A-Z Blogging Challenge - The letter V is for Viking!

In 2017, there was a challenge. I heard about it from jillballau blog and more information can be found out about it on the A-Z Blogging Challenge (which was at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/) page itself. However, as I was testing links I found the A-Z Blogging Challenge link is no longer working *frown*

Many people had done this challenge in April 2017, but I’m a rebel and do things when I have time, so I’ll do mine now. I’ve been working on it over many days, and was hoping to get it all done before posting BUT it’s taking me a lot longer than I expected. I’ll do a few posts now and work on the rest. 

I know I have about ½ of this challenge done in draft format, so not too bad.  J

What can I say – I’m an original. So, here I go…

The letter V is for Viking! 

My father has a father that came from Germany and a mother from Russia Poland or Poland. I started to dig back using last names and found there were others with the name, including Nur where I found their marriage entry,  and it started following the Bug River up to Dansk or Danzig as the area has gone by both names. 

Upon doing a tiny bit of research, I found there was a link to the Vikings and this area of Poland.

The link from Poland to the area. Credit

On my maternal side we have a Larsen which comes from Denmark which was probably viking land, but I haven't gotten that far in my research. 

Alrup or now Aarup in Denmark where my great grandmother says she came from. Credit: GoogleEarth

However, my father has done his DNA and what shocked us was when Norway came up on his DNA. Its light but its there. We couldn't figure it out because as far as we know we had his father come from Germany and his mother from Russia Poland. 

My father's link to Norway and the Vikings.

However when I did a search, we found there IS a link. Way back in the eighth century if you can believe this web entry which I posted above.

In some researching looking for my paternal grandmother's ancestry, I found one of the last names/surnames follows up one of the rivers, which shows they were merchants which used the river for selling. Due to this, I can believe my father's ancestors, on his maternal side, can go right back up the river to Danzig or Ddansk. 

As you can see by the yellow dots the line was going up river. I had more but lost it when I changed computers. Map credit: GoogleEarth

Add this to where the Vikings were, I can believe they found the land and did trade and/or pillaged towns there. I wasn't sure of the DNA and Vikings side but following up paperwork which matches makes it hard to question history doesn't it?