"If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Writing this blog can sometimes feel like exactly this statement. I can put a great deal of thought and consideration into writing a post, BUT if I don’t find an appropriate venue to get this post to spread across the internet, then does it have value? Is blogging about writing what one feels and/or experiences, or is it about the desire to be heard, and possibly understood? 

I don’t have the answer to this philosophical thought experiment (question). I do, however, have anecdotal experiences that demonstrate the dilemma of ‘writing for the sake of writing’, posting the entry on a Norwegian genealogy Facebook Group and being told, by an Administrator, that ‘it’s not an appropriate post’ or simply deleting the post with no explanation. It’s both frustrating and humiliating / humbling.

Genealogy vs. Family History
I read a blog post titled What is the difference between Genealogy and Family History. Nathan Murphy (a blogger on FamilySearch.org) posted it in August 2013, yet I find it relevant today. He spoke of an action that took place on June 2013, in which Wikipedia merged two Wikipedia articles (“Genealogy” and “Family History”) into a single article titled Genealogy. But truthfully, are they the same? I think not.

This is my opinion (belief, conviction, sentiment, etc.): Genealogy is the building of a family tree or pedigree, using printed records/sources (vital records, census entries, city directories, passenger lists, newspaper articles, etc.), that shows how one generation is connected to the next. Some have referred to this as building the skeleton.

Family History , on the other hand, is the study of the genealogically proven family AND their FAN Club (friends, associates, and neighbors). Family history is ‘putting meat on the bones of the ‘skeleton’. It aims to understand the lives our ancestors lived, beyond just who their kin were. Family history is, in essence, the social history of our ancestors. Family history incorporates genealogy, but genealogy is not the end game.

The End Game

I’ve been engaged in both genealogy and family history for the past two decades, both personally and as a volunteer at a number of libraries, archives and similar institutions. With the advent of Facebook (started in September 2006) and my discovery of various Norwegian Genealogy ‘Groups’ found on Facebook, I’ve noticed that there appears to be a disconnect between ‘doing genealogy’ and ‘developing a sense of one’s family history.’ It has been my experience that people often begin with what I call ‘bagging the ancestors.’ That is, building a family tree ‘as far back as possible,’ resulting in statements like “I have over 10,000 people in my family tree,” or “I can trace my family back to Moses,” or something similar. I get that they are proud of this achievement, but for me it seems to be a fairly shallow result. I see that approach to research as ‘a mile wide, an inch deep.’

It’s not my intent to put these researchers down, but that is not the way I choose to reflect on my family’s ancestry. I want to put ‘meat on the bones’ of my ancestors. I want to understand who they were as individuals, how they interacted with their surroundings. What they thought, experienced, witnessed, observed, and even dreamed about. Why did they take the actions they did: immigrating, moving across the country, choosing one neighborhood over another, building their chosen craft / occupation? How did they happen to fall in love and marry (or not marry) their partner in life? What did they teach their children, or even the neighborhood children? Who did they interact with: their grocer, their doctor, their minister, their friends, their bosses, their enemies, etc.? What made them tick? These are the stories that I desire to ‘tease out’ of the materials that I explore.

This goes far beyond just transcribing a document in a foreign language or interpreting a vital record. It’s digging deeper to understand these people’s lives. This involves researching and reading contemporary records: journals, diaries, books, and newspapers, for example. It’s building an arsenal of information that helps to understand these individuals within their social history.

To this end, I’m launching a new Facebook Group about Norwegian genealogy and family history, which allows and even encourages the discussion and sharing of resources (finds, discoveries, etc.) that help to build one’s ‘family history.’ This group is not exclusively about Norwegian genealogy, but instead about Norwegian-American Family History. I will continue to be a member of the various Norwegian Genealogy Groups (see list below), but I am encouraging others to join this new Group as well.

It’s not my intent to be ‘mean spirited’ or in anyway to denigrate the existing groups, but I can see how this may be viewed. I’m hoping that if you see the advantage of this ‘new group,’ you will join it and encourage others to do so as well. I hope you will find the posts and discussions to be meaningful and useful in building your family history story. I see it as a place free to discuss books, articles, journal pieces, diaries, etc. To suggest, to hypothesize, to inquire about the life of our Norwegian-American ancestors – beyond just the facts.

To learn more about the group, or to join this new Facebook Group check us out at NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN FAMILY HISTORY. 

I look forward to making your acquaintance and/or friendship.

Sámi Jienat - Voices of Sápmi (Music documentary)

Sámi flag

Sámi Jienat – Voices of Sápmi is a music/documentary (58 min) which follows the adventures of a Sámi choir as they practice and perform yoik – the traditional Sámi way of singing – and in doing so rediscover their unique heritage. It was released in 2013 and  premiered at the 2014 Tromsø International Film Festival in Norway in the ‘Films from the North’ category. It was also shown at the 2014 Skábmagovat Indigenous Peoples’ Film Festival in Inari, Finland.


I recently watched the film, on Vimeo, and was inspired by both the yoiking and the stories told behind when, why and how people yoik. In particular I found these two quotes to be thought provoking.

"In the old days people usually yoiked together in weddings and suchlike." 

"It was said that everybody yoiks with their own voice. In the same way as the bird sings with its own voice."  

The film provides the novice or non-Sami a sense of the history of yoiking, the importance and personal nature of yoiking, and the sentiments that are ignited by the one who yoiks. 

Sit back, pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and experience a culture that is not often discussed or shared. 

Poulsbo AYPE Viking #10: Tenander Iversen

Tenander Iversen, of Poulsbo, Washington, was part of the "Viking" contingent to represent his community in the Norway Day parade at the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition (AYPE) in Seattle. See the explanatory blog entry for this series: Poulsbo Vikings at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, 1909.

Tenander Iversen was born in December 1864 to Iver Torkolson and Karen Knutson in Tysfjord, Norway.  He arrived in America in about 1887, and became a naturalized citizen about ten years later.  In Astoria, Oregon, he worked as a day laborer, and married Karen Hansen there on August 14, 1897.  The couple relocated to the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington in about 1901.  They had four children:  Gudrun (Nelson), Clifford, Rudolph ("Rudie"), and Arthur ("Art").  Rudie and Art continued to live in Poulsbo to help with the family livelihood.

Iversen ran a butcher shop on Front Street in Poulsbo.  Part of the shop extended out over the bay so that meat and fish scraps could be dumped at will.  No doubt, the local marine life was quite content with that arrangement.

The specialty of the Iversen butcher shop was lutefisk, which is brined and reconstituted dried fish.  It is a traditional Norwegian food that has been known to separate real Vikings from the wannabes.  Each fall when schooners returned to Poulsbo from the Bering Sea, Iversen piled salt-dried cod--the main ingredient for lutefisk--in front of his shop.  Rumor has it that the practice ended after a few local dogs were seen marking their territory there.

Lutefisk produced by the Iversens was said to be "light, tender, and melted in your mouth."  It was a popular addition to community dinners around the Puget Sound for many decades.  So, it seems a bit strange that Mr. and Mrs. Tenander Iversen once donated a large bologna to a Poulsbo Orphans Home Thanksgiving dinner.  Perhaps the discerning children did not welcome lutefisk as much as their elders from the old country?

After a long life as a Poulsbo businessman, Tenander Iversen passed away at the age of eighty-three on August 19, 1948.  He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Bremerton, Washington.


Sources:

--Ancestry.com.  Oregon, County Marriage Records, 1851-1975 [database on-line].

--Ancestry.com.  U.S., 1940 Federal Census, Poulsbo, Kitsap, Washington [database on-line].

--Driscoll, Judy. "Stories of Early Poulsbo Thanksgivings," Kitsap Sun, November 18, 2008, http://archive.kitsapsun.com/news/stories-of-early-poulsbo-thanksgivings-ep-421472528-358366411.html/.

--Driscoll, Judy. "The Iversen Brothers Were Local Lutefisk Pioneers," North Kitsap Herald, October 18, 2013, p.A11, https://issuu.com/pnwmarketplace/docs/i20131017134556883.

--Find-a-Grave (Tenander Iversen), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157908077.

--Poulsbo Centennial Book Committee.  Poulsbo:  Its First Hundred Years (The Committee:  Silverdale, Washington), 1986.

--U.S. Federal Census, Poulsbo, Washington, 1910-1940.

--Washington Death Index, 1940-2014.

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Chery Kinnick

Scandinavian Inspired Craft

It's never to early to get a head start on your holiday crafts.  Shown here are some Scandinavian-style wall hangings, made by one of our very own Nearby Norwegians.  Inspiration was provided by the rosmale-like border and other quilting fabrics from American Jane Fabric, "Lorraine" pattern group.

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Chery Kinnick