In Prague

My friend in Prague, Josef Zak is a photographer and shared a few pictures with me during a walk in Prague last weekend.

I always want to go back and even live there for awhile when I see pictures from there. I have cousins in Kutna Hora. My Grandpa Krupicka grew up in Brzotice. I'd love to spend enought time to learn the language good and to study history. But, at my age it isn't likely that would happen....unless I should win the lotto and have a little money to spend that is!!!

My Bakke Cousins in Norway

My Varland Cousins in Norway

January 2009

As the New Year begins, we find many changes in America. We have a new President and I find it interesting to watch the news conferences to hear about steps being taken to try to boost our economy.

I have already helped the economy by having our roof reshingled. That was done on 13January during a lull in the rainy weather. Around the Christmas season, we had over a foot of snow sitting on the roof and soon after most of that melted a very heavy rain that lasted for two days. It did the poor old roof in and I discovered leaks coming in and staining the ceilings in a couple of rooms. This expidited the plan to re-roof this year by a few months! This time we put on an algae fighting shingle and it is supposed to hang in there for 30 years...which is probably past my lifetime since I am 68.

So far, all my kids still have their jobs. I hope that remains the case. One decided to sell his house as he has 3 kids and needs one more bedroom to make life more comfortable. He had the house ready to market the week the credit markets dried up so held off a few weeks. The house is move in ready for someone so I hope it sells quickly. This is only day 5 on the market and the Open House is this Sunday. Now, this is another get the ecomony going move.

Another, is considering doing some remodeling this year. This all works as long as the jobs are stable.

Sometimes, I think businesses are panicky and then they add to the problem my laying people off. Laid off people can't buy! It's either that or just an excuse to cut their payrolls. I like to pay cash if I can for things so the last few years I've been saving my SS checks for a new roof. Businesses should have enough money saved for the lean times....to me that would be a good business. But then...I never majored in business so what do I know.

I had to laugh a bit around Christmas time as I was telling a friend that when I grew up we didn't have credit cards. We did what was called Lay Away and paid a little each week to the store and got our purchase when it was paid for. Those were the days a nice wool dress cost $18 to $24. Then a few days later, I saw some stores were actually implementing that lay away situation.

Well, I'm hoping for a better year for me. I was given a new RX the end of October and I never felt good after that so just about 6 days ago, with the doctor's knowledge, I went off it and I am definitely starting to feel better. I think it had lowered my blood pressure too much as I was out of it. I just now am thinking about doing some house cleaning which has been lacking for several weeks. I can't afford to hire a housekeeper for that.

In the Family History department - I bought into Ancestry for a year again and have been working on my son-in-laws family...a common Johnson name. I broke a wall down and found where the Norwegian ancestor came from now. That was big! I also have a bio being published in a book about Norwegians in Minnesota. I have one great grandpa that was in Minnesota before it became a State and that is the group of people being written about for that book. They were Gundersons.

Well, I just thought I should add something to this blog as I haven't been very active with it.

December Thoughts

This month is a time of reflection for me. It has been a year of health problems to deal with and to try to heal what we can. There have been new cousin's to email with in Norway and even one found living not far from us. This has been exciting. It isn't often you can add maybe 700 plus more cousins to your history. As a daughter laughingly commented, "Someday you will probably discover that I'm married to a cousin and didn't know it!" Well, I am pretty sure that didn't happen. A cousin let us use her beach house for a month while they were in Europe. What fun that was. My brother visited us and stayed a week. That was his first time to stay at our house. My niece was accepted at a prestigious woman's college in Mass. and is finishing her education at age 30. We were able to visit our son in California and see our grand-daughter dance and cheer during a weekend. We traveled with our daughter and family. A son and his family bought a new Scottie puppy for their Christmas this year. His name is Angus. I bought new ovens and got rid of my over 40 year old ones. What fun...things like that aren't easy to do on a fixed income. Inflation seems to be catching up too fast with our income now so not sure how the years ahead will be for us. If I knew then what I know now, I would probably still be working. So, here we are living in December in the North West and a big storm has thrown many people's life into cayause. We were lucky...no trees on top of our houses and we are living on a hill that keeps us from the flooding and no possibility of any mud slide either. So far, we have kept our power but in the past that has been off for over a week at a time...just lucky this time. I feel really bad for those who have lost everything and many carry no flood insurance...no way to start a Holiday season, is it?

I wonder what next year will bring us? One thing I'm knowing is that a grand son will appear in January and that is something to look forward to!

Pictures of Fogn July 2007

Blurry photo of a farm map - shows Langeland

Lovely Fogn Inhabitants - Aud-Irene & Ingvild T.

Varland Farm View

Ingvild T. and Peggy

Langeland land

Fogn Island July 2007

Fogn Sign at dock
General Store on Fogn

Langeland Home

Garden on Langeland

Dagrun and Peggy at General Store

My cousin, Peggy O. and her husband have been visiting in Norway. A few days ago they took the ferry to the Fogn Island where our "Thompson" ancestor's came from. In Norway the father's name was Torkild Torkildsen Langeland. He brought his family to America and that included my great grandfather, Halvor and Peggy's gggf Theodor.

Peggy located the Langeland farm and took some pictures. The owner wasn't home. She also took pictures of the Varland Farm where Torkild's 2nd wife had been born. The Varlands that now live there are not related according to Ingvild who invited Peggy into the home. There are other farms on the island such as Eie and Bø that share boundaries with one of the farms that had people who married Varlands.

Since I've been trying to find information out about this place for some time, I was so thrilled that a close cousin decided to go check it out in person. She and Dave loved it. Peggy has given permission for me to post some of the pictures on my blog. Thank you or Mange Takk, Peggy.

The island has only 1 general store and the clerk, Dagrun was very nice to them and very helpful. There is no little motel for people to stay at from what I have read online so you have to be sure to catch the last ferry back to Stavanger.

Cancer Touches So Many...

I've been thinking a lot this week about a cousin in Norway who started her first chemo session after breast cancer surgery this week. I've only had e-mail contacts with her and shared pictures and family history but somehow feel that kin-ship. I wish her well.

Tomorrow will be the 3rd anniversary of my sister-in-law's death from cancer and we miss her. I've been thinking about her family.

I have a son and husband who have had surgeries for cancer. So far, they are cancer free and I hope it stays that way.

I lost a mother to inflammatory breast cancer in 1993. That is such an aggressive one and it was too late for her but she stretched out her life by trying chemo from the predicted 1 or 2 months to 10 months before dying.

With all the millions spent on research over so many years, I can't help but wonder why more isn't known about what causes all the cancers. What triggers that mad cell growth? Virus...chromosome damage...chemicals? Seems to me we should have more answers on prevention by now than we do.

One of my Favorite Artists

Ray Charles...My very favorite song of his is "Georgia" but I like many of his songs. This is "Song for You" by Ray Charles

Music Video Codes By Music Jesus.com

Easter Sunday 2007

In your Easter bonnet...Miss Ella takes a walk around her yard. This grand-daughter of mine is such a lover of the outdoors. It is a good thing, too, because that is where her parents like to be when they aren't working.

Ella is now 2 and talking a lot. She has the most delightful and outgoing personality. She reminds me so much of my mother's personality that I sometimes think she is a 'little Nelly' reincarnated. But then I'm not sure there is such a thing although I know some believe in it. It just might be something in the mtDNA passed on.

On the right is a new picture of my oldest grand-daughter,
Kaitlyn. I love this new photo of her. She lives about 700 miles South of us, so we don't see her often. She is very talented and I understand that math is easy for her! It must be that bit of Greek ancestry! That is on her Mom's side. She also has some Slovenia, Bohemia (Ancient Celt), Norwegian, Irish, English, Finnish and Swedish genes.

She is well liked by her peers and gets top grades in school. She is a good swimmer and dancer and has been active in cheerleading and school politics.

If we can live into our 80's to 90's, we will see what life brings for these lovely ladies. May God Bless them and their guardian angels watch over them!

I don't have new photos of my other 3 grand-children to share today, but will update their pictures when I can.

Czech Republic Only a Memory!

Yesterday, we received a very late Christmas letter from an ex-neighbor with an explanation of why it was late. Yes, we had to laugh a little about it. But, a personal note accompanied the letter and this couple is headed for Europe on 4 May and are taking a train from Salzburg, Austria to Prague where they will stay at the Hilton for a couple of nights and then pick up a Viking River Cruise on the Elbe River to Berlin. As part of their tour, they have a guide around Prague but wanted to know if we had any suggestions on other things to see or a place to eat in their free time.

Here is where the memories come in...I got out my scrapbook and pictures. We kept every receipt and a Journal on our once in a lifetime trip. I would love to go back again and just live there in Bohemia for awhile. I remember our friends in Prague and my cousins in Kutna Hora and new friends in Brzotice with fondness.

Our neighbors will hit most of the highlights on the tour but I think they should just walk around downtown and go into stores and maybe find a courtyard Café to eat lunch as they walk around. We didn't use a tour on our trip and enjoyed discovering places on our own. One of our friends has a diamond store in Prague now so maybe I'll have the neighbors try to find his store.

Oh my...it would be nice to win a lotto so we could do a bit more traveling before we sail into the mysterious beyond...

Haga Farm, Høyland, Norway

My great-great grandfather, Torkjell Torkjellsson was b. 1785 on the Haga farm in Høyland parish of Norway. Torkjell's parents were Torkjell Torkjellsson HAGA b. 1745 and Marta Kristine Tjerandsdtg USSJA b. 1753 in Riska parish.

I believe he is written up in Book I, Vol. II of Farm and Family Saga (with maybe some mistakes). I have the ancestors history but I'm curious about the details of Torkjell's siblings. A researcher had given me names: Torkjell (must have died as infant or child); Gunnhild; Tjeran; then comes my ancestor - Torkjell; Odne; Marta; Tore; Marta Kirstine.

As I'm now looking to find what relatives I have that stayed in Norway, I'd assume that many of these siblings descendants are there.

My relative lived for a time on Fogn. He was married twice. He brought his 2nd wife and children to America in 1854. They lived on Langeland and I do have that history.

If you can help me with scanned pages of the history of Haga or any information about the descendants of the names of my Torkjell's brothers and sisters, please contact me.

I did have a cousin living near Trondheim find me recently. She is a descendant of my Torkjell's daughter, Marte Kristine OSCAR.

My oldest grandchild - Kaitlyn

Griffin, Natalie and Olivia say Hi...

Grand-daughter, Ella loves the outdoors! June 2006

Luck Made My Day!

I'm still having moments of amazement in what happened with my posting about Fogn, Norway.

I had surfed in from a link posted in a Genealogy-DNA list and discovered this blog site. I was curious and decided to try setting up my first blog. Since I've been working on family history for many years, that was the subject I chose to post. I was curious about Fogn. It is where a gg gfather and mother came from in the Spring of 1854. I had recently discovered that Anna Varland had siblings and the information showed that some stayed on Fogn or probably nearby. This is what I was curious about - the Island itself and the possible relatives still living there.

Well, a lady named Elaine had read about blogspot.com in an AARP article recently and for the first time of the afternoon of the day I posted my first blog she checked into the site and put their last name into the search box and this is where my luck begins! It is amazing to me how this all happened from one morning to same evening - it made my day!

Photos

Scarlett

Fogn, Finnøy, Norway

I'm new at this blogging but will give it a whirl.

I'm working on the genealogy of some Norway ancestors this week. I would like to make contact with people familiar with or who live on the Island called Fogn in the Finnøy Kommune in Norway. It is remotely possible that I still have distant cousins living on this island.

The ancestors lived on the farms/bruk called Langeland and Varland. They did leave siblings back in Norway but the whole immediate family immigrated 6 April 1854 and various members settled in Iowa first and then Wisconsin, Minnesota and some homesteaded later in Canada.

GG Grandfather Torkjell "Torkel" Torkjellsson Langeland Thompson was born on Haga and his wife Anna Halvarsdatter Varland was born on Ullestad farm in Årdal, Rogaland, Norway. She later moved to Fogn. They were married in Stavanger 25 Jun 1834.

I have lots of information and at the moment I'm waiting on translations but can read enough Norwegian to know that Anna had siblings who stayed on Fogn and they had children and hopefully some of their children, etc. are still there.

I'm curious about this small Island, so if you are from there or have been there, I'd welcome your comments.

I've been succesful in the past of finding relatives in Finland for my husband and in the Czech Republic for myself.