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Note: Hermund and his wife Christi were first cousins. Christi's mother. Martha, and Hermund's father, John, were siblings.
After Christi's parents died when she was a young girl, her brother Ole and her were raised by her aunt Inga Olsdatter Tallehagan and Inga's husband Lars. Inga and Lars had no children.
Sogndal is two miles from the town of Barsnes. Both are situated at an inner fjord in southwestern Norway.
From the book, Look to the Rock....the Urness/Barsness Episode by Ann Urness Gesme, copyright 1988, 413 pages, recorded with the Library of Congress
Excerpt from pages 275-276 As the second son, Hermund had no prospect of inheriting property, and opportunities for gainful employment were scarce. To understand the situation he faced when he was ready to become self-supporting, we must consider conditions in Norway at that time. For the first six years of his life Hermund was a subject of the King of Denmark. He was born the year after the declaration of war between Great Britain and Denmark-Norway, and during the war years (1807-1814) Norway was in the throes of famine and poverty. Several years of crop failure corresponded with the war, making food shortages critical. The war ended in 1814, but not the suffering of the people. They were impoverished, isolated, and backward economically as well as intellectually. Since Norway was on the losing side of the war that ended in 1814, the country became a pawn in the settlement at the war's end, and was given to Sweden. In 1818, Karl Johan became king of Sweden and Norway, but conditions in Norway remained as before. Under her new king, Norway experienced severe economic depression and bankruptcies were numerous, particularly in the eastern and southern part of the country. Bitter resentment toward the new government prevailed and hard times continued. By the time Hermund was confirmed, prospects for employment were poor in much of the country, but some opportunities existed in Bergen. Fisheries prospered, shipping did quite well, and ship building was on the increase. Another opportunity for employment was in the distilleries, as they continued to prosper when most other industries were at a standstill. I (the author) was told by one of Hermund's grandchildren that he was a brewer while living in Norway. No references to his ever being a brewer are made in any of the Norwegian records I examined; however, it is possible that he worked in a distillery at one time. In light of the economic conditions in Norway during the 1820s and 1830s it is not surprising to find Hermund living in Bergen at that time. Generally speaking, the peasant population of Norway spent their entire lifetime in the community where they were born; but at the time Hermund was young, it was necessary to venture away from the home district to find work. Although Bergen was a considerable distance from Luster, it was relatively easy to get there from Luster. Reina, Hermund's home at Nes, was just a short distance from the edge of the fjord, where Hermund could board a boat to travel all the way to Bergen. In Bergen he found a place to live on a narrow alley near the wharves, at road 14, #31, now identified as Dampesmuget #10. From this address we can assume he worked in a seafaring or shipbuilding occupation if not in one of the distilleries. It was in Bergen that Hermund was living when his marriage to Christi Pedersdatter was recorded at the cathedral there in April 1832.
Excerpt from page 281 Sometime between Peder's birth in 1841 and Inger Marthine's confirmation in 1847, the family moved to the farm in Sogndal known as Barsnes. This was a large farm located on a peninsula in the Barsnesfjord. It was a large farm for Norway, containing about 100 acres. The name is probably derived from a man named "Baldrek" who once lived on that peninsula. It was identified as Baldrek's nes, which eventually was shortened to Barsnes. Here is where our ancestors lived when the family reached a decision to emigrate. The middle of the nineteenth century found many people emigrating from Inner Sogn in Norway. In 1854 two families from Barsnes left Norway and sailed to America, where they settled in Vermont township, Dane Co., Wisconsin. In 1854 and 1855, forty-five people left the Barsness farm to emigrate; among them, Hermund, Christi, and their five children. The following year, 1856, church records show that more than 120 people from Sogndal signed out of the parish, leaving Norway to find new homes in the United States of America.
According to Dane Co., Wisconsin records, Hermund Johnsen became Hermund Barsness in 1867.
A genetic relationship is probable between some or most of the 25 families who immigrated to the U.S. from the Barsnes farm in the 1850s.
Farm no. 3, farm name is Barsnes, Stedje parish, Sogndal municipality, Nordre Bergenhus amt Co. Listen over g?rder er hentet fra "Norske Gaardnavne". v.12, p.83 3. Barsnes. Udt. ba:1snes. -- Barssnes NRJ. III 391. 392. Baldighsnes eller Barissnes1 NRJ. IV 482 (VL.). Bardesnes 1563. Baresness 1567. Barrisnes 1603. Barisness 1611. Baaridznes, Baridznes 1666. Baritsnes 1723.
Maaske *Baldreksnes, indeholdende Gen. af et Mandsnavn *Bald- rekr, hvorom se under Kinn GN. 4. Samme Bortfald af r som i Baldighs- NRJ. IV 482 haves t. Ex. i Godhigstadir AB. 43, nu Gaustad, i H?- landet, af Mandsnavnet Gu?r?kr (Go?rekr). Udtalen med Enstavelses- tone viser ialfald, at bas- er opstaaet af et Ord med to Stavelser, hvad ogsaa n?sten alle ?ldre Former vise Spor af.
Source: BLACK EARTH. By Clarence Burnett and A. J. Fullerton In the year 1856, the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, now Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, reached Black Earth. It was the original intention of the managers to put up a large depot, round house, etc., provided the land could be procured at reasonable figures. The owner of that land, in his cupidity, demanded an exorbitant sum for the ground desired, which so enraged the company's management that they refused to do more than put in a side track, and the citizens were compelled to erect the first depot building.
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