Gunnild Johnsdatter's (1818-1890) Trip to America Continues

Ed's Day Wednesday

Dear FOLKS,

I want to continue today telling the story of Gunnild Johnsdatter's travels to America that she undertook with her son John and his family in 1880. Grandma Gunnild was an ancestor that was shared with my late cousin, Ed Ostrom, and me. Gunnild was Ed's 2x great-grandmother and at the same time, she is my 3x great-grandmother. My plan is to share with you, family history information that Ed and I have together and separately collected.

Last Wednesday's post included a Passenger List showing John Gunnuldsen Paulson, his wife Anne Mikkalsdatter and their children. Also accompanying John and his family is Gunnild Johnsdatter. Gunnild, John's widowed mother, wanted to travel with family to America.  If you would like to review that part of their travels, please click here.

There was more family in America waiting for them. Gunnild's son Paul Gunnuldsen Paulson came to the US before 1868 and her daughter Toline Gunnuldsdatter Paulson Ostrom came to America in 1872. The family was all excited to be together again. There was a number of grandchildren that Gunnild was looking forward to seeing for the very first time. Can you imagine the anticipation?

It is likely that John saw a newspaper advertisement that told of travel arrangements that could be made from Kristiania (now Olso), Norway to their final destination in America. That advertisement may have have been this very one or another that was printed a few issues earlier. This article announces the travel arranged by O. Svensen, the same agent they would use.

IMAGE: From an 11 March 1880 Norway newspaper,
"Verdens Gang" that told of weekly trips arranged
by agent O. Svenson. Courtesy of Norway-Heritage
website at www.norwayheritage.com.

The John and Anna would decide to save for the big move to America, selling and giving away the many things they couldn't take with them. This above advertisement told of the Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd) Line's Royal Mail Steamers. The trip could be inclusive of traveling from Kristiania, Norway (now Olso) across the Straits of Skagerrak to Frederikshavn, Denmark by a Mail Steamer that routinely made this trip. Then a railroad trip south through Denmark to Bremen, Germany and then to the nearby port at Bremerhaven. A second and this time a larger steamship was boarded and they would depart from there and cross the Atlantic to New York. From New York, a train would take them to their final destination.

Here is a timeline of what I can put together for this group of nine folks:

1. Purchase tickets and boarding passes from their agent O. Svenson. Paid $1140.00 Norw. kroner
2. 17 June 1880 - leave Kristiania, Norway (now Olso, Norway) at 1p.m. aboard the S/S Baldur. They would cross the Skagerrak Strait, with stops in Moss, Norway and Laurvig (Larvik), Norway.
3. 18 June 1880 - arrive Frederikshavn, Denmark at 9 a.m.
4. 18 June 1880 - board a train to Bremen and its port, Bremerhaven, Germany at 5:30 p.m.
5. 20 June 1880 - board the S/S Donau to cross the Atlantic Ocean, disembarking from Bremerhaven.
6. 03 July 1880 - arrive Port of New York and soon after boarding a train for Waseca, Minnesota

I was able to find this family on an index of emigrants leaving Norway too. This is where I found that the name of that smaller ship was the S/S Baldur and its dual function was a mail ship as well as a passenger line. This index provided one person per piece of paper, so I compiled the nine from this family into a single page. Here is the information found there.

It is this list of names provided by the records from the S/S Baldur that is as close to correct as I have found for this family. The only thing I see that doesn't look quite right is that their 9-year-old daughter's first name is spelled Auste, instead of Aaste. Since this is a transcribed index entry, it could easily be a mistake of the transcriber.

I read in the accompanying material from the Norway-Heritage website, that the price given for a trip from Kristiania, Norway to Chicago, Illinois, USA in 1880 was $35.00 a person. Doing the math for nine at $35.00 a piece that would be $315.00 US. We can see that John paid the agent $1140.00 NOK. The difference is unclear, but it is likely the difference at that time between U.S. dollars and the Norwegian kroner. It was a lot of money to set aside for their travels. John worked hard as a woodcutter. They would have also saved the funds from their belongings that were sold prior to leaving.

I still haven't found the entry in their local parish church register announcing their plans to leave, so we don't have a date that begins their trip, but the rest is now pretty well filled out. I count that to be 17 days from boarding the first ship to off-loading from the second. With a few days left on their trip to travel on a train to Waseca, Minnesota, I can imagine how glad they were to arrive and be met by their family. I am sure great-grandma Gunnild was glad for the traveling to be done!

I want to thank you for joining me here. I hope you are having a good week and that maybe you are seeing a few signs of Spring to brighten your day. I look forward to meeting you here next time.

-- -- --

The URL for this post is: https://homefolktales.blogspot.com/2018/03/gunnild-johnsdatters-1818-1890-trip-to.html

Please comment regarding this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then use the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Or contact me by email at dsteff4246[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you. Once again, I am glad you stopped by today.

Copyright (c) 2018, Darlene M. Steffens