THE FIRST GENERATION

My father, began his story with the following paragraph, followed by the entry of the oldest recorded member of our family.

"As this record evolves, footnotes have been added from time to time to supplement the description and history of each individual by giving a history as well of the environment in which they lived. In the case of the first generations it is important to understand the reasons the surname continued to change several times before the ultimate name Ryland appeared."

The First Generation

JACOB TORSTEINSON b. 1620 d. 1705

"The oldest is a person named Jacob Torsteinson from Nordfjord, I do not know exactly when or where he was born".

This passage in a letter written by descendants Leiv Ryalen from Oslo, Norway in 1976gives a faint glimpse into the life of our First Progentitor. From it is learned that the area of his birth was along the Nordfjord which flows into the North Sea on the west coast of Norway between the old cities of Alesund and Bergen. It is a high and rugged region with inlets and fjords flowing between mountains that rise literally thousands of feet up from sea level.

Any possible occupations in his time was limited to seafaring trades along that fjord and it is the fabled anchorage of Viking traders, explorers and raiders who lived eight generations before the life of this first traced ancestor.

Small families were rare and it is probable there were births of brothers and sisters but the time of his birth can only closely be guessed by the known birth of one of his sons and according to the time he migrated from that region to Hedmark Fylke (county) and Osterdalen (Eastern Valley). The letter from Leiv Ryalen continued, "He came to Vingelen in Nord Osterdalen in about 1665-1670 and built up a farm."

Vingelen is an out of the way place, laying about 2300 feet above sea level and 700 feet above the Glomma River that flows from that area to the south coast near Oslo.
Below on on the east bank of the river lays the "Tolga Station town".

Jacob would have been about 45 years old when he settled and built the farm he called "Fordet" and where he must have lived the remainder of his life.

Without further study, there is every reason to believe that he, if not with a wife or other children, was buried in the Vingelen parish between thirty and forty years before the Tolga church in the valley was established on the west bank of the Glomma River across from Tolga in 1740.

Jacob's only known relative was a son:

(2) Torstein

Footnote: From the beginning of the Viking Age the head of a family was considered a King that dominated all the land he could physically and financially support. When Norway and Sweden came under the rule of a single monarch these small kingdoms were retained intact and given boundaries, a tax roll number, and description.

Nearing the end of the 16th Century there existed one such kingdom in Hedmar that came under the ownership of a man called Peder Ostenson who received his property in the year 1685 when it was first taxed to an individual. This land lay on higher, mountainous ground that stretches along the eastern slopes of the Osterdalen or Glomma River Valley. This area is known as Hodalen.

When Peder Ostensen received title to his land in Hodalen, Jacob Torsteinson had built up Fordet across the valley some ten years before. Eleven years later in 1696, Peder Ostenson's son Jon married Marit Nilsdatter and received a lifetime lease to a section of his fathers land and it became known as Ryalen Nord. The remaining parcel of Peder Ostensen was sold away to Ole Pedersen who adopted Ryalen as his surname which remained in the family until 1780 when it was condensed to Rye. This second property became known as Ryalen Vestre.