America. This image comes from a somewhat damaged tin type photograph of Thibertine (Bertina) Johnson Winje, my great great grandmother. According to events in her life and the nature of the tin type, I am estimating the photograph was taken in about 1875.

The close-fitting jacket Bertina wears is a little different from most Norwegian immigrant women's clothing I have seen of that period, mostly because it is light in color, but there is also unusual smocking around the cuffs and hem of the jacket. A brooch holds her collar together, which is an expected fashion of the day. But, what really catches my attention in this photograph, and in several others of Bertina as a young woman, is the dark, fringed scarf worn about her neck. It was obviously a belonging that held a special meaning for Bertina, since she made a point of including it her attire on several photographic occasions.

Silk neck scarves, especially fringed ones, became a part of regional, ethnic Norwegian folk dress, called bunad. But, one has to wonder why, since Norway did not produce its own silk, and so, the scarves had to come from elsewhere.

Bertina was probably given her silk scarf in honor of a special occasion while still living in Norway. Most likely, it was given at the time of her confirmation in the Lutheran Church. Religious confirmation at about age 14 had certain connotations in Norwegian society. For one thing, a confirmed individual was considered an adult in the eyes of the church, and in general society. The main reason 19th century Norwegian children attended school was to ensure they could complete religious confirmation. During Bertina's youth, without confirmation in a state church of Norway, an individual could not be considered of good moral character, and by law, he or she could not get any kind of public license, hold a public office, or get the protection of the law. [1] [2]

Silk scarves became the most widely used luxury item in 19th century Norwegian attire, and were adopted as a part of many regional folk costumes. It is thought that 18th century French fashion was responsible for the trend. Both men and women in France wore neckerchiefs in the 1700s, and it became so that no one was considered properly dressed without a scarf around the neck. Over time, the fashion spread, including to Norway and ordinary farm folk. Merchants and peddlers from Sweden served as the main supplier of imported silk scarves to Norway during the 1900s. [3]

And so it seems that my ancestor, Bertina, treasured her silk scarf not only as a special gift from a loved one, but as a badge of honor. Though the scarf had been created in a distant, exotic location, it held significance regarding her ethnicity, and was associated with certain rights of passage. Bertina wore her silk scarf on many special occasions in America, and since it had been gifted through tradition and the labor of her elders back in Norway, it served as a constant reminder of her homeland and her culture.


[1] Fringed silk neck scarves as treasured heirlooms in Norwegian folk costume are discussed in: Marion John Nelson. Material Culture and People’s Art Among the Norwegians in America (Northfield, Minnesota: The Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1994), 133-34.

[2] Nineteenth century Norwegian schooling and religious practices are discussed in: Ann Urness Gesme, Between Rocks and Hard Places (Gesme Enterprises: Cedar Rapids, IA.), 1992.

[3] Husfliden: "Silk scarves for traditional folk costumes and bunads."

Protecting the Future For Families

While researching and writing about family history and the past, we should not ignore the future. Although it is not a pleasant thought, global warming and other potential disasters can severely affect generations to come. I was reading CNN online today, and came across an article about a large underground seed vault built inside a frozen mountain in Longyearbyen, Norway. It just took its first delivery of seeds--the start of a collection that will eventually contain every variety of most important food crops in the world.

Hmmm.... I guess you could say that Norway is helping to protect the future of family history in a big way.

"Dubbed the "Doomsday Vault," the seed bank on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean is considered the ultimate safety net for the world's seed collections, protecting them from a wide range of threats including war, natural disasters, lack of funding or simply poor agricultural management."

The idea for an Arctic seed bank began in the 1980s but became a possibility only after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources came into force in 2004, which provided the necessary international framework.

The Norwegian government has paid about $9.4 million to build the seed vault: now that's putting your money where your mouth is.

It seems that much of the science-fiction I read about in my youth has already become reality.

I'm sure you'll want to read the original article at CNN



Image credit: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/

Norway Kommune (County) Maps

Karla at the Norway List has provided researchers with some digitized kommune maps of Norway (donated by Michael Landmark). Hoorah! With these maps, you can see right down to village and parish names. This level of detail is very helpful for pinpointing exactly where it is that Great Great Uncle Peder Pedersen came from, and the reason he met and married Kari Karlsdatter from Harran is because it's just a hop, skip and a jump away from Peder's home parish of Grong.

Many of us doing Norwegian research have used bygdebøker: local family and community histories written by Norwegians--in Norwegian. They are a treasure house of information, if one can pick out a few basic terms in the language. One thing they are often lacking, however, is a good map.

While these maps may not be copied for commercial purposes because their copyright has not yet expired, they are great for using as a personal reference.

Now, is it Namsos or Namskoggan that is the furthest north? I'm always getting the two mixed up...

Letters in Norway

The persistent shall be rewarded... I just received word that a lady (Astri) in Norway is scanning some old letters for me; they were sent to her relatives in Hemne, Soer-Troendelag, by Winje Family members as early as 1869. I was bouncing off the wall after reading her e-mail!

The letters are all in Norwegian, of course, which means some translation is in order. It is exciting to know that more family history will be discovered, but the main thing that touches me is the ability to "see" into the thoughts and expressions of the letter-writers. It is like receiving a letter myself from someone I have always wanted to know. Even more special that the letters cross time, as well as space: a couple of them are 138 years old. I am told that some are from Lars Eriksen Winje, and also his eldest son, Eric, but also Eric's younger brother, Ingebrigt, about whom nothing is really known yet. Another letter is by Eric's eldest daughter, Regina Winje Strand, who wrote to tell her father's friends that her uncle, Ingebrigt Winje, was dead. Regina was only a girl when she wrote the letter (about 16), and not too many years later, at age 25, she died of "heart disease" on her grandfather's homestead in Sparta Township, near Wegdahl. She had given birth to six children by then.

How did I originally find out that any letters existed? A few years ago, I discovered an online article written by a gentleman, now deceased, who happens to be Astri's father. Surprisingly, the article was about the Winje Family, who in 1869, were apparently the first to leave their village of Vinjeoera for America (http://www.hemneslekt.net/). I e-mailed the webmaster of the site, who put me in contact with Astri. She very graciously offered to help, and I can hardly wait... It's like Christmas at age five, all over again.