As you may have noticed, I have quite a big collection of photographs from my grandfather and my grandmother. However, most of these pictures were never put in any album, and they were never labelled. This has become quite frustrating, because I just don't know who these people were. To be able to put together a history of a person, including certain events and other people, it is kind of crucial to be able to identify what you are seeing in a picture.

Have a look at the picture above. While I have been able to identify my grandma, grandpa and dad, I don't know for sure who the other four women are. All I know is that Else(grandma) had five sisters and two brothers. After doing quite a bit of research I have found that one of her sisters probably died in 1926. One of her brothers died in 1943, and her other brother was working on a ship somewhere (according to one source I have). That leaves four sisters. 

 I found it strange that her mother wasn't in the photo, but non of these women look old enough to be Else's mother. She is 37 herself, and her mother would be 68 in 1947. That is why I believe these four women are her sisters. However, I don't know who is who. I have sent this picture to a relative who might be able to tell me, so all I can do now is wait. 

I'm not sure why I haven't written about this sooner, but I thought I'd share with you two meetings which I have done in the last year.

In September I went on holiday to Florida. I had never been to the states, so I was immediately amazed by how big everything were. The highways in to Miami for example, was something I had never experienced in my entire life. European roads have got nothing on the American ones. Anyway, while being over there, I thought I'd use the opportunity to meet someone who I have found in all my ancestry research. 

In 1926 my grandfather's brother, Erling, left Norway on a ship bound for England. He then boarded a ship which was bound for New York. He was only 23 years old. I have found lots of documentation of his trip over there and his life in Minnesota, but I will save all of that for a different blog entry. 

It was when I was searching for information about Erling's death and burial I found his grandson Gary. Luckily for me, he had provided details of Erling's death and burial on an American website. I searched for Gary on Facebook, and there he was. We've been in contact ever since. Gary didn't know much about his Norwegian heritage, other than that his grandfather was from Lillehammer, and I was happy to share everything I had found with him. 

It was natural to visit him while in Florida, because that is the state he lives in. He had a few pictures to show me and the meeting was a great success. Unfortunately I didn't have WiFi on my tablet, so I was unable to show him the family tree I had made...but in this day and age all you have to do is send a copy of it online, he wasn't too upset.

During Christmas I went to visit two other relatives. They live quite a bit closer than Gary. Jan Petter and his sister Anne live not far from Oslo, so there was no question as to whether I wanted to go and see them. Jan Petter and Anne were also very welcoming and open about their history (it must be a Burdal thing..?), and he had lots of information to show me. Jan Petter has been researching our family for a long time and was surprised, but delighted, when I showed so much interest. Apparently it is something which is more common for older people to be interested in, not a 21 year old. 

That was my experience meeting other relatives. I haven't really met anyone else who shares the same surname as me, apart from my sisters. So it was a great experience, and I believe we'll all keep in touch.

I recently started subscribing to the archive of one of Norway's largest newspapers, Aftenposten (The Evening Post). Looking through some of the documents and items after my grandfather Nils Burdal, I came to realise that the newspaper of his choice was in fact Aftenposten. So I thought if any newspaper would ever write about him, it would have to be that one. Not only because it is the one he used to read, but also because it is based in Oslo, and a lot of the news covered in it is from Oslo (which is where he lived all his adult life).

I searched for his name in the archive, and sadly there's not much written about him. I did however find his obituary. While this is somewhat sad to find, it also helps me understand him and his life better. I for one thought that Else and Nils were divorced. This suggests otherwise as Else is using "Burdal" as her last name. 

The wording of it makes me doubt that they were even separated. It says "My dearest HUSBAND, my dearest father, son, brother and uncle..." Now I'm not sure what to make of this. Maybe the breakup wasn't public and she felt like it had to be written that way...or maybe they didn't actually break up.

Letters...today it seems like a very old fashioned way of communication. There are easier and certainly faster ways of keeping in touch. However, there's still something special about sending and/or receiving a letter. A hand written letter is somewhat more personal, but then if you make a mistake it is so much more annoying to deal with. After I moved to England I have become very fond of letters. I send them to my friends and when they reply it is something which I can hang on the wall and then be reminded of my friend whenever I look at it.

75 years ago, keeping in touch with your friends and family what very different from today. Picture taking a person from 1938 and put him in 2013. That would make an interesting story. Anyway, in 1926 my grandfather's brother left Norway behind to look for a better life (I assume). He was single and probably didn't have much to lose (apart from his family). He travelled over to the states.

A few years ago I found letters from him, sent to my grandfather in Norway. Two of them are from 1938 and the last one is from 1947. I'm sure he sent more than that, but unfortunately I haven't found any more.

The language is a bit old fashioned, so it's not that easy to translate, but I've done my best.
The first part is written by Erling's wife:
"Dear Nils:
I shall write for Erling. He is working everyday, but he was going to write and thank you for your letter. It is fun to hear from Norway. We are living in another area now, so we have gotten a lot of work to do to get our new home finished. We are in 3306-E-25st.
We have cold weather still, but hoping it will get hot soon.
We are seeing Pete Berkley every now and then. His girls have become so big and they don't have time to come over and see us, but we see them sometimes.

Dennis is going to school everyday. He was five years old the 27. Feb, soon he
will be an adult as well.

Yes, you must come and see us. That would've been really nice. We won't be
able to get as far as Norway. It takes too much money to pay for all of us, and you are
alone.


Thank you for you letter, and write soon again. Erling will probably write one day to you too.  Say hi to your mother from us all.
- Erling, Selma and Dennis"

Then Erling writes a longer letter:
Dear little brother!
Thousand thanks for the letter I received from you some time back. It was really funny to hear a few words from you. I see you are working in the same place and that everything is fine in every way. Everything is just fine with us as well.
We have all been healthy through the whole winter and now the spring is here, so everything is going to be just fine.

We have had a good winter this year. Barely any snow and we haven't had minus degrees for more than 4-5 days, but lately we've had a lot of rain. Yes, with flooding everywhere. Yes, right in to Mpls. But the city lays high above the rivers. Yes, especially Mississippi. But all the cities around have been standing under water, and the rivers are still raising.

Life is going as usual, with plenty of work, like we always have during the winter. But it's starting to quiet down, so I think I will take a a holiday this summer. Yes, I guess you've been home again during easter, and had lots of fun as usual. Yes, it would've been a lot of fun to come back one day and go skiing on the mountain, if I haven't forgotten how to ski yet, but I would never think so.

We have now moved and we are living in a house by ourselves. We have four rooms downstairs and two bedrooms
on the first floor. Yes, we've gotten a really nice place, so you should come over and see soon. Maybe on your honeymoon.

Dennis is also going to school now. He started in February, and you can believe the wildcat is proud now.
He isn't growing that fast, but he strong like nothing else. I haven't heard from home in a long while, but
they are sending me newspapers, so I always know what is going on in old Lhmr. So as you see there are a lot of
joy in them. Hans Wald, who you saw when he was home, went to the hospital to remove the appendicitis. But he is now home and in good recovery.

Yes, I don't have that much to write about, but a little is better than nothing. Are you seeing Uncle August at all?
I haven't heard of him in many years. Maybe you see him every now and then. If you do, you'll have to send him and his children my best. Yes, you should live well and write soon, please. Selma has also written a few words.
Lots of love from big brother Erling."

Came across something cool today. For those of you who know Norwegian, read the text in the picture. For those of you who don't...this is a copy of a Norwegian "skijumping club through a 100 years". What it basically says is that my grandfathers two cousins, Einar and Birger, were doing skijumping and combined for this club. Apparently they were really good. The second picture is the two brothers together. The first picture is Einar with another jumper. Quite exciting! This is from the late 20s early 30s.

Here are a couple of other pictures as well. This is Einar Burdal with his prizes. Just look at his clothes and the decor in this room. Amazing. He looks like a typical Norwegian guy with those trousers and long socks. Quite funny how serious he looks, even though he has won something!

...and this one is of Birger Burdal. Looks pretty heavy having to get through all that snow. But I guess he was some kind of professional. Again, the clothes look like typical Norwegian clothes. I bet it kept him warm. It looks like his sticks are made of wood.

Today I had a little talk with a guy in my class about the massacre that happened in Norway one year ago. It made me think... it made me think about what actually happened that day and how I was feeling. Even though I have moved to Sheffield to study, Norway will always be where I'm from. It's where I was born and it is where I grew up. It is my home.

I was home that summer. Not doing much, really. I remember that Christian and I were sitting at the kitchen table with our computers. Reading the news, updating social network etc. Just the normal thing you'd find yourself doing on a Friday afternoon. I remember updating the website I was on. A new headline popped up. "Big explosion in Oslo", or something along those lines. It didn't give much information, just where it had happened and when. I told Christian, and I updated my Facebook status "And Oslo has been attacked? Cool...". He put on BBC radio, I think it was, and the news came pretty fast. I remember saying to Christian that I thought it was odd that the explosion had happenend right outsite the government building, where our labour prime minister has his office. I said something like "I think this is an attack from someone who is unhappy with our government, someone from the right side". As we were talking about this, the woman on BBC news started talking about Al-qaeda... could it possibly have been them?

Not long after this the news ticked in about shootings on an island. At first no one made the connection, but it didn't take long to figure it out. I was absolutely devestated. When going to bed, the last thing I heard was that around 10 people were dead, I think it was. When I woke up, the number has risen to around 80. I remember the feeling of my stomach turning, I felt so ill. I wanted to cry, and I wanted to scream. What the hell had happened?

I still feel this way about what happened. It has been over a year, and the shooter has been convicted from the crimes he committed. He is behind bars, though it feels wrong to use that expression. Norwegian jails can't be referred to as that. Norwegian prisons aren't like other prisons, and this makes me angry.

Though I am sad we were totally unprepared for this, I still see it as some sort of comfort...let me explain...Norway is a peaceful country, and it is very unlikely that something like that would happen. It hasn't happened before, so why would we expect it? I do hope that Norway can continue being the country I know and love, but still remember 22nd of July 2011. So on that note, I would like to end this by saying rest in peace to all the people who were tragically killed in Oslo and on Utøya. And all my thoughts are still with their friends and family.

I was talking to Chirstian about the bus I take into town everyday, to go to my lectures and workshops. He said "why don't you blog about it?" Well, Christian, writing about the bus I take everyday, which I had to pay £1.95 on when I first came to Sheffield, then £2.20, because the prize just stupidly rised for no particular reason, then dropped to £2 and then decided to let students pay 60p, is not very interesting. Also the fact that the bus used to be a normal sized bus (on one floor), and when I came back to Sheffield after summer they had swapped most of them with double deckers from Leeds. How do I know? It says Leeds on the side of the bus, that is how. We are in Sheffield, not Leeds. Hard to mix the two up. Lately the buses have been very late (often almost 30 minutes late), and they are supposed to go every 10 minutes. This is extremly frustrating when you have to get to your lectures ON TIME! The most annoying part about this is when the bus eventually do arrive...THREE come at once! I need one bus, not three.

Anyway, this has made it difficult for me to trust the buses. Everytime I go to pay for my bus ticket, I keep an extra £1.40 in my other hand, just in case the bus driver is stupid and tells me I have to pay full prize. Don't trust them. This has also led me to leave the house a lot earlier then I normally would, just so I am sure I will get there on time. This, of course, leads to a lot of unnecessary waiting, because everyone knows that if you are very early, everything runs smoothly and you end up with 30 minutes to waste before a lecture. If you are on time, everything will fall apart and you will be late. #Fact

So it was only by luck that we managed to get tickets to this anniversary concert. Christian entered a contest on Monday last week, and he won. So we booked a hotel room and train tickets. Included in the prize was also an invitation to the after party (with an open bar!!!).

The concert took place in Wembley Arena. We were promised a night of celebration. Celebration of Jim Marshall and UK as rock heaven. And that is what we got. Jim Marshall and his company was absolutely worshipped at this concert, not so weird seen as all of the artists are users of his amplifiers. He was supposed to attend the concert himself when they first started planning it, but sadly he died earlier this year.

One of the first artists on was Corey Taylor. Most people know him as the front man and #8 in Slipknot, but perhaps also the singer in Stone Sour. You could spot his fans in the crowd, because they were all wearing Slipknot shirts... now I believe that what they got was something quite different to what they might have expected. He was not wearing a mask, and he was not acting like a «scary» and «hardcore» guy(like he does in Slipknot). His singing was pleasant, and he did a very good job performing every song. The highlight was probably when he sang Mötorhead's «Ace of Spades» with Phil Campbell (from Mötorhead) and Kerry King (from Slayer). They also performed a Thin Lizzy song, to mention a few...

...to be continued

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.