Norwegian-American Studies

by RAGNAR STANDAL translated by C. A. CLAUSEN 7 Emigration from a Fjord District on Norway's West Coast, 1852-1915* The mained fy LKE unaffected (county) of by M0re the og waves Romsdal of migration long remained unaffected by the waves of migration from Norway and many scholars have wondered why this was so. The present study treats a part of this county, the kommune (municipality) of 0rsta, comprising the former municipalities of Hj0rundfjord, Vartdal, and 0rsta. Perhaps the findings presented here will shed light on some facets of the phenomenon in question. On the initiative of the Sunnm0re Historical Society, the Hj0rundfjord and 0rsta municipalities organized committees for the study of emigration history about 1960, while Vartdal tried to include emigration data in its bygdebok (community history). This material was made available to the author and was supplemented through correspondence and interviews. A fair amount of information was thus unearthed which would otherwise have been difficult to obtain. A study tour in the United States in 1978 for the purpose of discovering * In recent years many students in Norway have chosen some aspect of the immigration movement to America as thesis topics. This article is a summary of a thesis presented at the University of Trondheim in 1977, entitled "Utvandringa til Amerika fra Hj0rundfjord, Vartdal og 0rsta 1852-1915." 185 Ragnar Standal what might still be left of living tradition about the migration era also led to some impressive findings. This article will focus on three main questions: 1. Why did the emigration movement from Hjprundljord , Vartdal, and 0rsta begin so late? 2. Were there local variations within the three communities ? If so, is it possible to explain these variations? 3. Who returned to Norway? Why did they return? ADMINISTRATIVE SURVEY Before examining the emigration from Hjprundfjord, Vartdal, and 0rsta it may be in order to locate these three bygder (rural communities) on the map of Norway and to trace certain administrative alterations from earlier times to the present. The three communities are all found in Sunnm0re, the southernmost part of M0re og Romsdal - not far from the city of Alesund. Administratively Hj0rundf)ord has been the most independent of the three districts, presumably because it is the most isolated. Ecclesiastically, Hj0rundfjord formed a part of Volda parish until 1751, though it had its own fairly independent chaplain from 1589. The community also had its own lensmann (sheriff) from about the same period. It became a separate municipality in 1837 when a law permitting local self-government was enacted. In area, Hj0rundfjord is of medium size about 185 square miles, but by the year 1900 its population had barely reached 2,000. Vartdal is both the newest and the smallest of the three administrative units. It has at different times shared sheriffs with the two neighboring communities of Ulstein and 0rsta. Until 1895, when the community became a separate municipality, it had been a part of Ulstein . Not until 1877 did the people of Vartdal even have their own church. Vartdal is barely one-fourth as large in area as Hj0rundfjord and its population numbered about 700 at the turn of the century. 186 0R5TA Community of M0RE cr RomSDAL COUNTV©TOWNS «VILLAQES + CHURCHES ■4/ jifX er ROMSDAL 1} cou nty &3 ß> * V"J