Jon’s grandfather, Frederick, came from Norway to Iowa in 1883, settling in Buffalo Center. He later ran a harness shop in Kamrar. His son, Lawrence, was a prominent Webster City attorney. Now, Jon is the last to bear his family’s name in Webster City.

But America is only an outpost for this family; there are many more Kaysers scattered across Norway. Many U.S. families are in a similar situation, but most never know about their forebears, or members of their families living today in other nations.

That was never true for the Kaysers. Ties to the old country have always been strong.

Recently, Anne Kristin Kayser Eitungierde, and her son, Magnus, were guests of the Kaysers in their Willson Avenue home. They live in the picturesque village of Balestrand, population 2,000, next to the Sognefjord, one of the longest, deepest fjords in the world.

It’s not Anne’s first visit to Webster City. She was a student at Webster City High School in 1984-85. Her own family was living in Qatar, in the Middle East, at the time. Qatar’s male guardianship laws require that women who reach a majority (age 18) live “under the protection of a man,” and as she was a single teenager, she was required by law to leave the country. She came to Webster City for a year, living with Jon and Jean Kayser, and their family.

“It was a good experience, a cultural experience,” she remembers. She played basketball, and was in band. “There were 125 students in band then,” she recalls.

Her son, Magnus, 34, hoped for a career in theater. He’s a graduate of Rose Bruford College in London, known worldwide for its innovative approach to training in theatre arts, directing and acting. English actor Gary Oldman is an alum.

“After graduation, I learned acting was not the career for me. The performing arts industry is cold and artificial,” said Magnus Kayser.

Instead, he became a nurse, and now works as a specialist in emergency medicine.

Both Anne and Magnus share the very Norwegian hobby of knitting. They take their current knitting project and a set of knitting needles wherever they go, grabbing a minute here or there to resume work.

“It’s a relaxing hobby,” Anne said. “We do it while listening to radio or TV.”

She blames her tendonitis on “making so many baby blankets over the years.”

Anne learned to knit from her grandmother, who sounds like a stern taskmaster.

“We had to do it the perfect way, which for her, was the only way,” Anne said.

Knitting is a practical pastime in Norway’s long, cold winters. An estimated 50% of Norwegian women today knit at home.

Most of the finished, knitted goods they make are put to practical use in the Norwegian winter: socks, scarves, sweaters and mittens. Especially mittens. Norwegian, hand-knitted woolen mittens are prized by people all over the world, not only for warmth, but the beauty of their design.

Knitting mittens at home began with Marit Guldserbrua Emstad, who lived in Selbu, a village in remote north-central Norway in the late 19th century. She knitted a pair of mittens, probably in black and white yarns, and wore them to church. They were an instant hit.

The central design of the mittens was what appears to be an eight-pointed star, or snowflake. Emstad, though, thought it looked like petals of a rose, so the design today is officially called “the Selburose.” It continues today as the central design of Norwegian knitting, more than a hundred years later.

Iowa and Webster City have been good to the Kaysers during their nearly 150-year residency.

Traveling to Norway and hosting Norwegian family here in Webster City has helped generations of American Kaysers to understand they’re part of something much bigger: a family knitted together by mittens … and love.