| Ancestor 18 (1,001,0): 2GGF Anders Carolius Andersen-Sandver (3/21/1847 – 2/01/1927) | Ancestor 19 (1,001,1): 2GGM Ymbjorg Hansdatter-Sandver (10/17/1853 – 1930) | |
| His parents | Their ancestral child | Her parents |
Anders and Ymbjorg met in Lurøy Parish, Nordland County, Norway around 1875. Lurøy is an archipelago right on the Arctic Circle. Anders’ family had lived in Lurøy for generations. Ymbjorg had moved there recently. If you don’t see any pins in the map below, click the slider at upper left and scroll down to check “Scandinavia”.
Distant cousins have written:
“In 1875 Anders was living on Ytre Onøy Farm 1 and working as a fisherman. One of the other young men living on the farm was Hans Hansen, Ymbjorg’s younger brother.” 1
and …
“Ymbjorg followed her family from Fraenen 2 to Luroy in 1875. She met Anders there and married him three years later.” 2
From this correspondence, we can piece together the story of how they met! They were married in Anders’ homeland of Lurøy Parish on Aug 11, 1878. They had two girls while living there in Norway – Anna (Babst) and then my GGM Augusta on 10/21/1881. I have found one Norwegian family tree, which appears highly reliable, identifying Augusta’s birthplace as “Hestholmen u/I-Onøy, Lurøy.” Hestholmen does appear on the maps as a tiny island between Onøy and Lurøy. I would be inclined to believe that this is where the family lived. Augusta’s son Warren remembers her saying that from their house they “looked down at the water.”
Here is the webpage for Lurøy Kirke, the family church.
This is the story of the families’ immigration as it was handed down to my grandfather:
“All the way back in 1888, our mother, along with her parents and her sister, 3 came across from Norway on a sailboat. Mother was six or seven at the time. There was a bad storm and the ship lost the sails for a time. They just drifted until they got them repaired. There were other immigrants, she thought Italians, in a lower hold, and she remembered peeking through holes in the deck at them. They must have been very poor, because she saw them eating fish heads. Ugh! She thought that was terrible! Then one time a crew person gave her an orange. She thought it was wonderful! She had never seen one before.”
Some of my distant cousins recall hearing the story about the orange too. I used an AI art generator to recreate this moment.
“A letter from Lurøy dated 11-29-79 states that Edward Aas [Ymbjorg’s niece’s husband] left for America May 2, 1888 together with others from Lurøy and it names several families.” 3 Chances are good that this was Anders and Ymbjorg’s ship too.
The family settled in Barnesville, Clay County, MN. Anders and Ymbjorg then had two American-born daughters, Johanna “Jennie” (Anderson) and Alma.
Click here to review the Scandinavian naming system, which changed in the late 19th century and affected this family. After immigration, Anders and Ymbjorg adopted “Sandver” as the family surname. That name was already gone by the time all their daughters married. You will only find the graves of two Sandvers in America — Anders and Ymbjorg at the Barnesville Lutheran Church.