Ryan’s Grandma, Clara Moore, visited Stavanger, Norway with her mother, Agatha Vervick, in 1953 as recorded in this newspaper article from Spokane, WA:
“Mrs. Agatha Vervick Travels to Norway on 70th Birthday
Mrs. Agatha Vervick of Fairfield has returned from a month’s visit to Stavanger, Norway. She was accompanied by her daughter, Mrs. Clara Moore, of Spokane. They left June 21, on Mrs. Vervick’s 70th birthday, arriving in Stavanger two days later by Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS Airlines— the (Moore)McGraw/Warne-McGraw families flew SAS from Bergen to Stavanger to get here in 2016)
Thirty relatives met them at the lovely Sola airport with bouquets of roses and carnations. Two photographers were on hand to take pictures which appeared in two Stavanger newspapers. Many enjoyable days were spent meeting relatives, renewing old acquaintances, boat trips around Stavanger and receptions held for them. Mrs. Vervick had not been back for 47 years. She recalled many of the pleasant experiences of her youth and met many of her girl friends to talk over old times. They also visited with the Verviks (spelled without the ‘c’ there) and Vervik Village, a town by that name.
Mrs. Vervick, despite her age, was an excellent traveler, and enjoyed seeing her old home and relatives. They were house guests most of the time with Mr. and Mrs. August Weitfeldt, sister and brother-in-law of Mrs. Vervick.
Mrs. Vervick and Mrs. Moore left Norway on July 22 arriving July 24. Approximately 60 relatives were on hand to bid them adieu. Said Mrs. Moore, “It was a wonderful experience for both of us, and for mother, it was a dream come true, to see her old home and relatives again. She certainly has a wonderful family.”
Unfortunately, Grandma Clara Moore never returned to Norway, but approx. 63 years later, her daughter Janis (Moore) McGraw, and her family returned including husband Keith McGraw; son, Ryan Warne-McGraw, his wife Nicole and their three daughters; and their friend Paula Zubiri.
On Tuesday, July 19, 2106 we drove over to Annekarin Sagen’s home in Hafrsfjord, Norway. Ryan’s father, Keith, had made contact with Norwegian relatives of Clara Vervik Moore, Ryan’s maternal grandmother, in the hopes that we could learn more about Vervik family heritage and perhaps meet some family during our short time in Norway. Torkel Bryne coordinated with local Norwegian relatives to plan a gathering. What a blessing to have so many of our family members join us! Here is a picture of my mom, Janis, and our Norwegian relatives:
Back Row (Left to Right): Harriet Halvorsen; Torkel Bryne; Astrid Handegaard; Karen Haivdegaard (Halvorsen); Kari Røyneberg; Jan Røynberg; John Halvorsen
Front Row (Left to Right): Margrethe Bryne (Sunde); Jorunn Søraas; Kjellaug Sunde (Stokka); Janis McGraw (Ryan Warne-McGraw’s mother); Annekarin Sagen (Sunde); Jone Henning (Halvorsen)
We also met Georg Vervik (His father was Germann Vervik — notice their name is not spelled with a ‘c’) who could only stay for a short time since he is in charge of the Stavanger Food Festival “Gladmat” which we will also be attending.
Nicole and I appreciated getting to know our relative who was the closest in age to us, Jorunn Søraas. (Her birth name is Sunde).
Jorunn told us the next time we come to Norway we need to come in time for May 17 which is Norwegian national day. They showed us the traditional embroidered dresses, or Bunad. They were beautiful featuring embroidery and regional designs and colors.
They often receive their Bunad on their Confirmation day and wear it for the rest of their lives on the national day, during Confirmations and weddings.
Our family was amazing, incredibly generous, and hospitable! They had purchased Norwegian open face sandwiches of shrimp; pork & sauerkraut; gravlax (salmon); beef; ham and pineapple; and turkey. Each was beautifully decorated with tomato, cucumber and (Hope’s favorite) plastic swords with prune or lemon garnish.
Many of the family members had brought home-made desserts such as chocolate cake with coconut; traditional Lefse with butter and sugar; apple filled puffed pastry; and what they called, “The World’s Best Cake” with layers of yellow cake, cream, and meringue topped with nuts. Kari Røynberg made the cake and Astrid Handegaard promised to send us the recipe. (We can’t wait to try our hands at this recipe someday!)
We showed them the video of Grandma Clara’s 100th Birthday Party and her holding up her favorite Krumkake.
We confirmed that all our relatives still make Krumkake at Christmas time and most do not fill them with cream. Happy to hear they are Krumkake purists like us! When they heard that my sister Andrea still uses one of the original cast iron Krumkake presses they were very impressed — many of them use electric presses.
The family farmland is no longer an active farm, but here is a panoramic view of the land itself:
The home we visited sits on the site of the old farm and it was built in 1970.
The farm area has a breathtaking view of the nearby Hafrsfjord Fjord which is where a famous Viking battle took place in 872 (see ‘Swords in Rock’ later in this blog).
As we walked to the Revheim Church, we were able to see the rock border wall of the family farm area, shown here.
The family farm was to the right of this border wall. They moved rocks out of the farmland to not only create the walls but as you can see, they needed to remove as many rocks as possible in order to farm in this soil.
Here is the a picture of the old family farm house taken in 1939:
The Revheim Church is 150 years old.
The inside of the church has rough wooden beam construction that has been sanded down.
Apparently the church was restored to its original look and feel after they had a fire (an arsonist had tried to burn it down years ago). Church members found a beautiful architectural altar backdrop with a painted triptych in the the attic and have now made that the focal point of the church behind the altar:
The triptych shows the infancy of Jesus, his Crucifixion, and Pentecost. It had a particularly meaningful and unique Old Norwegian phrase printed in black above the triptych (translated by the family):
“Jesus, Pull me up after you.”
Picture of the church baptismal font. Just imagine how many Norwegian relatives have been baptized in these waters!
While no one in the family currently attends this church, Jorunn said she did consider it her church since she was baptized and married here, and because her parents and many family members are buried in the church cemetery in the back.
Harmony sang the song “Good, Good Father” in the church while the family sat and took it all in. The acoustics of the church are lovely for music! We wish we could have heard the organ or attended a Sunday service.
As we walked through the church cemetery, they pointed out that surnames like “Sunde and Revheim” had come from the name of the regions in which people set up their farms. They simply adopted the regional name as their own surname.
Swords in Rock
Later we were invited by Margrethe Bryne (Grandma Clara’s Cousin — Margarethe’s mother Karin Sunde and and Agatha Vervick were sisters) and her son Torkel to her family home. On the way we stopped by a very famous monument. We had seen the “Swords in Rock” in pictures but it was amazing to see them in person. We had to look up the history of this place.
From Wikipedia: “Sverd i fjell (English: Swords in Rock) is a commemorative monument located in the Hafrsfjord neighborhood of Madla, a borough of the city of Stavanger in Rogaland county, Norway. The monument was created by sculptor Fritz Røed from Bryne and was unveiled by king Olav V of Norway in 1983. The three bronzeswords stand 10 metres (33 ft) tall and are planted into the rock of a small hill next to the fjord. They commemorate the historic Battle of Hafrsfjord that took place there in the year 872, when King Harald Fairhair gathered all of Norway under one crown.[1] The largest sword represents the victorious Harald, and the two smaller swords represent the defeated petty kings. The monument also represents peace, since the swords are planted into solid rock, so they may never be removed.”
When we got to the Bryne family home, we were amazed at the beauty of the place as it was right on the Gandsforden. They had a huge backyard and lawn that wrapped around the house all the way down to the fjord. We were all impressed by the robo-mower that automatically mows the grass daily, and even plugs itself in each night at a recharge station!
We were all drawn down to their dock and marveled at the view, the clear water, and sea creatures. We were even blessed by a pair of swans and their six cygnets. (It reminded us why Copenhagen Denmark writer, Hans Christian Anderson, wrote the “Ugly Duckling!”)
They swam right up to us to see if we had any food, swam around the dock eating fresh plants, and allowed us to take a ton of pictures. The girls were interested to see that the cygnets often swam with just one web foot and folded their other foot behind their back — at first we thought they were injured.
Torkel showed me a model replica of a sailing ship that his grandfather built.
He designed the steel hulled vessel called the “Reform” in 1893. He designed this four mast ship to have an engine (one of the first of its kind that was not a steam engine) in order to give the ship the ability to navigate in and out of harbors, raise and lower the anchor and even hoist the sails! But no engines in that day had enough horse power for the job, the largest being only 30 horse power. Thankfully he found a company who said that they could build him a ninety horse power engine, and that was sufficient for the task. Torkel showed me a historical book titled, “Stavanger Sjøfarts Historie” about the history of ships in the area and it contained a picture of the actual sailing ship his grandfather had built:
Margrethe served us more delicious sandwiches, plus four types of delicious desserts — including a cake roll with ice cream filling. Our girls were in dessert heaven! After enjoying the lovely spread, coffee, sparkling apple cider and tales of travel, we bid a fond farewell to Margrethe and Torkel.
Dream Come True
We feel absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude for the hospitality and warmth of the delightful family we got to meet today!
We know that we have honored our beloved Mother/ Grandma/ Great-Grandma Clara Moore who passed away in April, 2016 at 100 years old.
Clara Moore’s newspaper quote from 1953 rings true for this generation too: “Said Mrs. Moore, “It was a wonderful experience for both of us, and for mother, it was a dream come true, to see her old home and relatives again. She certainly has a wonderful family.”
Ryan,
Thanks for taking time to share your adventures. We’re enjoying the pictures, history lessons, and the fine writing. All the best to you and the family.
Thanks! We enjoy sharing with you!