March 12, 2007

Bjugstad Family Connection in Guatemala

These are the types of connections that can only be made over a Sunday cup of coffee in places like Sheyenne, ND or in an Arizona snow-bird refugee camps. Allyson Phelps sent me an email a few months ago to say that we were probably related. She is serving in the Peace Corps municipal development program and arrived to Guatemala in September 2005, about 4 months before we did, so we hadn't ever met but shared common friends. A few weeks ago we went out to lunch in Guatemala City to sort things out. Here's the linage we came up with, maybe someone will find it interesting enough for the family history books. If anyone has anything to add, you can leave a comment on this post.

>Corby Lewis, Peace Corps Volunteer (Jan 2006-now) in Salacuim,
Cobán, Alta Verapaz
--->David Lewis
----->Marian Kruger
------->Bernice Bjugstad
--------->Andrew Borreson Bjugstad and Johanna Julseth
------->George "Judd" Bjugstad
----->Wilmer Bjugstad
--->Erica Bjugstad
>Allyson Phelps, Peace Corps Volunteer (Sept 2005-now) in San
Raymundo, Guatemala

IMG_2124
Allyson and I after lunch in Guatemala City

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How exciting, Corby. I just sent your great great grandparents names to your regular email.M Kruger

Anonymous said...

We are proud of the effort made by you and Allyson to connect! It is a small world. I look forward to gggrandparent names! Erica Bjugstad Phelps

Unknown said...

This is an amazing bit of information from my great aunt...

I can fill in your great great grandparents. They were Andrew Borreson Bjugstad and Johanna Julseth. When Dawn and I were in Norway summer 2005 we visited the farm where Johanna had grown up and saw a monument in Trondheim where her name had been added as an emigrant to America. Marian's cousin in Mpls, Ed Oliver, contributed $100 to have her name added to the monument. It's on the waterfront. We also visited 3 of Stan and Marian's second cousins. I'll try to send pictures sometime soon. We also were able to hunt up and visit the farm that Andrew walked away from when he came to America. High up with a gorgeous valley below. His name was Johannes Andreas Borreson Bjugstad. Of course back then Johanna lived ON Julseth and Andrew lived ON Bjugstad. Borres was Andrew's father's name hence his family names became Borreson, Borre's son. We also have records from Johanna's church that takes her ancestors back to the 1400's and Andrew's family from some people who have done family trees online. Course in genealogy a record is most valuable when backed up by two sources of primary documents (birth cert, death cert, passenger lists, etc.)

Anonymous said...

My mother is a Bjugstad and therefore when working on family history, I have looked at all of the emigrations from the Bjugstad farms in Vardal, Norway. You can find a photo of Andrew and Johanna's family at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~larsonmorgan/Larson/photos/Bjugstad, Andrew-Johanna family photo.html.
When my great-great-great grandfather was ready to retire in 1863, he sold his portion of the West Bjugstad farm to Andrew's father, Børre Amundsen.