Today was a “rest” day. Well, a non-travel day. So what does a genealogist do on a rest day – genealogy of course.
This morning we set out to go to the Norwegian Genealogy Society Offices. I wasn’t sure they would be open as the information on their website indicates that during the summer months they are closed. However, as there was no phone, we decided we would take a chance. Google maps took us on two buses to get there and we saw some more of the outskirts of Oslo. When we got there, it was closed. A gentleman working in another area of the building confirmed he had seen no one from the Genealogical Society there today – though they are usually there on Saturdays.
So we headed back towards town and decided to pick up a couple of travel mugs so that we could take coffee on the trip to Stord tomorrow. At the mall at Storo, we stopped by the Bunad store. The Bunad is traditional dress in Norway and each dress is specific to the area you live or where your ancestors are from. My great-grandfather Carl’s family comes from Hordaland and his wife Tilda’s family is from Telemark. So, based on my ancestors, I could have chosen from four different Bunads. The two in the first picture and the centre on in each of the other pictures.
Unfortunately, we did not win the lottery and I did not have an extra $3-4,000 CAD in my pocket, so I did not make any purchases.
Back at the apartment, I decided that it would be a good time to search the Canadian 1931 census, which became available on 01 June. I tried earlier, but the system has been so overloaded it wouldn’t load any pages that I wanted. Being awake while most of Canada sleeps definitely was an advantage in this case as I was able to find the pages I was interested in. While the census is not indexed yet, I knew where my grandparents should be living based on information and earlier censuses so I searched those areas.
No surprise that I found my maternal grandmother at age 12 in Cedarvale (Meanskinisht) living with her parents. Her family did not own a radio, but her aunt Alice just down the road did. Her father is listed as working on his own farm and they were living in 11 rooms for the family.
My maternal grandfather, at the age of 21, was still living with his cousin in the Wetaskiwin area of Alberta in a six room house. They did have a radio. He was a farm labourer and his total earnings in the past 12 months amounted to $150 – it doesn’t sound like very much, but was about the average for other farm workers on the same page. He did spend 6 weeks unemployed due to illness that year. He can now speak English as well as his native Swedish, which he could not on the 1926 census when he first arrived in the country.
My paternal grandparents were living on the farm in the Ponass Lake area of Saskatchewan with my uncle Clarence and her brother Lawrence. No radio for them either. Their house is listed as having only two rooms, so it was possibly quite small for the four of them. Clarence and his dad are both listed as being able to speak English and Norwegian, and Fairy could speak English and Scotch (but we know she could also speak Norwegian).
So, all in all a good “rest” day for me.
