“from Norway’s fjords and mountains
to the Great Plains”
The Ausland Ancestors
The Name Ausland: In the traditional Scandinavian pattern of family identity, an individual was known by a “given” or first name, and as the son or daughter of the father. This is echoed in such names as Nils Nilson, Thord Thordsen, and Ole Olsen. Even after marriage, women carried their father’s name; for example Ingrid Nilsdatter or Gunvor Knutsdatter. This pattern was satisfactory in an agrarian society, but by the middle of the 18th century new patterns emerged, especially in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. A common change was a family’s identification with a town or piece of land.
The name Ausland was adopted as a third, “last” name by those who lived on a farm by that name located near Gjerstad, inland from Norway’s southeastern coast. The first to claim that name was Kathryn’s Norwegian grandfather (whom she never met), Knut Nilsen Ausland. His wife, Gunvor Olsdatter Mo grew up on a nearby farm named Mo. Other neighbors took the name of their farms, including Vik, Apeland, and Ultveit. Knut’s father, Nils Einertsen Eskeland grew up on the farm Eskeland, which his grandfather, had purchased.
The name of the farm Ausland is interesting because it is descriptive and literal. The second part of the word, “land,” means “tilled earth.” In his research, Sofus Ausland discovered old documents dating back to 1610 listing the property as Ouldsland. The first settler on the property was likely a man named Auðr, or Auðulfr, common names in Old Norway. The Norwegian letter “ð” is pronounced “th.” Thus, the farm was known as “Auth’s-land.”
Situated about 3.5 kilometers from the Gjerstad railway station, in 1956 Ausland was a farm of about 1,100 D.A.s. (One D.A. is equal to 1,000 square meters.) The farm includes about 60 D.A. of tilled land and more than 1,000 D.A.s of productive timber.
Family Origns: The roots of this family go back at least to the early 16th century, in and around the village of Gjerstad which is less than 75 miles from the south southeast coast of Norway. Until Thor Martinus and his older brother “Stor” Thor (Big Thor) emigrated to the United States in the last half of the 19th century, nearly all the family and their spouses lived near Gjerstad and neighboring villages. Many still live in that region today.
Branches of the Ausland family: The family genealogist in Norway in the last half of the 20th century was Sofus Ausland. He showed that this branch of the Ausland family traces its roots back to Tengel Lunden, who was born in 1585 and to Peder Clausen Friis who was born in 1545. It is a large family sometimes with nine children. He acknowledged that there are other branches of the family in Norway but was not able to trace them all. Most of the more than 100 relatives he identified were descended from Nils Einertseon Eskeland and his wife Ingeborg Mortensdatter. Sofus’ grandfather, Ole, was a brother of Thor Martin.
At least three descendants of Knut Nilsen Ausland came to the United States: “Stor” Thor Knutson Ausland and Thor Martin Ausland settled first in Iowa following their mother’s brother Lars Moe, and Gunda Olsdatter married Kittil Vestol and settled in Minnesota. After Martin’s death, family contact was lost. Nothing is known of “Stor” (or “big”) Thor after he moved to the Los Angeles area.
Click Here for a Listing of Ausland Names