May 30, 2025
You never know what you’ll find when you do genealogy. Just this week I realized that I’ve never really known the name of the city where my paternal grandmother grew up and lived until she was twenty-seven. I thought I knew that it was Oslo, Norway. Turns out I was wrong.
My paternal grandmother, Thea Rustad, was born just outside of Oslo. When she was a toddler, the family moved into the city. Thea grew up in the city and lived there until she immigrated to the United States in 1914.
Thea married Victor Fernelius in 1918, and she lived the remainder of her life on the Fernelius Family Farm at the mouth of Weber Canyon in Utah. Her children and grandchildren were born there. For them, Thea’s urban life in Norway was the stuff of fairy tales. Thea entertained the grandchildren with tales of her childhood in the big city.
The Rustad Family lived in a series of apartments in the older section of Oslo. Most of the apartment buildings were large with four or five stories. The Rustad’s usually lived on one of the upper floors. One of Thea’s stories was about her passion for reading. After everyone else was asleep, she often crept out the window to sit on the fire escape. There was a streetlight near the window, and Thea would snuggle into a shawl and read by its light for hours.
As she grew older, Thea was a good student. She decided that she wanted to continue her schooling and become a teacher. Her father promised that he’d find the money for her further education. It was not to be. Thea’s mother died of consumption when Thea was only ten years old. By the time she was fourteen, her father and older brother had also died of the disease.
When their father died, Thea’s youngest brother was only seven years old. Her older sisters were determined that the family should stick together. The older children got jobs to ensure that the family could stay in their apartment. There was no money for Thea’s further education. She became a salesclerk instead of a teacher.
When Thea told these stories of her youth, she always referred to her hometown as Oslo. My cousins and I grew up telling everyone that our grandmother was from Oslo. Most of the family trees on the internet list her family as being from Oslo. I recently learned that all of us were wrong. When my grandmother lived there, the capitol of Norway was not Oslo, although it was the same city.
The city was founded in 1040. It was called Ánslo then. In 1624, during King Christian IV’s reign, a fire destroyed much of the city. The king was instrumental in rebuilding the city, and the city’s name was changed to honor him. Christiania became Kristiania in 1877 due to an official spelling reform.
Kristiania’s name was changed to Oslo in 1925 – one hundred years ago this year. The city is planning a big celebration of the name change this summer. However,during the entire time that my grandmother lived there, there was no Oslo. She lived in Kristiania. Her younger siblings were born there. Her parents died there. She boarded a ship to America from Kristiania.
My grandmother often talked of her life in Norway. Surprisingly, she never mentioned the name Kristiania even once. She always referred to her life in Oslo.
By the time Oslo came into being, Thea had lived in Utah for more than a decade. I don’t know why she never used the name Kristiania. It’s a mystery that probably will go unsolved.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society