In 1930, Anne Henriksdatter Brustuen (just one of the many names she was known by while she was growing up in Norway) went home to Oppdal, Norway to visit her father, her closest relative. She had been away from Norway for twenty-four years. In 1906, she had emigrated to the U.S. with her mother and half-sister. A few years later, her brother followed. And in 1909 her father had tried to emigrate but was deported from the border of Canada. The reason was that he was penniless when he arrived. He had been conned by a woman on board the ship. He went back to his former life in Norway.

Anne and her family had been living under difficult circumstances in Norway, but she had made a good life for herself with her husband Walter Penven Soneson. They owned a company called S. & S. Autoparts in Duluth. So now she was called Anna Soneson. Their business was so successful that they went on holiday to Florida in the winter, as early as the 1920’s.

The picture above is her with her father, cousins, and a childhood friend, at the farm where her cousins lived or had been born, Jelhaugen. The picture is from 1930. She knew this area very well. She had been fostered on a farm nearby, called Haugen, but school had been on the farms around Jelhaugen. Some say that at times she had stayed at Jelhaugen, she was about the same age as her female cousins, Anne and Dordi. She was confirmed with Dordi, the summer she left for the U.S. Haugen and Jelhaugen were six kilometers apart, so they sent letters to make arrangements to meet; almost like we send text messages today.

It is interesting to see how Anna and her father are so well dressed in contrast to their Norwegian relatives. It is possible she brought a new suit for her father from the US. The others are in their working clothes, while the man  on the left is vacationing and wearing clothes made for the outdoors. It is wealth meeting ordinary people in Norway at that time. The farmers lived off the land; they did not have much cash. No indoor plumbing here, no electricity and the area was not accessible by road in the winter until the 1950’s.

When Anna visited Norway for the first time, she had bought a house for her father. Only emigrants could afford to do something like this. Some who had migrated to the US returned to Norway after some years. Now they could afford a farm that had been impossible to even dream of before. Wealth also came to some by inheritance from the U.S.

You can read more about Anna in our book, Exploring Norwegian Genealogy. We demonstrate how to find a person in Norway, after finding as many facts about them as possible in the U.S. or the country they emigrated to. We also show how to find them in various genealogical and historical records and how you can make a rich family history.

If you want to see Mondays with Myrt where I talk about this picture, click here.

Have a look at the YouTube Video 1 The Norwegian Historical Datacenter or Video 2 Norwegian Historical Datacenter – Advanced search, where we show the site. Or see Video 1 Digital Archives – An Introduction.

Or read our book Exploring Norwegian Genealogy.