My sister and I have just gone through a suitcase full of stuff... our grandfather, Nils', suitcase. It has so many documents and pictures in it. But it made us able to learn something new about him.

During WW2, he was actually in a resistance group called "Lenkegjengen" (The Link Gang). I suppose the meaning of it is that they(or Norway) were and should be "linked" together as one people, or something like that. Anyway, they planned a few actions, some of which succeded if I have understood this right. And my grandfather was actually jailed for his resistance work... not only once, but twice. Apparently it was because he had been handing out illegal magazines/newspapers. I had no idea this had happened. The suitcase also holds many invitations to events and balls. It can seem like he was an important person. He has even received a signed thank you letter from King Olav.

^I kind of liked this picture. Nils had a few pictures of this, so it might have been an action or something.


The picture underneath is soldiers walking from Akershus Festning(castle). I'm not certain of this, but I think Nils is the man in front to the right. --- Correction... the person to the right is not Nils. I have found this picture and all the names. A bit disappointing, also strange, because this really looks like him. Anyway, the picture is cool.

With a little help from a Norwegian ancestry forum, my sister and I have managed to get a little further on the "Burdal mystery". The parents of Petter Burdal, my great grandpa, were not called Burdal at all. They were actually called Mathias Syversen and Eli Pedersdatter. Why not Burdal, you may ask? This is a question I have been asking over and over again. Especially since Petter wasn't the only one adopting this surname. It seems that all his siblings took this name as well. After searching through scanned church books, I have managed to find all marriages, births and confirmations(confirmation used to be a normal christian event for Norwegians. Today you can choose whether you want to do it the christian way, or the "human ethical" way. It is hard to explain, but it is registered).

In 1900, Agnethe Mathiasdatter was confirmed. The document also includes information about birthplace, parents, age and also where they are currently living. In 1900, Agnethe lived somewhere called "Burdal". Amazing, or what? The only problem is, this is the only time I have seen them live there. Before and after that, they are supposedly living somewhere else. Weird? Why on earth would all the children decide to take this name? It must have been a pretty damn good place to live if you are using it as a name. It is like...as if I called myself Sokna (the place I lived for about 18 years). Or now that I live in Sheffield, Lodge Moor, I could use some of that in my name?

Another thing this shows, is just how easy it was to change your name. You can't just take a name and use it as if it was yours. It seems like you could do that back then. Funny.

Today I found out something new about my grandmother. I have always thought that she was the youngest of four girls. This turns out to be wrong. Because of no cencus after 1910, people born after that (who are dead), can be quite tricky to track. Unless you find a death certificate. In 1916 Elses parent's, Harald and Margrethe, had a boy. They named him Aasulv Edvard Berhard Devold. A long, and quite strange name, if you ask me. But I suppose they wanted to make him special, seen as he was their first boy. He got a job on a ship called Stavangerfjord. He only sailed with them a couple of times before WWII. In 1940 he left Norway. He got a job as an able seaman (deckman) on a ship called Bonde. Unfortunately on a trip from Swansea to Canada in 1943, three ships were attacked by an u-boat. Within three minutes, all three ships, Selvistan, Gharinda and Bonde were hit by torpedos. They all sank, and Bonde sank quite slowly. One hour later, elleven survivors were picked up from the sea. Aasulv was not one of them.

I came across this here http://da2.uib.no/cgi-win/WebBok.exe?slag=lesside&bokid=vaarefalne1&sideid=456&innhaldid=3&storleik=
So, this answers a question I've been sitting on. Who is this? His name was Aasulv.

You know what's annoying? Oh don't worry I will tell you... people who write and speak as if they are better than everything and everyone. I just don't get it. Is this supposed to be funny? Maybe I just have a dull sense of humour, but I don't find these jokes about how much you hate evrything and everyone funny. People like that have an opinion on everything. And, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having an opinion, but is it necessary to poison everyone around you with it?

This makes me look a bit stupid, I suppose, because I am sharing my opinion as we speak. All I wanted to say is... you're not funny.