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This is an ongoing project regarding my Norwegian heritage on my mother's side of the family. Her great great grandparents and their family immigrated to NZ in 1872 sailing aboard the Høvding , a three masted barque ship which left Christiania (Oslo), on 30 May 1872 on it's first voyage to New Zealand, arriving at Napier 15 September 1872. My mother's great grandfather however remained behind in Norway, and emmigrated a few years later with his wife arriving in New Zealand in 1880. They all settled at Norsewood being among the first settlers there.
Life of the settlers in Norsewood was extremely tough. They had disembarked from their ship to spend days walking on foot to their new settlement. Here the men were each given a balloted plot of land and the tools required to fell the trees.. the land was so thickly forrested it was near impossible to see the land for trees!! An account on the life of Norsewood's first settlers is written by Mr R E Hansen (The Kiwi Viking). NORSEWOOD - NEW ZEALAND. I also thank him for helping me get a start on my family research.
I have managed to follow the Ericksen family's history quite a way back, and have had a lovely lady and genealogist in Norway by the name of Jean Skar refer to her entire collection of Bygdebokkers for the North and South Odalen region in Hedmark of Norway to verify and correct my research. She even visited the Norwegian Archives Office to research some of my family history for me. Thank you very much Jean!!!! (A Bygdebokker is a Norwegian resource book regarding farms and their inhabitants over the course of a few hundred years).
I have also been very lucky and excited to discover a relative and her family in Norway. Her great great grandmother and my mother's great great grandfather were brother and sister, and the only two children born to that particular marriage. He immigrated to New Zealand and she stayed in Norway. Hopefully my family tree will help anyone else researching the same family, and I am keen to hear from anyone with a connection so that I can add more information on other members of the family!!!
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