by Brian Birk

Created on: December 26, 2008

In the late 1800s there was a young man serving in the army of Norway who had fallen in love with a young woman. The woman's parents decided to move to America. The young man asked the young woman if she would marry him and stay in Norway and she agreed. There was one complication.

Soldiers could not get married without their captain's permission. The captain said no. The woman moved to America with her parents.

How could a young soldier get to America? There was no way his captain would give him permission for that and even if he did, he didn't have enough money to book a spot on a ship. He needed to come up with a plan and he did.

His brother was a sailor. You could tell that he was a sailor by taking one look at his hands. Sailors were always pulling on ropes. They hoisted sails tied them off and repositioned them each time the ship needed to be turned. A ship captain could take one look at a person's hands and tell whether or not that person was a sailor.

His brother went to the docks, found a ship that would soon be departing to America and signed on as a member of the crew. On the morning of departure the soldier boarded the ship instead of his brother. The crew and the captain realized that the soldier was no sailor soon after the ship departed. They were under way, and there was no way they were turning back, so they put the soldier to work as part of the crew.

The captain had sailed to America before. Crew members had sometimes deserted the ship once they arrived in America. If the captain wanted a crew to sail the ship back to Norway, then he had to take precautions. He posted an armed guard on the gangway leading to the dock for the duration of the ship's stay in America. The soldier climbed down the anchor chain in the middle of the night and swam to the shore.

He had broken the laws of two countries. He had deserted the Norwegian Army and he had entered the United States in an unlawful fashion. He was able to find Norwegian speaking people. He made his way to Chicago where he found the young lady. He found work, married her, and they eventually home steaded in North Dakota.

She was the mother of about half of his thirteen children. After she died he married my great grandmother. He was my great grandfather. That makes me a descendant of an illegal, or undocumented alien. My last name would be different from the name I have today if he had entered the country legally. He shortened his last name as many people did, but he did it as a way of hiding his previous identity.

I know there was no department of homeland security back then. I'm not sure if green cards existed, but if they did he didn't have one. I don't know if he had reason to be concerned about United States authorities discovering what he did, but I know that he worried about Norwegian authorities coming to this country and charging him with desertion. It never happened.

He was a success as a farmer. He had land in North Dakota and in Canada, and in the winters he farmed in Cuba.

When Americans trace their history back far enough they eventually find an immigrant. Native Americans are no exception. Anthropologists have a theory that says the ancestors of today's Native Americans walked across a land bridge between Asia and North America many years ago. Some of us know something about the history of the immigrant who proceeded us and some do not. I'm glad I found out about the history of my great grandfather. I'm glad for the opportunity to share it with you, and I will pass the story along to my grandson who was born three weeks ago today.

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