Deb Nelson Gourley
Over the years, I've met lots of people involved in preserving the heritage of the Nordic cultures in interesting ways.
One of those is Deb Nelson Gourley, who runs Astri My Astri Publishing. If you've ever met and talked to Deb — attired in her beautiful Hallingdal festbunad at a festival, such as Norsk Høstfest, or stemne or conference — you'll quickly discover how passionate she is about her heritage. It's something we share in common.
The company name comes from Astri, Mi Astri, the name of an old Norwegian folksong. The song was based one of the 2,000-year-old Horace’s Odes to Lydia. The video on this page is of Østre Gausdal Sangkor from the Gausdal municipality in Gudbrandsdal in Oppland province competing at an international choir competition in 2008.
But the name "Astri" means even more to Nelson Gourley. "Astri Herbrandsdatter 1812" was written on an old immigrant trunk Deb rescued from the burn pile at age 8. It was later discovered that the trunk belonged to Astri Herbrandsdatter Børtnes Syversrud, Deb’s great-great-great-grandmother, who had emigrated from Norway in 1857.
The company recently debuted the AstriMyAstri Publishing storefront on Amazon.com. Check it out! In the future, I plan to bring you some reviews of their publications, which are really interesting.
