BANGSUND Family-Letters

Letters / Comments

VARIOUS COMMENTS ABOUT BANGSUND
Note: The following are direct quotes with minimal corrections. Some of MY comments will be found in braces like {this}.

According to Jan-Erik Saur:
[9 Apr 1996]
The family farm {Bangsund Farm} was sold out of the family to the former sawmill company here in Bangsund {about 1935?} (BANGDALSBRUKET).
[15 Apr 1996]
At Bangsund the Kaldahl family had a sawmill on the opposite side of the stream where our {J-ES) house now is { }, from middle of 1800. Before 1900 (1880?) the Collett family bought the mill and moved it over to 'our' side { }. The mill was finished in 1903, but burned down in 1907. Rebuilt in 1910 and operated to ~1980 (Bangdalsbruget). It was quite a turn{?} for the small place (1000 inhabitants) to loose the only industrial working place. They who did not get any other jobs of their own were employed at the big (in Norway scale) Van Severen sawmill in Namsos.

According to John G. Bangsund:
[AIKAB 1.8 20 Feb 1997]
Bangsund is a small {Norwegian} town in the county of Nord-Tr�ndelag, a few kilometers south of Namsos. During the nineteenth century it was a flourishing timber town, said to have been the biggest sawmill in northern Norway.
Its population is about 800 (which is why you won't find it in most atlases; you can find it on the Web at: MapQuest. Many people who live there work in Namsos (pop. 12,000). The general view is that everyone named Bangsund is ultimately named after this town. Many emigrants adopted the name when they left the town for {North} America. When and why Norwegian Bangsunds adopted the name, and whether all of those families lived in the town as some time, remains unclear. Michel (or Mikkel) Andersen Bangsund, born 1690 {or 1693?}, a farmer at Bangsund, Klinga, is the earliest person I {JGB} have found so far who adopted the surname. The 1801 census) mentions a farm in the area called Bangssund (sic), and some think that this predates the sawmill and the town, but the spelling Bangsund was current long before 1801.
The town is on the river Bogna, and it has been suggested that the name of the area may originally have been Bognasund (meaning fjord, or sound, of the Bogna), but so far I {JGB} have seen no suggestion that the town's name was ever spelt any way other than Bangsund.

According to Terje Alte; HERE or HERE:
[20 Nov 1996]
I {TA} was born and raised in Bangsund, so you could say I'm {TA} interested in the town. As far as the story goes in Bangsund the people who took the surname Bangsund are the ones who came from a special area in Bangsund which on a map is called Bangsundbotn, but as we from Bangsund just call 'ainnersia' which is Norwegian for 'the other side'.
[22 Nov 1996]
There is only one place in Norway that is called Bangsund, and the ships from Bangsund must have been carrying building material or shoes since these are the only things I {TA} can remember being produced in Bangsund (I'll {TA} have to check on that). The name Bangsund can be traced back to 'Bangsj�an' which in English would translate to Bang Lakes (they lay in 'Bangdalen' which would translate to Bang Walley {valley?}. From there the river Bogna runs down to Bangsund. I {TA} don't have the English name for 'sund' (English isn't my {TA} strong side), but I'll {TA} try to explain. A 'sund' is a narrow 'fjord' between to larger areas of water. In the same way the Suez Canal could be called a gigantic 'sund'.
??? Bangsundbotn
In Bangsund there is nothing called Nordre and S�ndre {North and South}* Bangsund. There is however something called 'Nedre Bangsund' or 'Nerbangsund' as the 'natives' call it. Or in English, Lower Bangsund (lower as in closer to the sea level). Bangsund is too small to have north and south, there are now about 1000 people living there. It has a school, a gas station and a small supermarket.
Hemnafjellet is the large mountains (fjellet = mountains) near Bangsund. Lyngenfjorden is the fjord leading in to Bangsund and Namdalseid.
*{The Bangsund Farm was once divided into two. Mickel Andersen Bangsund (1693-1774) divided the "farm" in ~1770 for his sons; Ole Mikelsen Bangsund got the Southern 1/2 and Paul Mikelsen Bangsund got the Northern 1/2. The Northern 1/2 may have become the GRAV Farm; I'm still working on this...} So, the terms Nordre and S�ndre {North and South} Bangsund most likely came form this "farm" division.}

According to Dr. Ole Martin Skille�s:
[20 Feb 1997]
About the town/village Bangsund:
The river Bogna does run through Bangsund, and the village takes its name from it. The river, in turn, comes from the lakes Bangsj�ene, commonly pronounced 'Bongsj�an'. It is possible to reach these by narrow roads, and they are popular recreation areas, particularly for fishing.
{Ole Martin Skille�s' cousin Marie Skille�s is married to Tomas Bangsund}

According to Bj�rn Solheim:
[20 Feb 1997]
Bognasund (meaning fjord, or sound, of the Bogna)
Professor Rygh has observed the following spellings:
Bangxsunde
Bangswn
Bangsun 1559
Bangsundt 1590
Bangsund 1669 1723
Bangsunnd 1926
and he {Rygh?} says the first part (Bang) may relate to the river Bogna but also to old Norwegian 'bagr' (difficult, mean) so the terrain may have something to do with it, or 'bagn' (noise). The last part (sund) means a narrow part of the water (useful for ferrying across the fjord).
{A meaning such a 'sound': Pudget Sound - a strait, an arm of the sea?}

According to ??? ( ):
Date?
Your {??} knowledge to Bangsunds sounds plausible. I{???} had a quick lookup in 'The History of Troms� City' and I{???} can confirm your {???} notes about this{???} persons. In the inner city of Troms� there are some piers (docks) we call 'Bangsundbrygga'.
Photos at: http://....
{According to genealogy records Carl Olsen Bangsund moved from Bangsund to Troms�, Troms, Norway in ~1781:
CARL Olsen Bangsund
B: 1749 Bangsund, Klinga, Norway
D: 1806 Troms�, Troms, Norway
P: Ole Mikelsen Bangsund & Bereth Carlsdatter Strand
B/S: Anne Olsdatter Bangsund, Sigrid Olsdatter Bangsund, Anders Olsen Bangsund, Mikkel Olsen Bangsund
M: Anna Iversdatter Fj�r (1752- ) in 1781
C: Caroline Birgitte Carlsdatter Bangsund,
He was Kgl (Royal) bevilling (licensed) paa gjestegiveri og bondehandel mot 4rd aarlig avgift.
Carl's seal had on its reverse side a serpent and a dove ("wise as a serpent, simple as a dove") in 1781 Tronjorden, Troms�.
{This could be the precursor of an apparent separate Bangsund family. Trond Ballo ( @ .no) may have more information on this.}

According to Date?
Bangsund is a small town, I {KK who lived in Bangsund 1972-1977} suppose there are about 600-800 persons living in the town. It is situated about 15 km South of Namsos, close to the ocean, and the town was probably built around a sawmill*, who was sawing timber up to about 1978. Then the sawmill closed down. Today most of the people are farmers, or they work in Namsos.
The sawmill, called Bangdalsbruket*, was owned by a rich family {Collet} from Oslo. They also owned a lot of the forests in the area. When they got economical problems in the years around 1975, they sold most of their properties to the Norwegian government.
{*Bangsund genealogy seems to predate any sawmill by about 200 years and the Collet Family sawmill (Bangdalsbruket) may have been the second owner of the sawmill in Bangsund as the Kaldahl Family were the first?)}.

According to Terje Holtet:
Date?
...farm Bangsund, I {TH?} found a farm situated in the S�vig subparish. I {TH?} think this was the original farm in the Bangsund area, before the sawmill and the town.
The name Bangsund (I {TH?} have spoken with an old friend of mine on the phone today), is put together of two words - Bogna and Sund. Bogna is the river who is coming down from the mountains. Sund do mean sound. (The fjord is a narrow neck of water).

According to ??? ( ):
Date?
It was the Collet* {family} from Oslo who owned the sawmill. I {??} don't know for sure, but I {??} think they bought the forest in the area around 1860-1870.
{*The Collet family bought the sawmill from the Kaldahl family in about 1880.}


{I have heard it said that there may be up to eight separate (and unrelated) Bangsund Families throughout the world. I tend to think there are NOT that many. In fact, for those that "took" the Bangsund name it is quite possible that they TOO must(?) have some relationship to the 'original' Bangsund Family by the mere fact that they lived and had family ties in and around Bangsund, Norway.}


"AIKAB"

Bangsund

Names / Addresses

Bangsund, Norway








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