Skallevoldveien
Skallevold Vestfold Roots
Data

Vestfold Roots

Skallevold History

Walløe History

Bjerke History

Brick Walls

Links

Ithaca Area

Contact
Welcome ...og en hjertlig velkommen til alle besøkender, venner og familie fra Norge! This homepage is to share with you some of our history, in hopes to find more family connections and to perhaps inspire others to also delve into their Norwegian roots. Norsk Bunad
seter

Our American family name of Skalwold comes from our immigrant ancestor’s original surname, Skallevold, which was his forbearer’s farm. Why the spelling difference? The immigration officer at Ellis Island, with an imperious sweep of his pen, made a permanent change to it in 1904.

Norwegians used a patronymic system of names (a surname derived from the given name of the father). They also commonly added a locality name, that is, the name of the farm they owned or were born on. This custom lasted right up to the 1900's. Our ancestors at Skallevoll took it for a final last name.

Again you notice a spelling difference: Skallevoll or Skallevold. "ll" is from the Norwegian and "ld" is from the Danish influence on Norwegian language. Depending on the source, both spellings will be seen. "Skallevold" has been chosen in my writing because it most resembles our name here, and is in fact easier to pronounce than what the immigration officer came up with.

Skallevold is only half of the story. This Skallevold met another Norwegian soon after he arrived and discovered she grew up in the same hometown of Horten in Vestfold County. She was a Bjerke, daughter of a sea captain named Bjerke and a mother descended from the Walløe ship building family in Vestfold. They courted, married and started a new Skallevold clan, joining the growing numbers of Norwegian Americans here in North America. Their descendants take pride in both of their cultures and try to keep alive their Nowegian roots.



This site is dedicated in loving memory of Helen

A child of Skallevold's farms and woods, more than 90 years past.



No ser eg atter slike fjell og dalar
som dei eg i min fyrste ungdom såg,
og same vind den heite panna svaler,
og gullet ligg på snø som før det låg.
Det er eit barnmål som til meg taler
og gjer meg tankefull, men endå fjåg.
Med ungdomsminne er den tala blanda,
det strøymer på meg så eg knapt kan anda.

Excerpt from Ved Rondane, by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818-1817)

(Now I see again such mountains and valleys
as I saw in my earliest youth,
and the same wind that cools the hot brow,
and the gold lay on the snow as it lay before.
It’s a child’s language that speaks to me
and makes me thoughtful but hesitant.
With youthful memories are these thoughts blended,
it streams on me so I almost can’t breath.)



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Updated 28 December, 2003