Scandinavian Club of Manawatu Inc.
Ullern Church, Sør Odal, Odalen, Hedmark county, Norway
Ullern Church, at Sør Odal, Odalen, in Hedmark county, Norway, was built in 1868 and was the fourth or fifth church on the site since between 1100 and 1300 AD.
On a Sunday in October 1870, just after the church service, a recruiting agent appeared outside this church and preached the virtues of migration to New Zealand. As a result, six families from the district became the first to migrate to New Zealand, aboard the Celaeno, in late 1870. This number included three couples that married two days before embarkation.
Quite a few other families from the parish followed over the next several years, until in 1876 the New Zealand Government abruptly ceased assisting Northern European migrants due to costly assimilation difficulties. (Photo: Tom Halvorsen, Årnes, Norway, August 1999)