On Oct. 9, 1825, 53 people arrived in New York City.
They’d left over three months earlier from Stavanger, Norway, spending weeks at sea in cramped conditions on a sloop, a type of sailboat. They had been a group of 52 people, until a couple welcomed their baby girl during the voyage. They were men and women, parents and children, and they were searching for better lives.
Now, people on both sides of the Atlantic are honoring these pioneers who participated in Norway’s first organized immigration to the U.S.
A replica of the immigrants’ ship, the Restauration (Restoration in English), left Stavanger, on July 4, 2025, exactly 200 years after the namesake boat set sail. It’s currently following the ship’s original voyage, with its progress tracked via an interactive map at restauration.no/en#map, and it is scheduled to arrive in New York on Oct. 9, just like the original Restauration did.
The journey is part of the Crossings 200 event, a collaboration between the Norwegian and U.S. governments with support from FamilySearch, the Restauration Friends Association and others.
The Restauration was important to early 19th century immigration efforts — it’s even considered to be the Norwegian Mayflower. But it also impacted the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After arriving in New York, several passengers later settled in Fox River, Illinois, where in 1842 they laid the foundation for the Church’s first non-English-speaking congregation, reported the Church’s Europe Newsroom.
Joanna Bjerga, a Latter-day Saint in Norway who’s involved in both interfaith work and the Crossings 200 project, said most early Norwegian emigrants left their homes in search of religious freedom.
She noted that the niece of Restauration passenger Cleng Peerson married Canute Peterson, who later returned to Norway as a missionary and established the Church’s first branch in Stavanger in 1854. The Crossings 200 event, then, is “a full circle” experience.
“Now Stavanger is both multicultural and multireligious, and we owe those first immigrants, mainly Quakers and Haugians, a debt of gratitude for their courage to lead out,” Bjerga said.
Celebrating the past, building the future
The July 4 launch event at and near the Stavanger harbor included music and dance performances, cultural experiences and speeches. There was also a variety of exhibitors, including FamilySearch.
Bjerga said she was “especially pleased” to represent the Church and the local interfaith council at a celebratory Mass at Stavanger Cathedral, which the Norwegian royal family attended. King Harald V, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit arrived in Stavanger by their own ship and later sailed out alongside the Restauration replica.
Rolf Idar Isaksen, an area Church history specialist, said thousands of people turned out for the festivities. Local Church leaders and missionaries attended, as did descendants of the original Restauration passengers, while visiting students from Brigham Young University went to a scenic overlook to watch the ship set sail.
Isaksen said it was amazing to see how, 200 years after the Restauration sailed, Church members are building bridges between Americans and Norwegians. The event has also been a chance to foster connections between Church members and those of other faiths and in the community, he said.
“To work with other organizations and non-Church resources has been a refreshing experience for the members in Norway, with new contacts and connections,” Isaksen said. “It has given [us] valuable experience, preparing us and Norway to receive a temple.”
Learn about the ‘Sloopers’
When the Restauration replica arrives in New York in October, it will be met with a variety of celebrations, including the official opening of the emigration exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum and a reception with Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
But those who want to learn more about the Restauration don’t have to travel to Norway or New York. FamilySearch offers a Celebrate Crossings 200 webpage for people to discover the “Sloopers,” as the immigrants were called.
The information includes brief profiles of 49 Sloopers, a timeline of events, a ship layout and descriptions of daily life aboard the Restauration. There are also links to Norwegian genealogy resources from FamilySearch and an option for discovering if an individual is related to any of the Sloopers.
Bjerga thanked FamilySearch for how it “pulled out all the stops” on its Restauration webpage.
“The whole event has given us an excellent opportunity to share information about pioneer and family history and the Church, to members and nonmembers alike,” she said.
Additionally, for those in or near Salt Lake City, an exhibition about the Crossings 200 project opened in the Church History Library on July 1 and will run until Nov. 30.
