By Kariin Sundsback

Thousands of Norwegian women travelled from the south and southwest coasts of Norway across the North Sea to Amsterdam in search of a better life between 1600 and 1750. Some went with their family, friends or acquaintances, but there were also were many young unmarried girls who sailed to Amsterdam alone. The fact that Norwegian women not only moved to Amsterdam with others, but also took such a big step alone, is unique. Amsterdam was at the time a wealthy, expanding city and was well-known as a city of opportunity and a city of migrants. The immigrants believed that there would be enough work and housing for everyone, and presumed that their standard of living would be generally higher than in their home country. The Norwegian women lived and worked in Amsterdam, often for the rest of their lives, but they have left few traces. It is only in demographic sources such as records of marriage banns and lists of members of the Lutheran church in Amsterdam that we can find information about them. But there were also a large number of women who did not marry in Amsterdam and were not active church members. Common to almost all these women is the difficulty of gaining an insight into their lives, apart from the few demographic details mentioned. We do not know how they lived, what lives they led and what social networks they had in Amsterdam. In an attempt to give a face to these forgotten women, this article will focus on individual life stories found in legal source material. Full details of the interrogations of criminals have been recorded, and this is one of the very few places where otherwise anonymous people reveal their personal history and background in their own words. Although the lives of Norwegian female criminals are not necessarily representative of all Norwegian women immigrants, we can still use these interrogations to understand more about their lives. They give us valuable information about their way of life, work, living conditions and social networks. We learn more about what life was like in Amsterdam in the early modern period.