I recently was on a trip to Norway. I met Becca who is on her odessy trip after Peace Corps. Becca had a friend from Denver who was living in Oslo, so she wanted to visit her there. I have always wanted to visit Norway, especially after Aunt Doris visited there and told me about our Great-Great-Grandmother's house being in a museum in the little town of Prestfoss (priest falls). I had a copy of a letter she wrote to me in 1972 about their visit there. So, I googled Prestfoss and found this link (translated version).
We took two buses from Oslo to get to Prestfoss. The Sigdal and Eggedal Museum indeed has a collection of buildings from the area and one is a "cottage" from Bergan farm. It took my breath away to walk into the house where my great-grandmother was probably born. The interior is mostly not original to the house but has a collection of furniture and clothing from a collector in the area. Several of the doors have wonderful painted designs. The museum is also part of a folk music center and has a collection of folk instruments in the main museum. The museum curator, Sigrid Kvisle spent several wonderful hours with us, telling us about the buildings, the collections and then making some waffle cakes for us to have with our tea. She shared a book that has a history of the area. Then she called the current resident of Bergan farm, a distant cousin. His brother-in-law came to take us to the farm.
This is a copy of a page from the book shared by the museum curator. They tell the story about Bergan farm, which is in the Sigdal valley near Prestfoss, Norway. Highlighted is the name of Kari Kristensdatter fra Neggen who is the mother of Marte Evendatter who is the mother of my grandfather Almer A. Berg.
My grandparents Almer & Blanche Berg
Kari's mother Marte Olsd. (Marte Olsdatter fra. Neggen) was the 2nd wife of Kristen Andersen fra Ovestad. As explained to me, Bergan, Neggen and Ovestad are the names of farms in the Sigdal area. The people would have their own given name followed by the name of their father (in the form of son, sen or datter) then the name of the farm. Kristen Andersen moved to the Bergan farm probably around the time of his 2nd marriage in 1823. His 1st wife was Kari Tovsd. (Tovsdatter) and they had 4 children. He had 3 children with Marte.
It says that Kari was born in 1824 and married Even Gulliksen Rolstadeie in 1850. Then they came to Amerika (sic) in 1857. Several of her siblings also came to America: Tron and Oline in 1852 and Mentz. This is probably where the Neggen cousins came from.
On the next page is Gerd (b.1944) who I met with her husband, Knut Tore Larsen Eidal. Knut is a retired school teacher who was the mayor of Prestfoss for 13 years. He came to pick us up from the museum and took us to Bergan farm. There we met Gerd's brother Anders Kristensen Bergan (b.1939) who is a bachelor. We also met one of Gerd's daughters and two of her granddaughters.
I took lots of photos that day. I have posted them to a Facebook album.
