Letter From Little GM

In the last post I mentioned a letter Little GM gave my dad before his trip to Norway.  First, here's a photo of Little GM.  She was a sweet and wonderful grandma and is missed by all who knew her.



Dellablanche Fausch 1908-2009

Next, here's the letter she gave him.  There's very interesting information about the family.  Some I've been able to verify and some I haven't yet but I will keep everyone updated as I know more.

My grandfather, Jacob Stensan Urdahl, born March 19, 1830 at Ryflyke, in Voss or Vadts, Norway emigrated to America before 1866 and my grandmother Mari Rugtvedt, born July 21, 1836 at Etne in Storalen, Norway where married in Nevada, Iowa on Jan 24, 1871.  Mari Rugtvedt was the daughter of Gunter Rugtvedt and Margaret Stole whose 5 children where Seri (died in Norway), Ingeri (1832-1913, emigrated to America 1869-70), Mari (1836-1918), Osmund and Marthe (died in Norway).  Margaret Stole was the daughter of Osmund Stole and Martha Urdahl (other children's names not known.)

From hereon in tracing back we do not have specific names or dates.  My grandparents were second cousins and they were both 5th generation direct descendants of King Erling Skakke Stole.  There was some intermarriage along the line.  The rest of the information that we have is that King Erling Skakke Stole had a daughter named Engebarg who married a minister by the name of Orback nd a daughter of theirs married a Sjur Soreim.

My grandmother, Mari Rugtvedt Urdahl, had some Rugtvedt uncles who owned quite a bit of land.  Some of the Rugtvedt farms were supposedly covered by landslides.

According to one cousin we are also supposed to be descended from a Scottish king, that would probably be a Viking ancestor that helped or established some of the trading centers like Dublin, etc. and settled there for awhile.  We don't have any other information on this so far.

In reading about Norway in some library books I found one list of Norwegian kings an it listed a Erling Skakke reigning in 1161 and his son Magnus was crowned in Nidaros (now Trondheim) Cathedral in 1163.  In reading some of these books there seemed to be quite a few kings and it could be that in the early days there were many small kingdoms.

Etne (or Etna) and Ryflyke (where my grandparent were born) are fairly close, about 25 or 30 air miles apart and both are closer to Stavanger than Bergen.

I have circled in red on the enclosed map the towns of Etne (or Etna) and Ryflyke where my grandparents were born.

I have circled in green the two closest Stave churches - Roldal Stave Church is around 25 miles or so from Etne - Eidsborg Stave Church (56 miles from Roldal) is next closest.

Mike, if you could get a photo or picture postcard of either church or both.  I would be forever grateful!  But if it is not on your itinerary, I don' want you to take the time - you will be busy seeing all that beautiful scenery and we don't want to take your time away from that.  We understand that you may not be able to go to the places where my grandparents were born but the information about them that I'm sending you is for you to keep and as I find out any more later on I'll send it to you and eventually to all of our grandchildren.

Have fun in the land of our Viking ancestors!

Love to you and Mary and Angie and all the rest!
    Grandma and Grandpa W.

P.S. I have started taking Norwegian Rosemaling classes once a month.  Grandma