Where they came From

Iver E. Vangsness and his wife Unni left Vik, Sogning Norway (Sognafjorden) in 1854.

John Vangsness II and his wife Jerry in the early 1990's visited Norway looking for information about their relatives. They originally looked for a town named Vangsness or people named Vangsness. But they were having no luck.

In Vik they met a woman named, Anna Nummedal, who gave them information where to find their relatives who are mostly called "Lee" in Norway as their relatives came from the Lee farm. We have many second cousins named Lee in Norway.

John and Jerry found the original Lee farm house and other old structures that stood on the steep banks of a fjord. They found the actual house where Iver E. Vangsness was born.

Vik, Sogning, Norway - Vangsness Home

Their guide said that the closest building was 200 years old and that the Vangsness home was even older.

John and Jerry purchased a wooden bowl painted by Anna and a book of statistics about people who had moved to the States from the Vik area. Many, many people in Vik had moved to Kenyon and Goodhue County and other places close by.

They stayed an extra day in Vik and found out many interesting things about the Vangsness family. "That will be the next chapter in the story of the Vangsness trip to Norway,...." said the newspaper article.  Sad to say, the article ends there. I do not have the next chapter, even if there was one.

(From information provided by John G. Vangseness in 1996.)