As a rule, if you or your family use "Klemesrud" (no
t), you are a descendant of Knud (1834). If you use
"Klemetsrud", you are a descendant of Herman (1838).
Confirm your connection using the documents below.
In Norway, "Klemmetsrud"s (mm) are distantly related
(pre-Klemmetsrud farm), and "Klemetsrud"s (m) are
not related.
Not far from this
Hedal stave church
in Valdres, Norway
is the north Klemmetsrud farm which
Herman Syversen
Bøen purchased
in 1820. As was
tradition, the family adopted the name. Someone named
Klemmet probably started the farm some time between the
Viking Age and the
Black Death (1066-1349),
most likely in the 1200s. Rud is a
very old Norse word for a land clearing or pasture. So the name
basically means Klemmet's Farm. The Klemmet name comes from the
Latin word Clemens which means mercy as in clemency. Others have
adopted versions of the Klemmetsrud name,
but they are not necessarily related to Herman
Syversen
Klemmetsrud (1790-1877) and his wife, Kari Knudsdatter (1797-1891).
Herman &
Kari had four surviving children. Marit (1825),
Syver
(1829), Knud (1834), Herman (1838), and their parents all left for
America between 1857 and 1882. Their grandparents lived at the farm
too, but they died before this time. The farm was sold in 1882 and
no one in this Nørdre Klemmetsrud lineage remained in Norway.
Klemmetsruds from the middle and south parts of the farm arrived at
this location separately, and coincidently, are distantly related
through a connection traced back to the 1600s. There are also places
near Oslo with the Klemetsrud name but they have no connection to
the Klemmetsruds of Hedalen.
Daughter Marit migrated with her family in 1857. A record shows them
in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin in 1860.
Sons Herman and Knud migrated to Black Earth, Wisconsin
in 1866. They arrived with their families in the spring and summer
respectively. When
parents Herman & Kari came two years later they went with their son
Herman to Hickory Grove, Wisconsin, where son Herman bought land,
built a home, helped construct the church, taught religion in
school, worked as church precentor and choirmaster, and served on
the town board. In 1880, three years after the elder Herman had passed away, they moved
to the Ada and Twin Valley area in MN. A
majority of the descendants, however, ended up in the Rock Creek settlement near Osage
Iowa called Meroa. Knud made the move there in 1868. His brother
Syver arrived in 1882. The
History
of Meroa was documented by Gertrude Norby-Crowell in 1977. The
Knud Klemesrud page and the
Photo Gallery have information as well.
Through this website I hope to
share all the interesting stories about the ancesters and
descendants of those who lived at Nørdre Klemmetsrud. The
Before Klemmetsrud page is rich in
history. "An Unusual Ancestor -
A Love Story" is of special note. We are fortunate to have this
kind of detail from so long ago.
Early History from the
Bygdebok: On Klemmetsrud the abandoned times after
the Black Death lasted until the 1670s. Arne Bjørnsen Dølve
(an ancestor of ours), who was called "the chief (king) of Dølven",
commissioned the re-clearing of many of the abandoned farms
in Sør Aurdal, including Klemmetsrud. His grandson, also
named Arne Bjørnsen, lived at Klemmetsrud for a time until
about 1690.
Klemmetsrud belonged to the Crown until after 1690. In 1699,
Klemmetsrud, Goplerud, and Ospholt were sold (descendants of
Liv Klemesrud have a Goplerud connection). Klemmetsrud was
sold again in 1702 to the users there. The farm was divided
into two parts around this time, north and south. It wasn't
until 1819 (the year before our family purchased the north
part), that the southern part was divided into the middle
and south parts.
Our Dølven Connection:The Mother of
Herman
Syversen
Klemmetsrud (1790-1877) was Guri Olsdotter
Ølmhus (1771). Guri's family lived on the Ølmhus farm for
several generations that lead back to the 1500s and her
great x4 grandfather, Arne
Bjørnsen Dølve. See the
Ancestors of Guri
in the documents above for more details.