Request for Info on Alpa, Norway
jeffohl	On my grandmother's petition for US citizenship, she listed "Alpa, Stigens, Prestigjeld, Norway as her husband's birthplace. I cannot find this town and do not understand how the towns, counties, etc. relate. For example, is Stigens a city and is Prestigjeld a county or district or what? I will appreciate any help in this area as it is key to writing my mother's biography. Thank you. Jeff.
Trond	This must be Alpøya, Steigen parish, Nordland (County), located north of Bodø in the Lofotfjord. Differents spelling is Alpø, Alpøen, Steigen, Stegen [url="http://www.finn.no/finn/map?utmx=493513&utmy=7518270&mapTitle=ALPØY+3,+8283%20Leinesfjord"]Alpøya[/url]
kaare n	Can you give us some birth dates and some names. Kåre
Hopkins	Prestegjeld is a 'clerical district'. In earlier records Norway was divided into sokn/sogn = parish and there were usually several parishes in each prestegjeld = clerical district. We English speakers usually say that Norway is divided into 'counties' - but think of them as more like Canadian provinces or Swiss cantons ("state" is a bad comparison because state usually means an entire country outside the US). So 'fylke' (the Norwegian word) = county/province. Before they used the word 'fylke' - they called the largest administrative divisions of the country 'amt' and much earlier than that it was 'stift' (but I think that has it's source in church organizational structure -- I could be very wrong). I'm not going to attempt to explain the current modern administrative divisions of Norway - I goof that up every time I try. Sometimes our Norwegian emigrant ancestors said they were from a town called 'such-and-such' when actually they were from a farm or closely grouped set of farms called 'such-and-such'. And some of those farm clusters in Norway were probably actually larger than the tiniest little town in the US midwest where they moved to - so it seemed right to explain it that way to the kids. My own Grandmother always said she was from Bergen - actually she only boarded the ship to leave from the port of Bergen. She was born far away from Bergen. I think she didn't understand the question - she probably wasn't asked 'Where were you born?' but 'Where did you come from?'. English is tricky that way.