Bakken gårds, Hoff, Hof, Hedmark, Norway, Kindsjön, Södra Finnskoga, Vårmland, Sweden

PARENTS

The "Bakken" gårds (farm or residence) in Hoff (now called Aasnes), Hedmark, Norway were named Bakken, Vestbakken, Mellumbakken & Østbakken, and were located just southeast of Lake Vermunden. They were inhabited largely by related extended families who were descendants of ethnic Finns called the "Forest Finns." These Finns had migrated during the 1500s and 1600s into Sweden at the invitation of the Swedish Crown, who wanted to take advantage of their expertise in "slash-and-burn" technology to develop Sweden's vast uninhabited forested areas for agricultural use.

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Bakken gårds in Aasnes, Norway were close to the border with Värmland, Sweden.

Both areas were largely inhabited by ethnic Finns.

Brede Erickson, whose Finnish family name was Veteleinen, was born in 1820 at Bakken and was living at Vestbakken at the time of his marriage in 1845 to Ingeri Johannesdatter, who had been born in 1823 at Kindsjön, Värmland, Sweden, also to "Forest Finn" parents. Kindsjön is the name of the lake, and at least one, possibly more, residences near the lake went by the name Kindsjön.

View of Lake Vermunden from

Bakken Grendehus (Community Center)

Fall, also referred to as Fald, was the home of Brede Erickson's mother, Kari Olsdatter, at the time that she married Brede's father, Erik Bertilsen (Veteleinen) (of) Bakken in 1813.