Nygaard, Dagny

3 file folders
4 photographs
1 sound cassette
2 compact discs

This interview was conducted with Dagny Nygaard on April 27, 1978 in Stanwood, Washington. It contains information on family background, emigration, marriage and family life, and Norwegian heritage. The interview also includes a photograph of Dagny's home in Tydal, Norway, includes a photograph of Dagny leaving Norway, includes a photograph of Dagny in 1982, includes a photograph of Dagny and her husband Lars in 1982, and Dagny's life memoirs.

Also see Lars Nygaard.

Folder Contents

Box 1, File 8 Personal and Family History
Tape Archive Sheet, Tape Index, and Family Background

Box 1, File 8A Correspondence and Forms
Checklist and Release Form
Handwritten Tape Archive Sheet and Family Background

Box 1, File 8B Photographs and Memoirs
Four photographs and a manuscript entitled “Looking Back on my Seventy-Years of Living on Two Continents

Interviewed by Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good

Lars Nygaard (husband) oral history interview

Biographical Note

Dagny Bergitte Nygaard was born on August 31, 1899 in Tydal, Norway. Her parents were David Unsgaard and Berit Stuedal, and there were seven children in the family: Ingrid, Kair, Johannes, Inga, Peder, Dagny, and Ivar. Dagny's father had attended carpentry school and specialized in furniture-making, and her mother was trained as a midwife. Dagny married Lars Nygaard and had two children-Inger, born in Tydal, Norway, and Thelma, born in Grygla, Minnesota. Lars was also a carpenter and immigrated to America in 1928 to find employment. He stayed at Ole and Ellen Aune's farm in Minnesota during the winter and spent the summers doing carpentry in Montana in order to earn enough money for Dagny and Inger to emigrate as well.

Dagny and Inger emigrated in September 1930, and the family spent the first winter with the Aunes. The following spring they moved to Grygla, Minnesota and sharecropped a farm. Lars also owned cows and sold the milk and cream. Learning the language was the hardest thing for Dagny to adjust to, but she especially learned after Inger began school. In Grygla, she also joined her church's Ladies Aid and was elected secretary, which helped her improve even more.

On March 1, 1942, Lars went to the West Coast to find work in the shipyards, and Dagny and the girls joined him on the first of April. They moved to a small farm outside of Freeborn, Washington, and Inger and Thelma attended school in Everett. While in America, Dagny continued to cook Norwegian food including risengrynsgroet, lutefisk, lefse, and flatbread. She also churned her own butter while living on the farm.

Lineage

Full Name: Dagny Bergitte Nygaard
Maiden Name: Dagny Bergitte Unsgaard
Father: David Unsgaard
Mother: Berit Stueda
Paternal Grandfather: Esten Jonsen Unsgaard
Paternal Grandmother: Ingri Evavold
Maternal Grandfather: Peder Stuedal
Maternal Grandmother: Kari Graae
Brothers and Sisters: Ingrid Unsgaard, Kari Unsgaard, Johannes Unsgaard, Inga Unsgaard, Peder Rangvold Unsgaard, Ivar Johan Unsgaard
Spouse: Lars Nygaard
Children: Inger Nygaard Carr, Thelma Nygaard Schwarz