You're visiting
Johan Ingvald Borgos (historian and writer of local history)
and Marianne Frøydis Pettersen (genealogist).

Generelly speaking:

About this website
Latest updates
Answers to common questions
Info about Norway

We and our world:

Johan I. Borgos
Marianne F. Pettersen
- and our daughters
Strand Slekt & Data
Øksnes (our birth place)
Vesterålen (our region)
A Vesterålen map

Mail and comments to:

- Johan I. Borgos
- Marianne F. Pettersen

For quick navigation:

© Johan I. Borgos 2013

'Bygdebok':

What is a 'bygdebok'?
'Bygdebok' publishing in Vesterålen
Ordering 'bygdebok' from Vesterålen
My 'bygdebooks'

Resources:

Maps and info
The oldest church registers
Farm names in Vesterålen
Some useful links

Readings:

Norwegian surnames
Norwegian first names
Norwegian farm names
Tracing Norwegian immigrants
Administrative units in Norway
Norwegian farmer types
The special Nordic characters
Norwegian genealogy sources
The Sami people

About Øksnes history:

Refugees 1944-45
Ingeborg Mikkeldtr's legacy
Dear Markor!
The Sami in Øksnes
"Jomfru Magdalena Helegunda"

Net-book about coastal culture:

Preface
Introduction
Culture, cultural heritage and culture relics
A coastal culture poem
Cultural changes
Ethnicity og identity
Experience and insight
About local societies
Norwegian culture types
The coast and the coastal culture
Coastal history before AD 1000
Coastal history after AD 1000
The fisher-peasant
The cotters
The transport system
The little Ice Age
A letter of complaint from 1695
The Sami fishermen
Collecting eggs
Two district laws
The mythical Northener

Our ancestry:

Mariannes Romany (Gypsy) ancestry
Hanne Katrines ancestry

Guest sites:

Fredmunds pages: Dogs, photos and hobbies
– Vacation photos
– Sea photos
– A swimming elk
– My smokehouse
– Wooden things
– My dog "Snella"
– My dog "Brokkmann"
– My dog "Trigger"

Øksnes Accordion Club

Photos:

Hjellsand farm (b/w)
Night photos (b/w)
Waves (b/w)
Mariannes photos
More than a hundred slides
Four panoramas
Inside Øksnes church
Vacation trip 2004 – ten pages with text and photos!
Vacation trip 2006 – thirteen pages with text and photos!

Christmas greetings:

Xmas 2000
Xmas 2001
Xmas 2002
Xmas 2003 w/bonus
Xmas 2004
Xmas 2005
Xmas 2006
Xmas 2007 w/bonus
Xmas 2008 w/bonus
Xmas 2009 w/bonus
Xmas 2010 w/bonus
Xmas 2011 w/bonus
Xmas 2012 w/bonus
Xmas 2013 w/bonus
Xmas 2014 w/bonus
Xmas 2015 w/bonus
Xmas 2016 w/bonus
Xmas 2017 w/bonus
Xmas 2018 w/bonus
Xmas 2019 w/bonus
Xmas 2020

Guest writers:

Limerick guests page
The limericks of Oddvar Øyangen
Val Anthony's limericks and poems page
The limericks of Olaf Agnar Gausvik
The limericks of Svans

Johan writes –

A Novel project
Bibliography
A fight for the sight
Education and coincidences

– about literature

Some book reviews
Short poems
My Wodehouse books
A little tribute to Don Martin
The Devils Dictionary

– opinions:

The Mythical Northener
Two districts laws
On modern superstition
Newspaper polemics (download)
Speech March 8, 2013

– about music:

Music and MIDI
Musicana - a lighter look at music

– about food:

Making food
Warm food
Breads and rolls
Hanna's receipes

– about this and that:

A summer job in 1962
A trip to Leningrad in 1963
A school project 1981-1984
"The funeral in Hardanger 1984"
Kyllsundet - an abandoned place
Høydalen - a buried farm
Skjalg Halmøy, Tinden
The Russian warship "Boiki"
Damn spam!
Norways Coastal Express
Where is Norways centerpoint?
A satirical fable