Bestemor's Trip to America

S.S.Bergensfjord
Photo: Anders Beer Wilse/Norwegian Museum of Cultural History

My grandmother, Sigrid Sophie Olsen, came to America in 1915 and spent a few years in Salt Lake before returning to her native Norway.  She traveled on the S.S. Bergensfjord.

The passenger manifest shows her leaving Kristiania (Oslo) on May 23rd, 1915.  The trip would have taken about a week.

The detail below shows Miss Sigrid Olsen on line 16.  Her age is listed as 27.  Her occupation: Clerk.  Her place of origin, Norway; her nationality, Scandinavian.  Her Mother is listed as Oleane Olsen, with the address of Mauritz Hansensgate 4, Kristiania - as the person to contact in case of emergency.

[Note: I'm not sure when Oleane moved to Maurtiz Hansen's street, or whether she moved there originally with her husband or after his death.  It appears from the note on the ship manifest that Oleane lived at #4 by herself after her husband passed away.  After Sigrid married Einar Strand, they lived in Drammen for a while.  They moved to Oslo, and into the ground floor apartment at #4 sometime after my mother, Anne-Berit, was born.  At that time, Oleane was already living upstairs in a smaller apartment.  She eventually moved in with the Strand family and stayed there until her death.]

There was a large Scandinavian population in Salt Lake at the time that Sigrid visited, and Sigrid was caught up in a whirl of social events.  However, Sigrid wasn't happy in Salt Lake and eventually came home to Oslo again after World War I was over.  There she met Einar Strand.

The rest, as they say, is history.