Are you of Norwegian descent? Especially Norwegians who came to the Pacific Northwest? Are you aware of the fabulous National Nordic Museum in Seattle?? WOW, you say?

Located in NW Seattle, close to the water, this museum offers so much of interest to those of Nordic descent and those (like me) who are not. Here’s a snip from their website:

Five countries, twelve thousand years  —  At the Museum, you’ll visit five distinct galleries with selections from our permanent collection and more than 100 objects on loan from the national museums of all five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.) Whether you want to be transported to the Viking-era or explore twentieth-century modern design, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

You just must visit their website to see what all the Nordic Museum offers:  www.nordicmuseum.org.  Right now, until June 30, there is a really special artwork display: “….an immersive artwork…. specifically crafter for the museum and illumimating the natural ocean connections between Seattle and its Nordic sister city, Reykjavik.” “To immerse guests into a marine atmosphere, the scent of seaweed harvested from the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans will be tinctured, distilled and dispersed through the room.”  I want to go!!

The Ellis Island tidbits come via a query posted to the Washington State Genealogical Society and from a lady in one of my classes: Steve asked “if 1st and 2nd class ships’ passengers to New York disembarked “at the pier” and the ship then went to Ellis Island to unload 3rd class passengers for screening…..what about the upper classes’ servants (nannies, maids, valets, wet nurses, etc)? Did they disembark with their employers? And would they be on the passenger lists?”  The answer to Steve was advising him to click to this site:http://immigrationinmy.weebly.com/the-experience-at-ellis-island.htmlI answered the other question, posed in my beginner’s class, that Ellis Island opened in 1892 and prior to that the records would be at Castle Garden. WELL!  This lady found her ancestor coming from France into Ellis Island in 1889! Doing some fact-checking for her, I found that yes, indeed, there were some immigrants who somehow came through Ellis Island prior to its official opening. 

Don’t we learn something every single day if we but keep our eyes and mind open??