Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1981-11-07 (Creation)
Extent
3 file folders
7 photographs
1 sound cassette
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This interview was conducted with Sara Vanderbilt on November 7, 1981. It contains information on family background, emigration, employment, marriage and family, community activities, and Norwegian heritage. The interview also provides photographs of Sara and Captain Jorgens, Sara at a logging camp, Sara and Thea Foss, Sara at age eighteen, and Sara at the time of the interview.
Also see Bergliot DeRosa. The interview was conducted in English.
Folder Contents
Box 5, File 12 Personal and Family History
Tape Archive Sheet, Family Background, and Tape Index
Box 5, File 12A Correspondence and Forms
Release Form
Thank you letter from Janet Rasmussen
Handwritten Tape Archive Sheet and Family Background
Box 5, File 12B Photographs
Seven photographs
System of arrangement
Interviewed by Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Notes element
General note
Biographical Note
Sara Vanderbilt was born on July 9, 1905 in Trondheim, Norway to Olav Moxness and Sara Petrine Kristensen Moxness. Olav worked on a ship and died at sea during World War I. There were five other children in the family, and they lived in a big apartment near the high school in Trondheim, renting out rooms to students. Sara's sister Gunvor went to America years before Sara emigrated and worked for Andrew Foss at Foss' boathouse in Tacoma, Washginton.
In August 1923, Andrew Foss sent Sara a ticket to America, and Sara lived with his family upon her arrival. In order to pay Andrew back for the ticket, Sara found a housekeeping job with John Dempsey. She later cooked and cleaned for the Hunt family. Sara met her husband Marcluis Nilsen, a longshoreman, at the Normanna Hall in Tacoma. They dated for three years before they were married in September 1930, and had three children together: John, Delores (Goddard), and Julianne (Russell). Marcluis had a drinking problem and did not give Sara any money to live on. He eventually left her and the children, after which she became a cashier at McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis.
Sara also met her second husband, John Vanderbilt, at a hall in Tacoma. John was from Holland, and in 1948, they had a daughter, Elizabeth. Sara attends church and is a member of the Sons of Norway. She did not speak Norwegian in her home in America but has maintained Norwegian traditions, including cooking fattigmand, rommegrøt, krumkake, lutefisk, and smørgrøt. She has also visited her homeland four times and is proud of her ancestry.
Lineage
Full Name: Sara Oline Nilsen Vanderbilt
Maiden Name: Sara Moxness
Father: Olav Johannes Moxness
Mother: Sara Petrine Kristensen
Paternal Grandfather: Johan Wedege Pettersen Moxness
Paternal Grandmother: Olive Roeskaft
Maternal Grandfather: Nils Kristensen
Maternal Grandmother: Gunhild Wiklun Kristensen
Brothers and Sisters: Gunvor Moxness Bronow, Ruth Moxness, Johan W. Moxness, Bergliot (Bella) Moxness DeRosa
Spouse: Marcluis Nilsen, John Vanderbilt
Children: John Arthur Nilsen, Delores Grace Nilsen Goddard, Julianne Nilsen Russell, Elizabeth J. Vanderbilt