Artikler om innvandring og utvandring og om migrasjonskjeder
With increasing Norwegian emigration to the Midwest, the Fox River colony in La Salle County, Illinois, was followed by sister colonies in the region. Within a few years, Fox River developed into the mother colony for thousands of Norwegian immigrants. In this context, “mother colony” means that this was the place where most Norwegian immigrants […]
To Fox River and newer Norwegian colonies in the Midwest Read more...
The first organized emigration from Norway to the USA was triggered by the persecution of a small Quaker sect in Stavanger around 1820. The Quakers in Stavanger, western Norway, felt harassed by the state church, by the authorities, and people in the local community. The Quakers and religious freedom. During the Napoleonic Wars, from 1807 to 1814, the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway was at war with Great Britain.
First organized emigration from Norway Read more...
In the decades before the American Civil War and also the first few years after the war, most Norwegian emigrants chose to buy a ticket on a Norwegian sailing ship that brought passengers directly from a Norwegian port to America. After the Civil War, Quebec in Canada replaced New York City as the main port
Sailships, steamships and Norwegian emigrants Read more...
The first Norwegians in western New York worked hard for several seasons to grow enough food for their families to last through the long and cold winters. Their new home in America was no Canaan’s Land. Could there be a new beginning farther west? When the ice broke up on Lake Erie and Lake Michigan
A new beginning farther west Read more...
On October 21, 1825, most of the Norwegian emigrants from the sloop Restauration boarded a steamship from New York to Albany. From Albany they traveled west through the region of the brand-new canal, which was creating a direct route to Lake Erie from New York City. Only five days later, the whole length of the
No milk and honey for Norwegians in Western New York Read more...
Just before Christmas in 1886 the Cleng Peerson monument was unveiled in the cemetery of “Our Savior’s Lutheran Church” at Norse in Bosque County, Texas. The monument was dedicated to “Cleng Peerson, the Father of Norwegian Emigration to America”. It had the following inscription in Norwegian and English: “Cleng Pierson, the Pioneer of Norse Emigration
Who was Cleng Peerson, the father of Norwegian Emigration? Read more...
Before the Civil War, emigrants from Norway usually crossed the Atlantic on board a Norwegian sailing ship from a Norwegian harbor to New York or Quebec. This mode of transportation changed radically in the 1870s. Trans-Atlantic steamship companies from British ports offered faster journeys. A steamship crossed the Atlantic in less than half the time
Emigrants from Byneset, Trøndelag, ended up in Montana Read more...
Two Grande brothers from Trondheim, the middle of Norway, in 1866 set out on a long and winding journey to the United States. They crossed fjords and oceans, followed rivers, roads and trails over plains, valleys and mountain ranges before they ended up in the grassy Musselshell Valley, Montana, in 1878. The journey was not
From the middle of Norway to Musselshell Valley, Montana Read more...
Quakers in the town of Stavanger gave Cleng Peerson an assignment to travel to New York in 1821. They wanted him to explore the conditions for Norwegian immigrants. The assignment was fulfilled in 1825 with the first organized group of emigrants from Norway to the Americas. Cleng Peerson was born in Tysvær, Rogaland county, western
1825 – the beginning of organized emigration from Norway Read more...
In July 2025 it will be 200 years since the first organized group of Norwegian immigrants left the city of Stavanger, Norway. Cleng Peerson was their pathfinder in western New York in 1825, and in Fox River, Illinois, in 1833. His last 15 years in Texas have been a mystery. Most Norwegian immigrants settled in
From 2023: First priority Texas, Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan Read more...