Wednesday, November 23, 2011

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 180: The View from Gjelle Farm

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I recently scanned some photographs from our 1999 trip to Scandinavia, including a visit to Oslo and Voss in Norway. I am posting some of these photos.

This is a photograph of the view of Voss from Gjelle farm on the south side of the Vossvatnet:


This is the "picture postcard" view of the town of Voss from Gjelle farm.  Our guide, Bjorg Liland, is the lady in the yellow jacket, and that's my Linda with her in the dark jacket.  Unfortunately, it was raining when we visited Gjelle farm, and the sky is not a bright blue, there are low clouds over the  mountain in the background, and the ski resort mountain above Voss doesn't have snow on it in August 1999.

When we arrived in Voss by train on Friday, I phoned Bjorg Liland at her home (her name was given us by another Leland researcher) on Friday night, and she rearranged her schedule to meet us on Saturday morning and take us around the lake - from Gjelle to Liland farm to Molster farm and downtown Voss.  We took Bjorg out to dinner that evening, and visited her home on Sunday evening for dessert.  She was a really nice lady!  Bjorg had married a Liland and was manager of the Park Liland Hotel in beautiful downtown Voss for many years.  She knew the current Liland farm people well, and we were able to visit them also (another post!).

Gjelle farm is one of Linda's ancestral farms - the latest ancestors to live on Gjelle farm were Sjur Torgersen (1804-1889) and Brita Olsdatter (1818-1895), who lived there after Sjur's brother, Ole Tergersen died; they had two children there before they emigrated to America. Sjur's parents, Torgeir Olsen (1753-1827) and his wife Anna Sjursdatter (1772-1826) lived on Gjelle farm and died there, and the farm went to their eldest son, Ole Torgersen (1797-1851). 

Gjelle farm is very noticeable when viewed from the Voss side of the lake - the main farm house is a bright yellow and is easy to pick out from several miles away.

You can find "picture postcard" photos from Gjelle farm on Svein Ulvund's website (http://home.online.no/~sulvund/)  which has over ten years of daily photographs from the area in and around Voss.

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