In 1854, most likely April, Iver Endreson Vangsness with his wife, Unni, left Sogning, Norway (also sited as Vik, Sogning, Norway - I am not sure if these are the same place = we also have this name: Sognafjorden as the name of the fjord) and emigrated to the United States. They came with their first son, John E. Vangsness, who was just two years old at the time. He was the first of five children*. John E. Vangsness is our Great Grandfather!
Iver Endreson Vangsness is our Great, great grandfather! And he is the first member of our family on our mother's (Virginia Sylvester Anderson) side to come to the United States.
Names of Norwegians
Names are complicated when it comes to people from Norway. Often they took their village and/or farm name as their last name when they came to the United States. And that is the case with our family. It seems that our relatives on our mother's side of the family lived/worked on a farm named Lee. They also went by the name of Anderson and in early records which possible misspellings occurred by immigration officials, they were entered into records as Enderson. But, there seems to be a relative in Norway, with the name Endreson, so perhaps it is a correct spelling. It seems we have cousins in Vik, Norway by the name of Lee.
- Lee - farm name
- Vangsness - place name in Norway (?) OR farm name in US
- Anderson - old name from Norway
- Endreson - old name from Norway
It is important to remember that in Norway, Iver E. Vangsness had a different name! In Norwegian documents he was called Iver Endreson, Nisstad. It was not until about 1870 that all Norwegians had last names. In Iver's day, his name would have meant "Iver, son of Endre, living/working on the Nisstad Farm". If, on other documents as seen in the following letter, his name was listed as Iver Endreson, Lee, it means that he changed his place of employment or changed the farm he was working on. I am going to call Iver by the name he used in America, Iver E. Vangness, but when we start talking about documents in Norway, I will have to use his Norwegian name. I will try to keep all the names straight.
Letter from John G. Vangsness
To quote from a letter from John G. Vangsness, who did most of the research for the family tree along with his father:
Dad got me interested in this after he & mom returned from Norway. When they went they had no idea of where Iver came from. All they knew was that there was a town by the name of Vangsness close to Vik in Sogenfjoird. It didn't take them long to discover that they were not related to anyone with the name of Vangsness in Norway. Iver came from the Lee farm. His ancestors lived there as far back as 1666.
Ivar's name in Norway was, "Ivar Enderson, Lee". I have done some research & found that they didn't change their name to Vangsness until after 1870. I have some census info that shows Iver going by the name Anderson on July 2, 1870. In the June 17, 1880 census Iver is calling himself Vangsness. But your Grandfather, John, is still going by Anderson. Why Anderson? My guess is that some Englishman couldn't understand Endreson with an accent and mistook it for Anderson. Just a guess of course.
I'd like to find out why they took Vangsness for a name. Stanley Vangsness thinks they kept getting their mail mixed up with all the other Andersons in the neighborhood. Probably as good an explanation as any. I have read that Iver & Unni got married and left for America from the town of Vangsness. I also found in searching land transaction documents that a man by the name of Vangsness owned the farm Iver bought in 1863 in Goodhue country. The custom in Norway was taking the farm name you lived on as part of your name. Maybe this farm was referred to as the old "Vangsness" farm, so they took that name.
Please note that spelling is not consistent sometimes. I have seen Iver spelt "Ivar" and "Iver". Also, Enderson is spelt "Endreson" and "Enderson".
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*There were possibly 6 children, one having died in infancy according to the 1938 obituary of John E. Vangsness. We do not have direct proof of this child except the above mentioned obituary nor do we have a name or any dates. If anyone has any information about this child, I would appreciate hearing about it.
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