Turning Point

​Turning Point
 
Beginning in 1825 but concentrated between 1840 and 1920, over 1/3 of the Norwegian population emigrated to the United States.  My maternal grandparents and my infant mother were among those who came.  World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic were turning points in diminishing the flow of immigrants but even more impactful was the U. S. Immigration Act of 1924.  
My grandfather’s story begins in 1910 at the tail end of the great influx from Norway. 
 My grandmother and mother came in 1925, among the first to arrive after the Immigration Act changed the way people apply to come to the United States dramatically.  Ellis Island was closed, and immigrants got their visas in their own countries subject for the first time to quotas.
Still, their questions were the same and held in common with many immigrants, questions of identity, community, assimilation, language, religion.  
My Grandfather, Fredrik Hjelmeland worked as a day laborer and as an electrician in construction projects as he roamed the upper Midwest from 1910 to 1923.  In between this work he homesteaded 160 acres in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  His decisions about work and whether to return to Norway were influenced by world events but also by his status as the youngest son, unable to inherit the family farm and by his ambition.
My grandmother, Kristine Kristiansen Hjelmeland married Fredrik in Norway in 1923.  Fredrik returned to Waukegan Illinois immediately to begin work as an independent contractor.  Kristine came in 1925 with infant Odny to make a life in urban Illinois.  Kristine Finding Home is the story of her immigration and the turning points both in their individual lives but also the history of Norwegian immigration.