Things my mother just told me:

My grandfather's family came over from Ireland during the potato famine (1845-1850). You'll notice they blame the British for everything.Grandpa was born in 1920. They lived in the Boston area, which explains how my Norwegian grandmother learned to cook perfect Yankee pot roast - tasted exactly the same as that of the Wayside Inn.

Grandma was from Stavanger, Norway. I will have to ask my mom more about her at Christmastime.

Somehow they all got to Michigan by coming down the St. Laurence Seaway. Grandpa and his brothers were lumberjacks, then iron workers. Grandpa got in some trouble for stealing slag iron, and the family fled to the UP...