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

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

Rasmus Oleson Finnestad family tree

I have completed cleaning up the family tree and added a final tab for Ole and Mari Finnestad's son, Rasmus. Six of Ole and Mari's eleven children produced the most descendants; the last 6 tabs include those six children and the two subsequent generations. Here is a summary and links to the additional tabs: - Elizabeth Knutson - Iverdine (Dana) Travland - Rachel Vallem - Ole Finnestad (Jr) - Bert Finnestad - Rasmus Finnestad The family tree will always be available on the right hand margin for easy access. In the future, subsequent generations will be listed on a new spreadsheet to reduce any confusion. The additional spreadsheets will be listed in the right hand margin below the original family tree.

Charles A Ludwig - WW II enlistment

Here is the WW II enlistment information for Ole and Mari Finnestad's great grandchild, Charles A Ludwig. Charles enlisted November 14, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. He was a machinist at the time of his enlistment. Charles was the son of Edith (Knutson) and Charles E Ludwig. Charles' grandparents were Elizabeth and Ole Andreas Knutson.

Finnestad Ancestry

Search This Blog