HOMME FARM:

Up and down The Dales and Morgedal valley, snow piled deep around farmhouses filled with folks shaking out their cushions and sweeping every corner looking for lost coins, counting their assets, selling off valuables to raise money for travel.

At Homme, as Jon and Birgit hammered out their plans to emigrate, their traveling party began to snowball. Old Guro, though seventy-six years old, still insisted on coming along, and produced three antique silver spoons to pay her passage. Her housegirl, Signe, had been guarding a bagful of coins, her life's savings. One evening she counted them out, and beamed at the tally. Enough for a one-way ticket. Grinning, she poured them back in the bag and gave it a satisfied shake. The jingle sang of possibilities.

Halvor Lamefoot decided that rather than buy Jon out of his stake in Homme, he'd go along on the adventure as well. Younger brothers Sveinung and Steinar pitched in together to purchase the farm at half price. Their father declared he was included in Homme's package deal. "I'm staying put," Torjus said and pounded his fist on the table, shaking the crockery. "You get Homme's Crest and its shadow, and you get me."

Birgit's twenty-five-year-old nephew Knut Andresson looked crestfallen. "We'd hoped to accompany you," he told Birgit, an arm around his bride, the widow from Huvestad. "I think we have found a buyer for Huvestad, but the purchase won't close anytime soon. We'll have to follow next year."

Knut's two-year-younger brother Bjørn came up with enough money to buy passage for himself and his sixteen-year-old sister Anniken. When they broke the news to their parents, Andres grudgingly admitted, "If you prosper there in Amerika, we may come join you. Watch out for your sister," he told Bjørn.

Anniken crossed her arms and scowled.

Andres wrapped her in a hug. "And you, my strong-willed Valkyrie, watch out for your brother. Keep him in line!"

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Jon's brother Halvor was said to have emigrated, too, but no date is mentioned. In Jon and Birgit's party is an Ola of the same age as Halvor. Same person, going by a nickname? (Source in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Homme 12.)

Torjus Halvorsson – Jon's father, and Liv Steinarsdotter's only son -- died at Homme, but here is an obvious mistake in the records. His death date is given as 1749 – 16 years before his birth! If the actual death date is 1849, then he continued on at Homme with his youngest sons for six years until his death. (Source in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Homme 11.)

Knut Andresson and his wife, the widow of Gunnhild's brother Bjørgulv, traveled to America in 1844 with three children. Bjørgulv had two children, so Knut and his wife must have had a child within a year after marrying. (Sources in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Dalen 41; note appearing after Dalen 52 & 53; Berge 67).

Birgit's brother Andres, his wife Kari, and his youngest daughter eventually emigrated in 1854, though four of their intermediate children remained behind. (Source in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: note after Brekke 18.)

Birgit's brother Sveinung had five children. Four of them would eventually emigrate to America, although no dates are given. (Sources in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Brekke 19, 21, 22, & 23.)

There are two Anne's listed in Jon's company aboardship with no additional personal information except their ages. Anne of Byggland at 26 is the same age as one of them, so seems a likely match. Andres' daughter's age is just right for the other, though Brekke 14 doesn't say she emigrated. But Brekke 12 does list her brother Bjørn as emigrating in 1843, and there's a Bjørn of that age in Jon's group.

There was an Ingebjørg of the Huvestad lineage mentioned as emigrating to America, though the date may be another typo. It says 1824, but there were no immigrant ships that year. Her age matches that of the Ingebjørg listed in Jon's party. (Source in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Huvestad 92.) She was a distant cousin of Bjørgulv's widow (now married to Knut Andresson).

Jon's younger brother Sveinung Homme died at Støyle in 1845, leaving two daughters and a son. His widow remarried, and with her second husband and the three children emigrated to America in 1861. (Sources in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Homme 16, and notes after Homme 22-24.)

Jon's Aunt Anne at Loupedalen had a son Torjus, thirty years older than Jon. Torjus' son Vetle (Jon's cousin once removed) and his wife and two-year-old son also emigrated in 1843, but their names don't appear on ships' lists accompanying either Jon's party or Gunnhild's. However, aboard the ship Jon sailed on were a number of passengers simply ticked off as members of groups, unnamed. Perhaps Vetle was on board after all. Who knows! (Source in Kviteseid Bygdesoge: Loupedalen 58.)