The Journey: Scandinavian Adventure 2014

Karmøy Island beckoned and we enjoyed a pleasant drive to the end of the island. The trip south tempted us with many potential detours including a Viking farm, museum, and Olav's church built in 1250. Oh, it's painful not to explore! But we were hunting ancestral ground. Tom's maternal 2x great grandmother Kari Jonsdatter, known in America as Caroline Johnson, had worked in a sardine factory in Skudesneshavn on the southern tip of the island to make her money to emigrate to America. Kari would have traveled the same route we were using to get to get to Skudesneshavn from her father's home, so we were trying look at everything as if through her eyes. We began to gain appreciation for the difficult lot of a farmer in Norway. There is little arable land and clearing the rocky fields without heavy equipment had to be a daunting task.

Click on images to view an enlarged version.

Can you imagine clearing this land for farming?

Tom's maternal 5x great grandfather Gudmund Olson, born in 1703, had been a fisherman out of this port. Cousin Magnar Sandstøl was impressed with his grit as the North Sea fishermen faced brutal, often fatal, wind and currents to survive their fishing trips. Perhaps Gudmund met his death at sea at age 35 as his widow's inheritance was the value of his fishing boat.

There were families enjoying the beach.
Perhaps Kari or Gudmund and his family visited this beach.

We saw little bottom land like this field.

There were more pastures for grazing than fields.

Would you join us for dinner?

URG! We can run, but we can't hide from the deer!

Excitement mounted as we entered Skudesneshavn. Tom's ancestors had walked these streets! We found these statues dockside. In the 1760's and 1770's, King Frederik V of Denmark commissioned his court sculptor Johann Gottfried Grund to create 60 statues from various regions in Norway. These three are replicas of ones from the parish of Falnæs in Skudenæs. Perhaps they resemble Tom's ancestors.

Lobster fisherman's wife

Flounder fisherman

Lobster fisherman

Skudesneshavn harbor

This boy chased the swans with his skiff.

We enjoyed their company, too.

How does an American order dinner from a menu like this?
Pictures. Many thanks for the pictures!

Gamle Skudeneshavn (Old Town) is preserved much as it would have been when grandmother Kari lived there from 1843-7. We were thrilled to find this well preserved slice of history. Exploring the area was like walking with Kari. She would have been there soon after the town was formed to support the herring industry.

Ready for winter

This was an intriguing discovery. Kari's father had recently moved from Sande farm to Mæland farm before she moved to Skudesneshavn. Is there a connection? It was not uncommon for a young woman to leave home to work as she reached maturity. Often they went to a city to work as a servant. The sardine business was in its prime. Did Kari find a job here through an acquaintance on the farm?