It has been pretty quiet on the TNReunion. The excitement (for me) is connecting with new cousins in several families. After the bonanza in the Ole lineage when Jean Simonson Cornwell and her daughter Ann found me, I have been adding to my own (Knud and Dorthe Marie's) line. First I 'connected' with Stephen Fossing and his sisters Cathleen and Anne Marie. They were as pleased as I was to meet cousins whom they didn't know existed. Then I realized that I had neglected the effort to regain contact with the family of Thorbjørn Thorsen. Tobey is the only one of the Langvarp cousins, of his generation, to move to the US after WWII. Tobey was a member of the Norwegian Resistance, and his father Thor Thorsen was a cargo ship Captain who was lost with his ship, off Newfoundland, when they were torpedoed by a nazi submarine. My focus was redirected to his family when one of my Hansen cousins sent me an email with the news that Tobey had died at 92. From the funeral announcement, I was able to get the clues that made it possible for me to reach his daughter Alice, who is a Veterinarian practicing in South Carolina.
I've been trying to get things in order, and re-found some photos that I thought that the group might be interested in seeing. The first is an ancient memorial from the late 1300s or early 1400s, placed by the road that runs past Naas, up the valley to Singusdal and Omland ... farms from which identified ancient ancestors have come. I saw and photographed the monument in 1974, when we first visited Naas. On a next trip, almost 15 years later, I looked but didn't find it, no doubt because underbrush had grown up. The story told me by Niels Naas, our guide on that first visit to Naas, and the owner of Oppistua, Naas, was that the monument was placed at the point where families living farther up the valley fell from the Manndaudvinteren ('Black Death') as they were trying to reach help.
One of our most memorable direct ancestors was Halvard Graatopp. Halvard was born during or shortly after the the great plague. He owned the farm now called Vrålstad, and was born abt 1390. His fame derives from leading the Farmers Campaign of 1438, in which a group from Telemark marched on Oslo, protesting the treatment they were receiving from the Danish overlords. The monument is modern, placed in 1938 to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Rebellion.
I've been trying to get things in order, and re-found some photos that I thought that the group might be interested in seeing. The first is an ancient memorial from the late 1300s or early 1400s, placed by the road that runs past Naas, up the valley to Singusdal and Omland ... farms from which identified ancient ancestors have come. I saw and photographed the monument in 1974, when we first visited Naas. On a next trip, almost 15 years later, I looked but didn't find it, no doubt because underbrush had grown up. The story told me by Niels Naas, our guide on that first visit to Naas, and the owner of Oppistua, Naas, was that the monument was placed at the point where families living farther up the valley fell from the Manndaudvinteren ('Black Death') as they were trying to reach help.
One of our most memorable direct ancestors was Halvard Graatopp. Halvard was born during or shortly after the the great plague. He owned the farm now called Vrålstad, and was born abt 1390. His fame derives from leading the Farmers Campaign of 1438, in which a group from Telemark marched on Oslo, protesting the treatment they were receiving from the Danish overlords. The monument is modern, placed in 1938 to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Rebellion.
The very handsome man on the left is Olaf Naas, who has written the new book on the history and evidence supporting what we know of Halvard Graatopp, and who with his wife Carol have been wonderful hosts to many of us 'cousins' who have visited Naas. That's me on the right. I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to visit these ancient spots.
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