Album notes:My Shellum ancestors were baptised, confirmed, married and buried in the Vaga church and graveyard for at least two centuries, and probably much longer.The church is one of the oldest in Norway, dating to the 12th century. But it was largely rebuilt in the 1600s, using materials from the original church. As a result, it is not ranked among the most-prized stave churches.The church also is vulnerable. A number of stave churches were torched in the early and mid-90s by a gang of Satan-worshiping outlaws who, in search of notoriety, were shrewd enough to strike at some of Norway's most-valued possessions.The Oyer church lacks the Vaga church's claim to achitectural distinction, but has something at least as valuable: lots of gravestones for identifiable relatives.The 10th and last photo on this album shows a 19th Century poster soliciting Norwegian emigrants for the Wilson Line's Argo, a coastal steamer that carried passengers from Oslo to Hull, England, where they boarded a train for the cross-country journey to Liverpool and the trans-Atlantic steamship that carried them to Quebec.This was the ship my Shellum acestors rode to England.