Linda Stafford

The Berg and Larson Families: from Telemark, Norway to America Volume I Linda Stafford

This genealogy of The Berg & Larson Families from Telemark, Norway to America was so large, it was split into two volumes. The first volume describes the Sigur Larson family on the Jonsaas farm about 1800 in Sauherad, Telemark, Norway. One of the daughters Anne married Halvor in 1814 and they lived on the Berg farm which was a small part of the Jonsaas farm. In 1851 the widow Anne Sigursdatter Berg age 68 and three of her five grown children, Kari, Halvor, and Peter Berg immigrated to Muskego, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee). Anne died of cholera shortly after arriving and the three children then moved to the Long Prairie Norwegian Settlement in Boone County, Illinois. They were joined by a fourth sibling, Sigur Berg, and his family in 1853. While in the Long Prairie Settlement the Bergs met Soren Larson from Seljord, Telemark, Norway and his two children, Margit and Halvor. Two of the Bergs married the two Larson children so all the Larson descendants in this book are also Bergs: Halvor Berg married Margit Larson in 1855 and Kari Berg married Halvor Larson in 1856. By 1863 the three brothers, Sigur, Halvor, & Peter Berg and their families had moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota and their sister, Kari, and her husband, Halvor Larson, had moved to Winnebago County, Iowa. The third generation of Norwegians migrated to western Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Washington. The second volume will describe the fourth and fifth generations.