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Waffle Day

March 8, 2024

I’ve always loved waffles. Apparently, I’m not the only one. In Scandinavia people loved eating waffles so much that they invented a special holiday just to celebrate those crispy, golden pastries.

 

Waffle Day is celebrated on March 25, which is also the Feast of the Annunciation. Traditionally, waffles were eaten on this day. Gradually, the holiday lost its religious connotations. Nowadays folks in Scandinavia eat waffles all year round, but especially on Waffle Day.

 

Scandinavians, unlike Americans, usually don’t eat waffles for breakfast. They eat them at other times of the day as a snack. In Norway, folks often make a batch of waffles to serve when friends drop by for a visit. Children may make waffles as an after-school snack. My Norwegian grandmother made waffles to take along on picnics or camping trips.

 

In America, waffles are most often served with maple syrup, but folks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark top their waffles with jellies or preserves. The jam is frequently lingonberry, but my grandmother topped hers with homemade strawberry jelly. Whipping cream and fresh berries are other popular toppings in Scandinavia.

 

Norwegians, who love brown goat cheese, even put slices of cheese on top of the jam on their waffles. My grandfather, who was Swedish, liked to spread waffles with butter and then sprinkle sugar on top. Some Scandinavians even put Nutella on their waffles.

 

As you can see, there are lots of ways to enjoy waffles. There is, however, one no-no concerning waffles. Scandinavians never use a knife and fork to eat waffles. According to them, waffles are meant to be folded and eaten with your fingers – just like any other snack food.

 

Scandinavians eat heart-shaped waffles which require a special waffle iron. These irons make thinner and crisper waffles than the American style. European-style waffle irons are available from Amazon. If you’re not a purist, any waffle iron will work. Even if you don’t want to cook, your local Waffle House restaurant is always an option.

 

One of the best ways to create a link to our ancestors is to do something that they would have done. Eating some of the foods they enjoyed is an easy way to do this. With Waffle Day coming up in a couple of weeks, now is a good time to eat like a Scandinavian. For Waffle Day, you won’t even have to try yucky-tasting foods like lutefisk or pickled herring to get the authentic experience.

 

Even if your ancestors were not Scandinavian, you can still celebrate Waffle Day. Eating waffles is worth celebrating, no matter where your ancestors came from!

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

Famous Relatives

March 1, 2024

If you’re like me, occasionally you like to take a break from researching your genealogy. If so, Famous Relatives on Family Search is a great place to “play” with your family tree.

 

Famous Relatives is a way to see which well-known people might be your relatives. Just go to https://www.familysearch.org/ . At the top of the page, there will be a heading listing various areas of the website including Family Tree, Search, etc. Just click on the one called Activities. That will lead to a list of activities, one of which is Famous Relatives. You will need a Family Search account to access this feature, but that is free and easy to obtain on the Family Search website.

 

Once you’re signed in, just click on Famous Relatives. A list of famous folks to whom you are related will pop up. In my case, I had numerous hits including George Washington, Marie Antoinette, Helen Keller, and more.

 

Just looking at these famous folks you are supposedly related to is fun, but don’t get too excited about it. Most of these relatives are VERY distant. Cousins such as 12th cousin six times removed are typical of the results I got. Knowing that you’re King Charles of England’s 11th cousin, four times removed probably isn’t going to change your life much.

 

Then, there’s the accuracy question. The results you receive are based on the Family Search Family Tree. If you’ve looked at the tree, you’ll be aware that there are lots of errors. If there are errors on the tree, then your results on Famous Relatives will be wrong as well.

 

It can be entertaining to pick a famous person to whom you are supposedly related and check out how accurate the relationship is. If you’ve done a reasonable amount of research on your own family, you will probably have a good idea whether the ancestry the website shows for you is accurate or not. For example, Famous Relatives shows me related to Franklin D. Roosevelt. When I looked at my line back to FDR’s and my common ancestors, I immediately noted that my line was incorrect. The website showed me as descending from a woman who was my male ancestor’s second wife. I’m descended from his first wife. Since that second wife was the connection to FDR, it turns out I’m not related to him.

 

Even if the line that the website took to link you to a famous person is correct, you still might not be related. There may also be errors in the line from the famous person back to your common ancestors. Another famous person I’m supposedly related to is Alfred Nobel. I know absolutely nothing about his antecedents, other than he was Swedish. Some of my ancestors were also Swedish, but that doesn’t mean we’re related. To know for sure, I’d need to research Alfred’s ancestors. At this point, I’m not particularly interested in researching his family just to prove that we’re 10th cousins, four times removed.

 

Famous Relatives is still a fun way to spend an hour some day when you feel like taking a break from real genealogy. You never know who your next cousin might be.

 

Carol Stetser

Larimer County Genealogy Society

Researcher

Getting Back to Norwegian Research

February 23, 2024

After a hiatus of several years, I’m beginning a project to find out more about my Norwegian great grandparents and their families. Iver Christensen and his wife Mina Henrikke Kristiansdatter were born, lived, and died in Norway.

 

I’ve always known these great-grandparents’ names but not much else about them. Their daughter, my paternal grandmother Thea Rustad Fernelius, immigrated to the United States. I knew Thea, but her parents died long before I was born. My grandmother was a child herself when her parents died. She told me a couple of stories about them such as the time when her mother stitched a cut on her finger using embroidery thread. These sorts of stories added dimension to my grandmother’s life as well as her parents’ lives, but they didn’t tell me much about their families.

 

Years ago, I tried to do some research on my Norwegian ties. I learned that church records in Scandinavia are one of the best sources of information. Since the records were not digitized at that time, I made several trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake and used their microfilmed copies of the various Norwegian church records.

 

The records were not indexed and were, of course, in Norwegian. Even though I don’t speak Norwegian, the church records were straightforward, and I made progress in researching my grandmother’s immediate family including the birth dates, marriage dates and death dates of her parents and siblings. It was, though, slow going.

 

When I tried to research earlier generations, a combination of patronymic naming patterns, illegible handwriting, a foreign language, and my lack of access to the records overwhelmed me. I moved on to other, more easily researched lines. I haven’t looked at my Norwegian lines since then.

 

Things are different now. Norwegian church records are readily available online both through free and paid sites. Norwegian censuses can also be found at some of the same sites. In addition, I’d like to take a long overdue trip to Norway soon. It seems like the right time to dig into my grandmother’s family.

 

Before I started, I needed a crash course on Norwegian research. Although I’ve done some Norwegian research in the past, the advent of the internet has changed how records are accessed. Enter my old friend, the Family Search Wiki at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page . The Wiki is my go-to source when I don’t know exactly how to proceed on a project.

 

For this project, I merely entered “Norway Genealogy,” and a wealth of topics popped up. The Wiki has articles on everything from “Getting Started” to “Online Learning” to “Research Strategies.” There are maps galore showing counties and parishes in Norway. Best of all, there are links to various records available online. These links are for records available on Family Search as well as other websites.

 

I’m spending some time reviewing many of these articles. Once I’ve figured out what is available and where, I’ll devise a plan to research my forgotten Norwegian ancestors. My Norwegian ancestors are waiting.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society