Staff Contributor:
Mary B., Public Services Librarian
Hedberg Public Library's America 250 - Rock County continues on Tuesday, April 14 at 6 p.m. with From Fjords to Prairies: Norwegians in Rock County, presented by Dana Kelly, Executive Director of the Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library.
Wisconsin’s first Norwegian community began in 1838, at Jefferson Prairie in Rock County. Join us as Dana Kelly, Executive Director of the Norwegian American Genealogical Society & Naeseth Library, discusses conditions in Norway, migration to Wisconsin, and the communities these immigrants created in Luther Valley, Koshkonong, and beyond.
Dana Kelly is the Executive Director of the Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library. Her passion for family history led her to a Scandinavian Studies degree from UW-Madison, where she learned to speak, read, and write Norwegian. She serves on the board of directors for the Koshkonong Prairie Historical Society and Dane County Area Genealogical Society. Dana is a member of several Norwegian cultural and genealogical organizations including Sons of Norway, Vesterheim, Norwegian American Historical Association, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, Association of Professional Genealogists, and International Society of Online Genetic Genealogists.
Learn More:
- History of the Norwegian Settlements: A translated and expanded version of the 1908 De norske settlementers historie and the 1930 Den siste folkevandring sagastubber fra nybyggerlivet i Amerika
- Norwegians in Wisconsin
- “Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County”
- The Story of Luther Valley, A Pioneer Lutheran Church : Pioneer Lutheranism in America Beginning in 1844
- A Guide to Norwegian Genealogy, Emigration, and Transmigration