So, yay, I got my Danish Heritage MasterCard invitation

It's the card that says a lot about me. (I should say, if I were to take them up on this invitation.)

"With the buying power and financial flexibility you deserve, you'll demonstrate you're proud of who you are - every time you use your credit card!"

Who thinks that's cool?

Funny thing - I don't even have any Danish ancestors, to my knowledge. My great-great grandpa Eric, who became a Mormon and did the whole promised-valley thing with Brigham Young, was Norwegian. The others were Swedish, English, and Irish.

I'd like to know how I got on this list.

Of a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer? Is that even possible? ;-)

"Lutefisk: The piece of cod that passes all understanding"

are only "pure...mostly..."

So yes, it is possible. You don't want to have that image in your mind, but it is possible.

and he picked up a couple of extra surnames in acquiring farms, but he wasn't a bachelor for very long. He had three consecutive wives in Norway, and then he moved to Utah and picked up a fourth wife and possibly a fifth who was or were concurrent with the third. According to the records, wife #3 had my great grandpa when she was 63 and Eric was 69.

Anyway, I'm sure there's some joke I'm not getting. What's a Norwegian bachelor farmer?

On A Prairie Home Companion (a radio show on Saturday evenings, generally on your friendly local public radio station), one of the "sponsors" is Powdermilk Biscuits. As the host, Garrison Keillor says, they are "made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers; so you know they're not only good for you, but pure...mostly. Buy them ready-made in the big blue box with the picture of the biscuit on the cover, or in the brown bag with the dark stains that indicate freshness. Whole wheat that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens they're tasty, and expeditious!"

(My step-grandpa was a Norwegian bachelor farmer, until he married my grandma, when he was forty and she was sixty. Grandma was a rip!)

Unfortunately, great-great (gullible) grandpa Eric got lost on the way to Lake Wobegon.

I have both Danish and Norwegian ancestors and I didn't get a card. :grr:

:)

I didn't get an invite either. But I have something better! Her sense of humor.

:hi:

and a Danish flag sky. It has boats, too, so I guess it's on the waterfront. And of course it says "Danish Heritage."

I'll be there in 2 weeks...I'll have a Carlsberg for you!

Cheers

It's straight on, with six of that same type of building and the white canopies and the boats. It might be a painting.

I've always wanted to see Copenhagen. Enjoy your trip!

:toast: :beer:

I don't drink often - that's the one thing that sort of stuck from my Mormon upbringing, and I say sort of because I do drink. Just not every day or even every week. I'll have to try a Tuborg in honor of my bogus Danish Heritage MasterCard invitation.

And then maybe a Rød Erik...
and a little akvavit...

And remember, I don't drink much. Did I mention I'm also very corruptible? :)

And many more Tuborgs!
:toast:

If you are from southern Sweden you were Danish at one time....maybe that's it?

Cheers

until 1814, although I should know better than to get into this.

You really want to open a can of worms...

Skol :toast:

Well, I didn't mention Iceland or Grønland.

I stupidly declined to get rid of when given the opportunity ends in -sen and could be Danish, although I believe it's also Norwegian. That's probably how I got on the mailing list.

Unofficially, I use sometimes use two last names and sometimes just my original surname, which I got from Grandpa Eric. But he "Americanized" it so that people assume it's Irish - because, apparently, he wasn't very proud of his Danish heritage. Then again, he never got a Danish Heritage MasterCard.

He may have screwed me out of my rightful Norwegian Heritage MasterCard.

because they weren't Mormon. I do know they came from Hernosand, Vesternorrland. The only genealogical records I've seen were on paper, done by a great uncle who got sucked in somehow. I remember there were lotsa dotters in there. I think of it whenever I see a post by you.

far enough. The further east and north in England any ancestors were, the more likely they were in the Danelaw in the tenth century. Danish genes do have more of an influence there, even today, and there is a bit of a Scandinavian lilt to a Yorkshire accent.

Then again, if you go back far enough, we all have completely African heritage.

somehow I don't think your average Danish Heritage MasterCard holder would be very happy to hear that last bit.