Sevrin Gjerde & the English Plate

Sevrin Gjerde was my grandmother's brother.

Sevrin was born in Norway in 1871.

In 1899 he took over the Gjerde farm

from his brother Ole, who had immigrated to the United States.

Sevrin married Elen Olsdatter Borstad in 1901.

In December, 1901, Sevrin died.

He was only 30 years old.

Until recently, relatives in Minnesota believed that
Sevrinhad died as a result of a shipwreck.
The story that Esther & Mom told me was that
Sevrin had been to England.
While he was there, he bought a set of dishes
for his wife for Christmas. . .but on his way back to Norway
the ship sank and Sevrin died.
When items were retrieved from theship, the
dishes were brought to Elen.
According to Esther & Mom, that is
the story their mother told them.

Relatives in Norway are adamant that Sevrin

died at home, in his own bed, of pneumonia.

So how did the relatives here have

this information so wrong?

In December, 1901, there was a shipwreck off the

coast of Norway.

It is a fact that Sevrin had bought a set of dishes

to give Elen for Christmas and they were on the ship.

At about the same time, Sevrin came down with pneumonia and died.

It is very likely that grandma told the story to her children

and something was lost in the translation.  The children

heard "shipwreck" "Uncle Sevrin died" and

"dishes were later delivered to Elen."

Whatever the actual facts are,

it makes for an interesting story.

The plate pictured above is part of the set that

was retrieved from the ship.  Grandma's brother Ole

returned to Norway for a visit and brought it back for her.

The plate had a special place on the table each

Christmas - grandma would serve lutefisk on it!

Uff-dah!

I now have the plate, but I don't use it.

You can see it's cracked and in poor condition;

for an old plate, it has a pretty sad story!