An Invitation Home
A friend of mine is truly a Son of Norway, and he lives Bloomington. He is proud of his Norwegian heritage, though he’s lived his whole life in this Norwegian annex called Minnesota.
In The Land of 10,000 Lakes, and home of the Loons, we boast about many things; the cold weather, the Minnesota Vikings, Lake Superior, Lake Minnetonka, and even an odd relationship with fermented fish, Lutefisk. I wonder how many fellow Minnesotans have actually tried lutefisk, or know its Norwegian history? Most people here seem content to celebrate our Norwegian heritage wearing knitted sweaters, eating funnel cakes, and acknowledging, but never eating fermented fish. I am one of them.
A couple years back, while my son Macallen was in the 6th grade, we did a little research on the formation of the State of Minnesota. Though I expected to find history of Sven, Ole, Leif, and other Norwegian’s who settled here, the transition from territory to statehood was admittedly more intricate.
The narrative of Scandinavian people settling here was deeply woven into the formation of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, New York and the Northern Union at large, in conjunction with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. However, It was after the 32nd state was created in 1858 that the Norwegian population swelled from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands in the Upper Midwest over the next decades.
My friend Ken, a blend of both Minnesotan and Norwegian heritage, probably knew that well before I did. He is one of the few people I know that really takes family history, and one’s heritage, seriously. Admiring the red and blue flag of Norway, eating Lefse, and wearing knitted sweaters are not the ends of his curiosity. He does more that attend festivals or click away at Ancestory.com too. Ken has made a habit of discovering and sharing his family’s story, that happens to be rooted in the Norwegian story.
Recently, Ken shared his travels to Norway with his wife Mary in search of knowledge. It was like listening to a detective novel, hearing of Ken and Mary’s sleuthing around, asking questions, deciphering answers, and discovering the history of his family at that time, and who they are today. It is a marvelous adventure.
As I listened to Ken connecting his past, and present family, I felt like I was being given an invitation to explore my past too.
An invitation to come home.
Here is an excerpt of that conversation.
“Both my wife and I are of Scandinavian heritage. Mary is 50/50 Swedish and Norwegian. I am 75% Norwegian and 25% British. My late sister and mother have traveled to Norway and visited the area where my grandfather was born in 1868. But they didn’t get a chance to investigate or collect that much information about our family. We were curious and wanted to know more.
In 2013 Mary and I travelled to Sweden and Norway for nearly three weeks. We headed to the deepest and longest fjord in Norway, the Sognefjord, the area where my grandfather was raised. We found the graves of my grandfather’s brother, wife, son, and daughter. We were perhaps lucky because in Norway, you must pay to keep up the grave or the plot may get reused.
When we returned to Minnesota, chalk full of information, we wrote letters to the church near the graves to figure out who was paying for them. To our surprise, we received the name, address and phone number of a person that proved to be my cousin. Though we did not get responses to phone calls and letters, I stumbled across a neighbor of my cousin on FaceBook, who connected us. FaceBook also has a site that allowed us to find my maternal great grandmother as well.
In 2019, we had the chance to head back to Norway to meet my cousins, and the neighbor while we paid a visit to the family farms, separated by about 5 km. It turned out that the farms are still in the families. We were thrilled to meet them, share stories and connect our past histories with our lives today.”
Ken shared with me several photos of the trip, many which are on his Facebook page. But one stood out that needed to be shared on a lunch bag. Upon its completion, Ken suggested we turn the image from the lunch bag into a note card. Beyond preserving history, the cards now serve as an invitation to share family history. The heritage of Norway is worth knowing, sharing, and celebrating. But is it connecting the family to that heritage that matters most to Ken and Mary.
Though there are dozens of photos to share, and stories to tell, below are a few photos from Norway.
If you’d like to connect with Ken and share your Norwegian story, send him an email at norgeroots42@gmail.com. If you have your own story to tell, consider sharing it in a personal note from one the cards below found in the shop.
