As thorough readers of our blog know, there is a section devoted to genealogy wherein Barb has recorded her findings.  (Look here.)  Barb’s father is half Norwegian and half Irish, and Barb has been researching on both sides.  Some of her distant relatives are also interested in genealogy, and found Barb’s postings in the course of their Google searches.  One such relative from Norway, John Kvalø, contacted Barb back in October 2011 and they have stayed in touch ever since.  John was born in the Rørvik area and spent much of his youth out on a nearby island called Kvaløya (which translates to “whale island”).  John explained that he had moved to Bodø, but that his brother Ivan lives in Rørvik and owns part of the family island.  Barb already knew that her great grandmother Anna Karoline Kvalø was born on the island in 1868.  She immigrated to the United States in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota.  So when John and Ivan invited us to come visit them at Kvaløya this summer we immediately decided to piggy-back a visit to Rørvik onto our trip to southern Norway.  And then we learned that two of Barb’s American cousins — who have done an incredible amount of research on the family history (back to the 1480s) — were also going to be in the Rørvik area during the same week.  What an opportunity!

When we deboarded the Hurtigruten in Rørvik, we were met on the dock by Barb’s Minnesota cousins Muriel Arms and Rosalie Tarum.  They had arrived a couple of days before and since they visit the area often, were familiar with the location of Kleiva Camping where we had reservations.  After a short visit we followed them out to Kleiva where we settled into a huge cabin.  We had reserved a small cabin but the Kleiva staff had made a mistake in the booking, so we got a huge three-bedroom cabin for the price of a small one with one bedroom.

The next morning nth cousin John from Bodø and his 16 year old son Øystein met us at Kleiva and took us out to Lyngsnes where we met nth cousin Ivan and his six year old son Eiven. Ivan took us in his fishing boat out to Kvaløya where Barb was thrilled to see the house where her great-grandmother Anna Karoline was born and lived.  It is still there and is well maintained by one of her relatives.  In the house some of the lamps and beds are original, as is the sewing machine and a built in china cupboard.  Very nice to realize that those things were used by Barb’s great-grandmother.

John, Ivan and their sons took us on a tour of the island.  Ivan’s summer house is about a ten minute walk from the main house.  He has two houses on the property to maintain.  One is where his grandparents lived, and the other where his father lived after marrying.  The area around the island was thriving more than a century ago and most residents were involved in fishing.  There was a school on the island and a store on a small island very close by.  Ivan was a sea captain who decided to stay closer to home with his family; he now teaches seamanship at a local school during the school year and fishes around Kvaløya during the summer.  Salmon farming has become so prevalent in Norway that he is the only fisherman in the area who still fishes for wild salmon with nets.  He helps the government by taking samples of all the fish he catches so they can determine if the farmed salmon are escaping and breeding with the wild salmon.  At the end of the day we circumnavigated the island and checked Ivan’s nets for salmon before he took us back to the mainland.

The next day we went with John and Øystein to meet John’s parents Oddmund and Jenny who are now living in an assisted living center in Rørvik.  His father spoke some English but John (and Øystein) had to be our translators when speaking to his mother.  While there we met other relatives — one of whom Barb had listed in her genealogy records as no longer living!  (She thought it best not to share that fact with him.)

After lunch with John and Øystein, they began their 8-hour drive back to Bodø and we spent the afternoon looking for family graves and visiting Norveg, the fascinating Coastal Museum in Rørvik.  We were extremely impressed by the warm hospitality of John and Ivan and pleased by their offer to have us come and spend time on Kvaløya some summer soon.

The next morning we met up with Muriel and Rosalie for the first time since they had greeted us at the Hurtigruten, and agreed that it made more sense to spend our time visiting Norwegian relatives while in Norway and that we would try to get together when we are back in the USA.  Muriel lives near Rochester, MN and we will be visiting the Mayo Clinic for Chuck’s check-up in late September so we hope to get together then.

In our next post we will describe our automobile trip back to Kristiansand by way of the famous Trollstigen and Geiranger Fjord.  Stay tuned!