Gerhard Naeseth

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Gerhard Brandt Naeseth (1913 - 1994) was an American historian and genealogist of Norwegian-Americans known for his magnum opus, the Biographical Directory of Norwegian Immigrants Prior to 1851. He was also the director and chief researcher of the Vesterheim Genealogical Center (1974-1994)and after his death the research chair there was named in his honor.

[edit] Early life and librarian career

Naeseth was born in Valley City, North Dakota in 1913, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. As a young boy he sought to follow in his father's footsteps, but an uncle recognized early on that Naeseth had more of the traits of a librarian. The uncle turned out to be right and Naeseth eventually got degrees in history and library science. He worked as a professional librarian for three separate universities before retiring from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1978 where he was an associate director, ranking equal to a professor.

[edit] Genealogical work

Naeseth's work began in the mid-1950s at a family reunion in Minnesota, when he agreed to write up the history of the Naeseth-Fehn family. He self-published this work in 1956. 30 years later he reworked and expanded it into two volumes and printed 150 copies, but it also got him interested in the 150 people who came to America on the same ship as his family. Eventually his project expanded to include the 18,000 Norwegian immigrants who came to America prior to the 1850 census.

Naeseth founded the Vesterheim Genealogical Center in 1974, working out of a temporary office at the University of Wisconsin library in Madison and slow acquiring a vast collection of resources. By charging for genealogical research and selling annual memberships, Naeseth built the center into the hub of Norwegian genealogical research in America. By the early 1990s they had their own building and a staff of professional researchers. Naeseth never accepted a salary while he built the center, living instead off of his retirement income.

As Naeseth's work at Vesterheim became more well-known he went on speaking tours throughout the country where he talked about genealogy to standing room only crowds. Eventually king Olav V of Norway awarded him the the Knight's Cross, First Class, Royal Order of St. Olav for his work. Naeseth also met with the president of the Norwegian Parliament during one of his genealogical tours of Norway. As it turns out, Norwegians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are intensely interested in their family histories.

Naeseth hoped to one day catalog all the Norwegian immigrants to the United States. As he liked to say, "There were only 800,000 of them." Maybe one day the center he founded will achieve that goal.