Nancy Keating visits roots in Skien
Nancy Keating and her husband John from North Dakota were part of the Juven tourgroup that visited Skien and Telemark in August 2008. Nancy has many relatives in Telemark, and before they came here Telemark Heritage was asked to find relatives and try to arrange a meeting in Skien.
Nancy's relatives in Skien and Porsgrunn are descendants of Gunhild Thorstensen, born in 1881, and her husband Oluf Karinuss Aaltvedt, born in 1875. Nancy Keating has been to Norway before, 37 years ago. Then she met her cousin Aase Aaltvedt Andresen (85), and now they met again. They had a very pleasant visit, looking at pictures and telling each other about how relatives in Norway and in the U.S. were doing.
Together with Aase Aaltvedt Andresen were her niece Karin Aaltvedt Jensen and husband Harald from Porsgrunn, her daughters Inger Rygh from Skien and Anne Andresen from Porsgrunn. Granddaughter Frøya Myrxdottir also joined the visit. The local newspaper Telemarkavisa was there and had an interview with the people visiting.
Nancy Keating also had a visit with her cousin Johannes Aaltvedt in Porsgrunn. Johannes has all his life been working at Herøya port in Porsgrunn, and he told many interesting stories from "the good old days" at Herøya.