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"In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we came from." Alex Haley
Our ancestors came from the Telemark region of Norway. We invite you to learn more about our organization, Telelaget of America.
"We must see to it that the 'Telers' are not forgotten."
That was the slogan of Torkel Oftelie of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. He was the guiding force in the early days of Telelaget of America. The Board of Directors of Telelaget of America is dedicated to that slogan. Meet the Telelaget Board of Directors.
Another force in Telelaget history was Professor Nils N. Rønning. There is an interesting account of the life and writings of N. N. Rønning at this website.
Telelaget of America is just one of many organizations that were formed by the Norwegian immigrants to preserve their language, costume, and regional culture. These organizations were collectively called Bygdelag.
Over the years, much of our Norwegian-American history has been recorded in our journal Telesoga.
We meet annually, generally in the Midwest, at what is called a stevne. Ever wonder where the annual stevne were held over the last 100 years? Elaine Nordlie has read through 100 years of Telesoga to provide us with this list.
We invite you to join our membership in Telelaget of America.
This is a beautiful website where you can see the flags and pictures of Telemark.
This website contains some very interesting reading about the Norwegians today, and their love of nature. This is must reading.
We are working with our friends in Telemark to support their "Coming back home - Emigrants from Telemark" project. We have dedicated a section of this website to this project. We can expect to see a great deal of travel between Telemark and America as Telelaget of America reaches 100 years of age in the year 2007.
