Travels in Wisconsin and Iowa recently led me to two immigrant experience museums that had vaccination documents on display. Both focused on Norway, which, I was told, was second only to Ireland in the percentage of its population that left their homeland in the 1800s for North America. I do not know if Norway had a higher vaccination rate than other countries, or was better at documenting inoculations, or just had more people that thought to bring their medical records with them. I have never seen proof of smallpox shots displayed in a museum before. One set was on the wall at Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum & Heritage Center in Decorah, Iowa and the one below was at one of the two Norskedalen museums in Vernon County, Wisconsin. (I tweeted - @DoctorMaura - when we visited.) I did not get to use the research library at any of these sites but it is worth asking at any local or ethnic museums whether they have such documents in their collection. If so, make the archivist's day and ask if your people's records are there. Below is a picture I took, so you'll know what such a document looks like. On this one it says the child was inoculated against cowpox (koekopper) possibly because that was the virus used. (It's what Edward Jenner used.) This one tells you that Johana Peder Datter, whose parents (foreldrene) were Peder and Lilbut, was inoculated 23 July 1831, when she was half a year old (1/2 ar gammel.) It might say where in Norway and give other information. If you've studied any related language to the one your document is in, you can at least get the general idea with a pocket translating dictionary. These research libraries sometimes provide formal translation services, too.
Photo @Maura Mackowski, 2019.
Photo @Maura Mackowski, 2019.
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