I am one of a
number of clansfolk who live in Norway and have been a
member of the Clan MacThomas Society for over five years. I
was born in 1961 and have been married to Inger Neset since
1985. We live in a village not far from Kristiansand in the
south of Norway.
****
I am
connected to the Clan via my great grandmother, Evangeline
Thomson. She travelled from Scotland via Oslo to the town of
Moss in the south east of Norway where she settled and married
my great grandfather. She lived there for the remainder of her
life. As far as I know all of their descendants still live in
Norway. Her son, William, was my grandfather and I am named
after him - Viljam is the Norwegian way of writing William and
they are pronounced similarly. **** I am an engineer and
planner and I currently work for a power company producing
hydro-electric power for consumers in the Southern part of
Norway. In my leisure time I go hiking in the mountains, drive
a motorbike and a classic Jaguar car. We have two English
Springer Spaniels and this encourages Inger and I to take
regular walks.
****
I also
spend quite a lot of my spare time trying to learn how to play
the bagpipes. I am fortunate enough to have regular Skype
sessions on the internet with the Chief's piper Ronald Thom;
this has helped a great deal. Unfortunately I have limited
musical talent and the bagpipes are a difficult instrument to
learn. I will probably never be an excellent good piper, but I
hope that I will be good enough to play for family and friends
- I get great pleasure from playing.
****
The Webmaster adds:
***
Jo Viljam was elected to the role of
European Branch
Mainland Europe Representative at the
Branch Meeting in December
2013.
****
A family tree for Jo Viljam and the
other members from Norway appears in the Genealogy section of
this
website.
