Sarah and Orville Vallem passport application and New York passenger list

Sarah (Anderson) Vallem, the second wife of John Peter Vallem applied for a US passport for herself and their only son, Orville on January 12, 1920. (John Peter Vallem and first wife Lena Josephine (Travland) had possibly 7 children; I've only been able to track down 5 of those, leading me to believe there was an error in the 1910 US Census.)

Unfortunately, if the lower left corner was the photo of Sarah, it didn't come out on the xerox copy.

Line #11 and #12 show Sarah and Orville as passengers on the Bergensfjord arriving in New York from Stavanger, Norway.

I don't know if any of Sarah's stepchildren felt slighted by not having been included in the trip, but it may have been the source of some animosity toward their half-brother, Orville.

Here are some photos of the Bergensfjord.

Here is a postcard of the Bergensfjord.

Comments

Mark Vallem said…

I am Orville's grandson Mark Vallem. My father Rollo had a framed copy of the first photo of the Bergensfjord hung above his dresser. I've always loved that photo. I had never seen the other two until I found this site. They are very interesting. Thanks for posting them!

February 25, 2012 at 8:41 PM

Ole Finnestad Jr obituary

Here is the obituary for my great, great grandfather, Ole Finnestad Jr from the Dixon Evening Telegraph of July 9, 1928. Note the misspelling of his first and last name, though Finnestad was spelled correctly within the content of the article. You will also note that his brother Rasmus had moved from Canada to Washington by the time of his brother's death. Oddly, there is no mention of the sisters that survived him, leading me to believe they may have lost touch by the time of his death.

Kenneth and Lillian Finnestad obituaries

I have had previously posted the obituary for my great great grandfather Ole Finnestad several posts back. I have not yet been able to locate an obituary for my great grandparents Oliver and Mary Finnestad, though here are the obituaries for my grandparents, Kenneth and Lillian Finnestad.

Finnestad Farm - Stavanger, Norway

It was customary in Norway to take the farm name as the family name. Prior to arriving in America, Ole Finnestad was known as Ole Olson. According to the Regional State Archives of Stavanger, in 1862, Ole Olsen bought a farm from Bjørn Larsen. The following link provides some farm information along with the family members in 1865: http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&sidenr=59&filnamn=f61126&gardpostnr=582&sokefelt=vis “Merknad 387b” now means property nr. 16 of the farm Finnestad. (Please keep in mind that accuracy of records is less than perfect - so ages and other information are not always correct) For more information on Stavanger and a map of the area, please go to the following wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger

Finnestad Ancestry

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