My Ancestors Immigration to the United States

As soon as I received this assignment, I knew that I would interview my Grandmother about our ancestors journey to the United States. Her great, great grandmother, Cattie "Carrie" Valtra, came over in the 1860's when she was nine years old with her parents from Auslow, Norway . Cattie and her parents started their journey on a ship that took them to Ellis Island, New York. From there they traveled by way of a wagon train to Minnesota. They chose to to start their new life in the northern state because of the many similarities there were between Minnesota and Norway such as the landscape and weather.

In Minnesota, Cattie's parents received a land grant that provided them with 5-10 acres of land that they could plant trees and crops on for a set amount of years until eventually it would be their own personal property. Cattie's family lived off of what was produced on the land as they did in Norway. They canned some of the vegetables and fruits that they harvested and placed then in a root cellar. The root cellar was very important to their survival. It provided a place for there goods to be stored in the winter, so that they would not be frozen and it also provided a place for their canned goods to stay cool in the summer, so not to spoil. Potatoes and carrots were placed in bins of soil or sand and canned goods were placed below the freeze line in the cellar.

Cattie and her family had many dangers and fears living in the United States. One danger was fire. They built their kitchen separately from their home to avoid losing everything if a fire was to start in the kitchen. Also, they had to be very cautious of the wild animals that were in their area. Wolves would sit on hills and even under their windows looking for food. Another concern for the family was the health of their crop. If they did not plant their produce at the right time in the season or a drought or storm occurred then their food would have been scarce that particular year.

Living in the United States made it hard for Cattie and her parents to communicate with family in Norway. Letters they sent had to travel by the pony express, on a ship, and then on a train to get to relatives. A lot of times news of a death in the family would take months to get from Norway to Minnesota.

Also, living away from a doctor created concern as it did for many people in those times. They had to know and rely on home remedies to treat injuries of sickness. A lot of mothers died during child birth because of the lack of a doctor.

Although money was very scarce back then, Cattie and her parents survived by trading goods with the market. By helping to hall oats into a mill, the miller would give a portion of the oats to the family as payment. A lot of times these "thrashing parties" would be held by the neighbors in the area where everyone would get together to husk corn or do something out in the fields and in return each person would be fed a meal or get a portion of the crop.

Cattie and here family had settled in an area of Minnesota where many other Norwegians had settled which provided them with friends and neighbors that spoke the same language and had the same beliefs. It made it easier for Cattie and her parents to feel more at home in the United States. They enjoyed dances where someone played an organ or fiddle. Most of their gatherings were held on Saturday. Norwegians were very strict in the belief that Sundays are days of rest and no work or play could be done on that day. Sunday was strictly used to study the bible. Cattie, being Norwegian, had a strong faith in God that was enforced strongly by her parents.

As far as my grandmother knows Cattie and her parents never had a plan to move back to Norway. They had a successful, happy, new life in the United States.

Eventually, Cattie married a man who was English and French Canadian. When her husband died, she remarried his brother. She then had children and remained to live her life on a farm in Minnesota.