Bakka in Naeroyfjord
bakkefamily5Hello....I am new to this forum. I have a family tree on our surname that traces our family back to Norway and then some...back to about 1500. Our great-great grandfather was the only one of 4 children to immigrate to the US from Norway. I am hoping that I can locate some of his siblings' descendants, however the naming rules are very confusing to me and I am having problems. I am under the assumption that our family is from Bakka, which is located in the most narrow point of the Naeroyfjord, which you will see if you take a boat from Aurland to Gudvangen through the Naeroyfjord. There is a church there (The Bakke Church) and about 4 families or farms. I guess my question would be "is there anyone familiar with this area, that might know any info about the people there or the church and the cemetery?" Also, is it possible to get in contact with someone in such a small village to answer questions to see if I can link our family to the people living there, or to answer questions about people buried there to see if I can make a match? If anyone else has traced their family to this farm, please visit www.bakkefamily.net to see a simple family tree of ours, and let me know if you see any familiar names. Thanks!
HopkinsThe church records for the area of Nærøy parish, Aurland clerical district in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway are available on LDS microfilm. That would be an excellent resource to use to try to verify the information and family links that you have. The LDS library catalog (familysearch.org) indicates that church records for that area as early as 1716 have been copied to microfilm and you can order and use them at the nearest LDS Family History Center to your location. The cemetery would not be "perpetual care" and therefore probably not useful for your purposes. Anfinn Pedersen should be about 17 or 18 years old in the 1865 Norwegian census (if he hasn't already emigrated) and this MIGHT be him working as a servant/hired man on the Ramsø farm. http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=f61421&gardpostnr=379&sokefelt=skjul The 1865 census for Aurland lists farms in Nærøen (Nærøy) by the names of Dyrdal, Tufte, Bakke, Styve, Skjerping, Hemre. Anfin's father and mother still residing on one of the Bakke farms in 1865 - http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=f61421&gardpostnr=377&sokefelt=skjul Possibly his grandparents living (farm listed as Hemrj in this census) from the 1801 Norwegian census - http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=f11421&gardpostnr=49&sokefelt=skjul In addition to the articles available at this website which can help you understand naming practices, etc. this is another good study resource - http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/articles.html