Gertrude and her church group

Nice Gibson Girl look.

Private, Company K, 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry

Thomas Lein was a soldier for the Union Army from 1862 to 1865. His regiment was organized in Dubuque, Iowa. It marched to Little Rock, Memphis, Vicksburg, Tupelo, Oxford, Nashville, New Orleans, Mobile and Montgomery. (A lot of marching.) It pursued General Hood through Tennessee. The regiment had a 25 per cent casualty rate. Over half of the deaths were from disease.
Thomas remembered sitting on a hill watching dolphins in the sea. Family lore was that he was in Sherman's march to the sea, but the records show it must have been at Mobile.
When the war ended, the men were told to leave their weapons to attend the ceremony. When Thomas came out, he found his carefully maintained rifle had been taken. He declined to take the one left.

Estherville, Iowa

Thomas was a farmer in Estherville, Iowa, which is in the northwest corner of Iowa.
In this family picture, Gertrude is the young child in the right front. You can see where Iris gets her blonde hair.

Lein Family

Christine was Thomas Lein's second wife. They married in 1868, when Christine was 20 and Thomas 38. Thomas' first wife died in 1866. Thomas had nine children. Gertrude, my grandmother, born in 1886, was the youngest. She is front and center in this picture.

Arctic Circle

 

 

fax

Another map of Spitsbergen. Here you can see how deep into the Arctic Circle it is. Note that Oslo and Bergen are 60 deg. north. Chicago is about 42 deg., same as Rome. The Arctic Circle is 66 2/3 deg. N. We fly to Tromso, which is 70 deg. N. And Spitsbergen is between 78 and 80 deg. N.
The Tribune travel section's geography quiz last Sunday asked what is the farthest north city of more than 1,000. Jim answered correctly, Longyearbyen, where we are joining the cruise.

Norway in a Nutshell

 

 

We will visit other parts of Norway. We land in Bergen and take off for Spitsbergen from Oslo. In between we will take the famous "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. We travel through the fjords of Norway on several trains, a bus and a boat. Rebecca and Jo took this trip.
Hallingdal, where my great grandfather came from, is between the train stops of Geilo and Gol.

Norway

 

 

My father's grandparents are Norwegian. His grandmother, Christine Engebritsen, emigrated from Skottevik, near Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway. Thomas Lein, my great grandfather, emigrated from Hallingdal, in the mountains between Oslo and Bergen, in 1850.

Spitsbergen

 

 

Our primary focus will be the island of Spitsbergen. We will cruise around it.

Svalbard

 

 

We are headed out again, on a cruise to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, a group of islands far north of the Arctic Circle. This is a wildlife trip. We will be seeking polar bears, walruses and lots of sea birds. I hope this is not the only sighting of a polar bear we have.