Rasmus & Torina Ordahl
Ruth Blomquist’s maternal grandfather, Rasmus Ordahl, and her maternal grandmother, who presumably went by the name Torina Sather Andersdotter, sailed on the same ship from Bergin, Norway, probably in the early 1860s. Rasmus, born on March 25 1841, grew up in Bergin, where his family earned their living as contract laborers engaged in fishing. When his age permitted, he joined his relatives in the family trade and saved whatever he could of his earnings for passage to America. Torina, born on November 4, 1843, grew up in the Nordfjord region,1 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Bergin.2 Although born into an aristocratic family with significant land holdings, her privileged class didn’t afford her a leisure childhood. When the warmth returned after a long Nordic winter, Torina and her sisters herded their father’s cattle and sheep to the sæter, upland mountain pastures, where the sisters tended the livestock and practiced the age-old craft of cheesemaking throughout the warm season. Furthermore, Torina joined her family as they added to their provisions by drying fish on the rocks of the steep mountainsides.3 Bergin has an ice free harbor sheltered from the North Sea by a chain of islands. Due to this natural protected harbor the city …show more content…
Torina may have felt pressured into a hurried commitment due to obstacles for naturalization of unattached women in the United States.7 On-board the ship each family cooked their own food in an assigned area. However, as a consequence of a severe storm prolonging their voyage, hunger beset the passengers when the ship’s stores ran out before reaching their destination. According to Torina, the storm stuck when the ship was only a day off the coast of the United States and blew them almost back to
Ruth Blomquist’s maternal grandfather, Rasmus Ordahl, and her maternal grandmother, who presumably went by the name Torina Sather Andersdotter, sailed on the same ship from Bergin, Norway, probably in the early 1860s. Rasmus, born on March 25 1841, grew up in Bergin, where his family earned their living as contract laborers engaged in fishing. When his age permitted, he joined his relatives in the family trade and saved whatever he could of his earnings for passage to America. Torina, born on November 4, 1843, grew up in the Nordfjord region,1 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Bergin.2 Although born into an aristocratic family with significant land holdings, her privileged class didn’t afford her a leisure childhood. When the warmth returned after a long Nordic winter, Torina and her sisters herded their father’s cattle and sheep to the sæter, upland mountain pastures, where the sisters tended the livestock and practiced the age-old craft of cheesemaking throughout the warm season. Furthermore, Torina joined her family as they added to their provisions by drying fish on the rocks of the steep mountainsides.3 Bergin has an ice free harbor sheltered from the North Sea by a chain of islands. Due to this natural protected harbor the city …show more content…
Torina may have felt pressured into a hurried commitment due to obstacles for naturalization of unattached women in the United States.7 On-board the ship each family cooked their own food in an assigned area. However, as a consequence of a severe storm prolonging their voyage, hunger beset the passengers when the ship’s stores ran out before reaching their destination. According to Torina, the storm stuck when the ship was only a day off the coast of the United States and blew them almost back to