Norway
to Wisconsin: My Brick Wall!
I began working on my family history when I was in middle
school and the assignment was to do a family tree. My dad drew a great tree for me and we began
to call the grandma’s and grandpa’s to find out what they knew. Back then it was just fill in a name and
dates if you knew them. Well there were
quite a few that I did my grandparents did not know. Over the years I have made some great
progress. While I have other brick
walls, my Norwegian ancestors were always my biggest.
Back when I did the family tree I knew that my grandmother was
Margaret Lorene Hanson and that her parents were Henry Anton Hanson and Rika
Guritz. We knew when they died as we had
been to the cemeteries many times. We
also knew that Henry’s father was Anders (Andrew) Hanson and even the dates of
his birth and death as we had been to his tombstone also. We however did not know about his wife or
their parents.
Then I went to college, got married and had children. In other words life happened and my genealogy
was put on hold. Eventually I started up again and found out about census
records. Well these little gems were
wonderful! Now mind you this was when
you had to crank a machine and look at the same roll of film for hours. The thrill of finding someone was enough for
a huge happy dance!!!
So in the 1870 census I find Andrew Hanson and Caroline with
their 3 children Annie, Henry and Christian all living in Argyle, Lafayette
County, Wisconsin (that was a big happy dance).
In 1880 they are in Superior Township, Dickinson County, Iowa with Anna,
Henry, Chris, August, Oscar and Sarah.
I start to ask more
relatives and word comes that Caroline was really Karen and her last name was
Andersdatter. Well okay but I of course
needed proof. Anders dies in 1899 a few
years after Karen and there is an article in the Spirit Lake Beacon.
A Citizen of Superior Township Hangs Himself and a week later
in the same paper a retraction by G.H. Anderson Brother-in-Law.
It was evidently caused by the act of a
sick man, who was not morally responsible for self destruction. January 27, 1899 Spirit Lake Beacon, Spirit Lake, Iowa
Once again a happy dance this is a bit of proof to investigate
as he has that last name of Anderson (don’t get me started on that whole naming
thing…drives me nuts!).
Since I can’t find a death certificate for Karen I start to
look at G.H. Anderson and see if I can make a connection there. Nothing pans out and I can’t place Karen and
Gilbert (G.H.) as siblings. So while
looking at Gilbert I also look at his wife Olena. These two families moved together from
Wisconsin to Iowa. I eventually find an
obituary for Olena and find there is a sister Randy (Ragnild) and investigate
her also. I find a great deal of info on
these two ladies but nothing concrete to help me find out why they all moved
together or how they are related.
Then I learn about the 1925 census from Iowa. What a gem!
It lists the names of the parents and so I find my Henry and lo and
behold his father is Andrew Hanson and his mother is Carrie Olson.
Ancestry.com. Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original
data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as
well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical
Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.
What?? Who??? Now Olson is a new name that I had not
heard. Further research finds nothing
and I leave this family alone for a long long time.
Then this year I was vending at the Dane County Area
Genealogical Society Fair for the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society and sat down to talk to Jerry Paulson from the
Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library (NAGCNL). I explain my problem and he of course sits
down and says well let’s look around a bit. A few minutes later he tells me
that he has found my great grandfather’s birth record and some of the other
children as well! Well of course as
anyone would I have tears in my eyes. I
have looked for this man’s birth record for many years and never found it.
Jerry then takes down some notes and we all head home. Over the weekend I do some more digging and
send him some more info about this Randy as being Karen’s sister. He also had been digging and found Anders and
Karen’s birth, marriage and when they left Norway. PLUS MORE!
Well can you say double happy dance???
Downside was that Jerry was leaving for a week vacation and I
had other things going on and I had to wait two weeks. Of course I said make me an appointment for
the Monday you come back. So I waited
for those two weeks (longest of my life I think!). Then I headed to 415 W Main Street in Madison
and waited until the doors opened and Jerry arrived.
We got going as soon as he took off his coat and he began to
show me what he found. Birth records for
all of Anders and Karen’s children.
Which I then went to the microfilm found and copied off my great
grandfather’s!!
Record
retrieved from NAGNCL Wiota Lutheran Church Ministerial Records 1855-1890
Wiota, WI.
Then we looked at Anders and Karen’s marriage record which
showed her father to be Anders Olsen.
Oppland
county, Gran, Parish register (official) nr. 12(1856-1874) Marriage records
1859, page 823-833,
http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20070206620190.jpg
Not only do I have that information but in Norway they have
farm names and my Hanson’s came from the Egge Eiet Farm! How do we know that….by looking at the
wonderful emigration record!
Norwegian
American Genealogy Center Members Only Site retrieved by Jerry Paulson October
2011
Oppland county, Gran, Parish register (official) nr. 12(1856-1874) Emigration records 1860, page 1144-1145, http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20070206620343.jpg
My head was spinning.
It was not over yet because the great thing about Jerry and NAGCNL is
that he took the time to then show me how to use FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/
and
Digitalarkivet http://arkivverket.no/Digitalarkivet to
assist in my research. What great tools! Plus I can use them at home (just have to
decipher the Norwegian handwriting!)
At home I found more info on Digitalarkivet with the help of FamilySearch including the names of Karen’s grandparents on both sides. This puts me back to the late 1750’s so far
in Gran, Oppland, Norway. Am I
done?? Not by a long shot. I have more things to investigate at NAGCNL
and of course more to find on Digitalarkivet but it broke down the wall that
had been hanging over me for so long. So
now instead of remembering the Hanson/Oleson family as a brick wall I can
remember them by the courage it must have taken to come here and move from one
state to another to find their home.
