Gudbrandsdalen

Greetings!

All this success finding the farms of the parents and grandparents of my Norwegian great-grandmother (Anne Marie Johnsdatter Soine) ignores the failure of mine to find anything about the parents and grandparents of my Norwegian great-grandfather (Julius Mikkelsen Leen). All I really know about him is that he told his family that his parents were from Gudbrandsdal, Norway.

Pat and I like to drive on back roads back home. Her family used to take long rides together on Sundays, and we've continued the tradition. Now that we're retired, we can go on any day, and today it was a long drive up into the mountains that provide the fjords, rivers, and valleys of central Norway (like Valdres and Gudbrandsdalen). A 400 kilometer drive to visit the general area from which I might have another batch of ancestors.

The Gudbrandsdalen valley is best known for the town of Lillehammer, the site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, at the south end of the valley. I chose to enter the valley near its northern end, after driving over some high and desolate mountain roads from the west in the summer. I can't imagine how cold and inhospitable they would be in winter. The pursuit of my great-grandfather's family will need much more research before I can have anywhere near the success I have had on this trip.

But so you can share the experience, here is a link to few photos we took:

Gudbrandsdalen