Loeil shared a story about several ancestors on his mother's side. Apparently, he had two Norwegian relatives here, a father and his oldest son. Once they saved enough money, they sent money back to Norway for the remaining seven members of his family (his wife and children) to sail over.
He never knew what happened to them other than they died. There is no record here of them.
However, when he and his wife went to Norway, they found the rest of the story. Apparently, they drowned on a ship that hit a rock (the pilot neglected to alter his course from magnetic north to true north) in broad day light by England. The ship was terribly overcrowded with immigrants and nearly 500 died.
What makes this story even more terrible is that Loeil found an account in the Norway church records discussing a terrible the wife had prior to sailing. She had a nightmare in which she saw seven coffins floating on the Atlantic. Loeil was able to find an account of the shipwrecked people in which one of the survivors recounts seeing a mother and six children clinging to her and seeing them all go down together.
The father was never the same. He was a shattered man, as you can well imagine, for the rest of his life.
Loeil was able to find a book, originally published in Norway, detailing the tragedy, and even featuring the same family photo he had of his ancestors.
http://store.vesterheim.org/product_info.php?products_id=3487
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