I recently took one of those “vacations of a lifetime” to Norway.
Turns out my great grandfather immigrated to the US in the mid-1800’s. He with his family left a place named Loftesnes on the big Sognefjord in Norway.
Sometime after immigrating to the US, a second ‘s’ was added to our last name — probably to “English-ize” it.
In the photo at right (courtesy of the Hofslund Fjord Hotel), I’ve labeled Loftesnes which is just across the bridge from the town of Sogndal.
The hotel itself, where I stayed on the journey, is right on the fjord and has a beautiful overlook of the fjord to the south/southwest.
Once you’ve seen this place, you wonder how one could ever leave! Of course, life was very different there 150 years ago — and the new frontier of America called…
I wonder what my family’s first July 4th was like in their new country?