Emigration
The four emigrants photographed together in Minneapolis.
Sine came to the US in 1916, so it is probably taken not too long after she arrived .
From left to right: Gina, Hans Kristian, Sine and Jakob
As the farms in the area were small, the life was often a struggle of how to get enough income to feed your family.
There were often many children on the farms and if they could not marry someone who owned a farm, they would face an uncertain future.
The emigration to America had started back in 1825, and already many young people from the Sokndal area had left. The hope of a better future across the Atlantic was high in many young minds, and most of those who went over did well, as they were used to hard work and to content themselves with little.
Still there must have been many heart-breaking scenes with break-ups of families and the uncertainty of whether they would ever see each other again.
Between the years of 1840-1930 more than 800.000 people emigrated from Norway, making this the second biggest emigration rate compared to the population, only beaten by Ireland. In 1910 it is assumed that 279.600 Norwegians lived in Minnesota alone.
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