Sunday Biography Series -- Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter Part V

I have previously written about my ggg-grandmother Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Also, if you go to the bottom of this article and click on the label, all the posts will come up at once and you can read them all together.

I thought that I would add an update to Akoline's story.  Last summer when I went to Norway, I visited the Methodist Church in Fredrikstad where Akoline/Oleane and her husband Samuel became Methodists.  It is also the church where my gg-grandfather Emil Georg Samuelsen Haugen was baptized.  When I visited, I met with an historian affiliated to the church, and he showed me not only the original book of records, but also a picture of the minister who would have baptized them all.  The book of records also recorded the unfortunate death of my ggg-grandfather Samuel Andreasen.  The record said he had died on 3 June, 1875 by drowning at sea.  Of course, I have previously posted what actually happened to him, which is a little different.  My gg-grandfather had told my father (my father was a boy at the time) that his father, Samuel, had fallen to his death from the ship's mast after going up to make a repair.  In fact, at the archives in Norway last summer, I had discovered the record that said exactly this.  The accident occurred somewhere on their way to Bristol, England.  I'm sure he was buried at sea, which is what the church record means by saying he "drowned."  Here is a link to Samuel's story.

Last summer I posted very briefly about what I found in the Methodist Church.  Here are some more pictures with further comments.

Fredrikstad Methodist Church.  Below is the inside of the church; the historian I met said it had to be redone due to a fire.




The minister who baptized Akoline/Oleane, Samuel, and Emil was Bernt Johannessen.  Below are the pictures of all the ministers who have served the Methodist Church in Fredrikstad.

The first part of the baptismal records for my ggg-grandparents Samuel and Akoline/Oleane.  Here
my ggg-grandmother is Johansdatter rather than Jakobsdatter (her father, whom I found out was not her biological father, was named Johan Jakob, and she used these names interchangeably for her surname.  Also, "Akoline" seems to have appeared from nowhere just about during this time.  Her birth and previous records only use the name Oleane.  Moreover, she also sometimes used 9 February as her birth date when it was actually 17 February.  She seems to know her birth date is 17 February in previous records, yet sometimes she used 9 February later.  I believe she had some reasons for doing these things, and that they were not mistakes.  Earlier records show she is born in Sweden, but in at least two records later in life she is shown as being from Sarpsborg, Norway, which is actually where she emigrated to from Sweden.  These were census records, and she must have given this incorrect information.  I think that she wished to forget some of her early past.  Both marriage records (she was married twice) and other earlier records show her with her accurate name, birth date, and birth location -- all of which I have verified in the Swedish records.

This records says my ggg-grandfather, Samuel Andreasen died on June 3rd, 1875.  Below it says that he drowned at sea.

The book of records from the Methodist church containing the baptismal records for my ggg-grandparents
and of their son, Emil Georg Samuelsen Haugen.  It also contained the death record for my gg-grandfather, Samuel Andreasen.

Sunday Biography Series -- Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter Part IV

I left off last time with my ggg-grandmother Akoline Oleane's conversion to Methodism, her marriage to her second husband, her return to the Lutheran Church, and the birth of her fourth child, Amine, by another man while her husband had disappeared in America for 10 years.  As it turns out, the father of Amine, Martinius Johannesen, was a boarder in Oleane's home.  He was 16 years younger than Oleane, and the story is that when Oleane became pregnant he was scared and ran away.  I learned about this from Amine's grandson, whom I met thanks to my computer.  He also added that Martinius did see Amine until she was about 10 years old, but he stopped after this age.  With this information in hand, I was able to find a series of records to help piece together the probable sequence of events.  Martinius moved to Hvaler to work at stone-cutting, and it was there that he married and started a family -- about the same time he stopped seeing Amine. 

In the meantime, according to Amine's grandson, Oleane worked cleaning at Sarpsborg Hospital (circa 1900).  She was also a strict mother, understandable when one is a single mother without any support from family.  One story Amine told was how Oleane had scraped together enough money to hand out a good bag of candy to Amine and some friends for Christmas. Well, Amine in her young life had never seen so much candy at once and was so enthralled by the view before her that she wanted it all to herself. As punishment for this, Oleane said there would never be another Christmas, which ended up meaning there was never a Christmas tree again in the living room.  And that was that!  Poor Amine made her own tree out of a broom the next Christmas. I do think Oleane's punishment goes a bit too far, but Oleane had lived such a hard life, never having a husband to help with the bills and children.  It would be hard to know what went through her head.

One interesting, quirky thing I learned about Oleane is that she smoked clay pipes, which was highly unusual, and certainly inappropriate for a lady. In any case, she would quickly put the pipe in her apron pocket when there were strangers at the door; her apron pockets were always full of scorched holes.  This image beckons me to write such a character into a book.  I love reading about women who do unusual things for their time.

Overall, Oleane and her children had hard lives, with the exception perhaps of her son, Emil, my gg-grandfather.  Of course, his youth without a father was not likely to have been easy, and then his step-father disappeared in America.  But he eventually did pretty well for himself working the lumber and other jobs; he also married and built his own house.  In fact, in 1900, the census shows that he and his wife took in his mother, Oleane, and two of her children, Hartvig and Amine.  Harda was married by then.  But, in contrast, Emil's half-siblings did struggle much more during their lives.  Harda married an alcoholic, Hartvig was an alcoholic, and Amine had a child out of wedlock with an unknown man, although she did eventually marry a good man.  However, I shall share these stories with more detail when it is their turn to have their biographies told. 

Oleane moved to Lilleaker, Oslo, to help Amine when she became a single mother.  She stayed there until she died, according to Amine's grandson, on 24 August 1924.  I tried to find her death record, but it would be found in Ullern Parish, and for some reason, they have not released many records to the digital archives.  I hope to attain this record directly from the parish at some point.  I did write to them several months ago but have not received a response.

Next time on the Sunday Biography Series, another ancestor takes center stage, so stay tuned!

Click here for Part I, Part II, and Part III.

*Woman smoking pipe: http://www.codart.nl/images/Metsu25WomanSmoking.jpg

Sunday Biography Series -- Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter Part III

I left off on my last post with Akoline/Oleane's roots in Sweden and her migration with her mother to Sarpsborg and the Fredrikstad area of Oestfold, Norway.  We also know she married a Swedish sailor who also emigrated to the same area of Norway and died at sea about 5 years later when their son, my gg-grandfather, Emil, was only 4 years old.  She then married another Swedish man, a shoemaker, and had two children with him, Hartvig and Harda, who were baptized at a very late age.  I had also never found the baptismal certificate for my gg-grandfather, her son from the first marriage to my ggg-grandfather Samuel, but he had been confirmed in the Lutheran church.

One day, I stubbornly decided I was going to find my gg-grandfather's birth/baptismal record... and that was that.  I had searched the Glemmen and Vestre Fredrikstad records time and time again with no luck.  But I decided to check all the diary and "other notes" digitized parish records.  It took a while, but I struck gold!  I found a note regarding Oleane and Samuel having a son, Emil Georg, on September 10, 1871.  I was ecstatic.  But why would this be in the "notes" section? I found the answer two pages prior to this note.  Another notation said: 7 February 1871, the spouses, sailor (”matros”) Samuel Andreasen, Swedish of birth, born 3 May 1841, and wife Oleane Johansdatter born 17 February 1850, living at Trosvigbjerget, have announced today that they have left the State Church (Statskirken) and will join the Methodist society. This occurred before my great-great grandfather was born; therefore, I was sure his birth record could be found in the records of the Methodist Church of Fredrikstad. (Unfortunately, I found these records were not available online; however, my father did manage, a few months ago, to receive a copy of my gg-grandfather's baptismal record from the Methodist Church -- very exciting to finally have this after so much hunting.)

7 February, 1871, my great-great-great grandparents leave the State Church for the Methodist Church. Østfold county, Glemmen, Parish register (official) nr. 8 (1862-1871), Other type of list 1871, page 510. Note: click on picture for larger viewing.

When I learned about the Methodist connection, I immediately told my father, who grew up in Norway, what I had found.  He was quite surprised about this as he had not heard much about Methodists in Norway, nor had he ever heard any mention of these facts in the family. My research shows that Methodism was introduced in Norway in 1853 by the Norwegian sailor Ole P. Peterson, who was from Oestfold and had been converted from Lutheranism while in America. The first Methodist Church in Fredrikstad was built in 1868. John Follesdal wrote an article on Rootsweb (here) where he explains how for several hundred years Norwegian law made membership in the Lutheran State church mandatory. Legal protection of religious freedom was not introduced in Norway until 1845 and allowed Norwegians for the first time to resign their membership in the Lutheran State Church, and also allowed non-Lutheran Christian congregations to be established. The dissenter law required that the local parish priest make an entry in the parish register when someone resigned their membership in the State Church. Parish priests were also required to enter information about the births, marriages, and deaths of dissenters in their parish registers, and dissenters were required to notify their local parish priest of these events. In addition, dissenters were required to maintain their own congregation registers, and once a year they had to submit a report to the amtmann, or county governor, detailing the births, marriages and deaths in their congregation, as well as a list of their members. The amtmann, in turn, passed this information on to the local parish priest. As a result, information regarding the births, marriages, and deaths of dissenters should have been included in the parish registers maintained by the parish priests, although this was not always the case.  (Again, see John Follesdal's article here.)

I soon found more religious dissent related to my ggg-grandmother when she married the second time, in 1877, to Lauritz Andersen, the shoemaker.  I already mentioned she had two children with him – Harda born in 1877 and Hartvig born in 1879.  I had found Oleane and Lauritz’s civil marriage record scribbled into the parish book without a number, and a notation that said “Anmeldelse fra Byfogden af 2/3-77,” which means, “notification from the Stipendiary magistrate March 2, 1877.”  As you may recall, her two children were baptized quite late, on the same day, when Hartvig was 8 years old and Harda 10 years old. On their baptismal records, it said their mother Oleane was no longer a member of the Methodist Church, but it also said their father was a Plymouth Brother and was in America – I am guessing he went there for missionary work.

When Harda Marie is baptized her mother is “forhenv. Methodist” (used to be a Methodist) and her father is a Plymouth Brother. Østfold county, Borge in Borge, Parish register (official) nr. I 8A (1887-1902), Birth and baptism records 1887, page 5.

Yet again, I was struck with a new religion to study. I had never heard of the Plymouth Brothers, but they still exist today and now prefer the name Christian Brethren. This religion began in Plymouth, England and spread throughout Europe in the 1860’s, Norway being one of the countries. The Plymouth Brothers are highly conservative and evangelical and focus on their Bible. Women also subordinate to the men in the church, so I wondered how Oleane was still married to a Plymouth Brother but joined the State Church again and had her children baptized as well. I soon found my answer with the record for Oleane’s fourth child by another man in 1890.  Apparently, she had a "fling" or romance of some sort with her much younger boarder!  They were never married.  The pastor noted in the record belonging to her new daughter that her husband, Lauritz Andersen, had gone to America 10 years ago, circa 1880, and that she had not heard from him in 6 years. In other words, when she had her two children by him baptized, he had already been in America for several years.  She was also still a "wife" without knowledge of her husband's whereabouts in America for several years during her fourth child's baptism.  Perhaps she did not expect he would come back when she had a relationship with the father of this child.

Birth record for Oleane's fourth child, Amine Mathilde.  The record says Amine is the daughter of the bachelor Martinius Johannesen and married woman, Oleane Johannesdatter.  The note in parentheses says she is married to Lauritz Andersen who went to America ten years ago and from whom she had not heard news in six years.  Østfold county, Borge in Borge, Parish register (official) nr. I 8A (1887-1902), Birth and baptism records 1890, page 30.

Stay tuned for part IV coming next Sunday on this Sunday Biography Series.
Part I found here.
Part II found here.

Sunday Biography Series -- Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter Part II

My last blog post regarding my ggg-grandmother Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter left off where I found out she was born in Sweden, in Tanum Parish--Göteborgs och Bohus län (Bohuslän).  She had also married my ggg-grandfather Samuel Andreasen, who was also from Tanum Parish in Sweden.  Of course, I right away wanted to take a trip into Swedish records, but I had never searched them before.  The other problem was I really needed a birth date for Akoline (or rather Oleane, as she seemed to be named in most records I was finding).

I had learned from my father's cousin in Norway that Akoline/Oleane had had three husbands, so I hoped that in finding more records belonging to her that one of them would have a birth date.  I assumed Akoline would have stayed in the same area after her first husband Samuel died and decided to search both the Glemmen and the Vestre Fredrikstad marriage records.  I calculated a death date for Samuel based on my father's recollection of his great-grandfather telling him his father had died when he was around four years old.  I then searched the marriage records, pretty much one name at a time, until I hit the names Oleane Jakobsdatter and Lauritz Andersen (a shoemaker), where it was noted both were born in Sweden.  Interestingly, they did not have a number next to their registration, and it looked as if the pastor had squeezed their names into the books as an afterthought.  I soon realized the marriage was a civil marriage that had been recorded in the parish book.  The civil marriage record number was noted by the pastor. 

As I looked at the names of Oleane and Lauritz Andersen, something looked familiar.  It finally struck me -- I had seen the combination of names before.  As you may recall, my last post stated that the 1900 census showed my great-great grandfather living in Moum Soendre Farm with his family and three people I did not recognize.  I don't know why the census-takers never recorded he was living with his mother, but I took a good look at that record and realized that the Lena Andersen listed had to be Oleane with her husband's surname, and there were two children listed with birth years and place of birth as well.  But Lauritz Andersen was not living with them, so I figured he was probably dead.  However, I had to find her children's birth records to prove my theory that Lena and Oleane were the same person.  I searched the Glemmen baptismal records (the same parish where Oleane's and Lauritz's marriage had been recorded) for children and found two, Harda and Hartvig.  They had both been baptized as older children, 10 and 8, respectively.  They each had godparents I recognized, and Oleane Jakobsdatter and Lauritz Andersen were named as the parents, so I knew I had the right people.  But why were these children baptized so late?  I was coming to realize that Oleane didn't quite do things as expected.  And now I also had a third variation of her name -- Lena.  Anyway, more details on her children's late baptisms will follow on another post; instead, I will focus on her Swedish roots and her arrival in Norway.

I now had a few records that tied together, and the marriage record for Akoline/Oleane had a birth date -- 17 February, 1850.  Sweden, here I come!  I researched a bit regarding finding records from Sweden and soon found out I had to pay a subscription to access these records with Genline.  I have since learned there is an "equivalent" site to the Digitalarkivet site of Norway (found here) that seems cheaper; I have used the latter site on a free trial, and it is very easy to use.  But back then, I only knew about Genline, which was not financially feasible for me at the time... so I did the next best thing -- I posted a request on the Swedish forums on Ancestry.com.  Amazingly, I received a response within an hour containing information from Oleane's birth record, her household examination record, and her emigration to Norway!

One interesting thing I learned was that my ggg-grandmother was named "Olleana" in her baptismal record, and there was no "Akoline" anywhere to be seen.  This still puzzles me; also, Akoline is a very unusual name, so it must have some meaning that she used it.  In any case, Oleane was born the 17th of February and baptized the 24th of February, 1850.  She was the illegitimate daughter of the farmhand maid Helena Magnusdotter (31 years old) who lived "under" Rungtung in that parish.  The record elaborates that Helena "lives with a soldier, Johan Jakob Ruth, but has a child from another."  Witnesses were Soldier Hvällberg from the croft under Kvarlös in that parish, Catharina Olsdotter in Kålstad in that parish and Anders Magnusson from the same place, and Carolina Olsdotter in Underslös in that parish.  Wow!  No one in Norway who knew some things about Akoline that had been passed down knew any of this!  Oleane used the names Johansdatter and Jakobsdatter, but Johan Jakob Ruth was not her father.  As was often the case with illegitimacy, the father's name was not given in the record, and I wonder if she ever knew it since she uses a surname derived from her non-biological father.  Household examination rolls show that Oleane grew up with Johan Jakob before leaving with her mother for Norway in 1863, and her mother and Johan Jakob did have other children together, although they never married.

Akoline/Oleane's baptismal record (click on picture to view)

On the 14th of December, 1863, thirteen-year-old Oleane and her mother Helena Magnusdotter crossed the border to a new life in Norway; they were headed to Sarpsborg.  I have since learned that during this period in the 1800's, Norway was "America" to many Swedes from the Bohuslän region, who flocked to the Fredrikstad area in search of work in the sawmills and stone-cutting quarries.  My father sent me a link to a site that tells the history behind a play in Norway called "The Barefoot Girl."  Apparently, Swedish girls walked the miles barefoot from Bohuslän, Sweden, into the Fredrikastad area because they did not want to wear out their shoes.  If this is true, then December may not have been the best month for Oleane and her mother to emigrate!

Emigration record for Oleane and her mother Helena Magnusdotter (click on picture to view)

On the next installment of Sunday Biography Series, Akoline/Oleane searches for her religion... and the truth behind her "third husband"...

Sunday Biography Series -- Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter, Part 1

It was less than two years ago I read the name Akoline Oleane Jakobsdatter for the first time.  She is my great-great-great grandmother on my paternal grandfather's line... or maybe it is clearer to say she is my paternal grandfather's great-grandmother.  And in a matter of months, I went from never having heard her name to putting together the pieces of an interesting and sometimes dramatic life. 

My search for Akoline began with my search for her son, my great-great grandfather, Emil Georg Samuelsen Haugen.  I knew more about him because my father and relatives remembered him well.  I also found him in the 1900 census, living in the Fredrikstad area (Moum Soendre farm), Borge Parish, with his wife, son, and three other people I did not recognize.  I next found his confirmation record in the Vestre Fredrikstad parish records, and his mother was listed as Akoline Oleane Johansdatter. (Note: I was unable to find a birth record for Emil, but that is a whole other story for another blog post).  My father had also contacted his cousin, who still lived in the same area and was also a direct descendant, and she knew from yet another descendant she'd contacted that Emil's mother's name was Akoline Jakobsdatter.  Therefore, the first name correlated with the confirmation record I had found but the surname did not.  However, the mystery was solved when my father's cousin told me she'd learned Akoline's father's name was Johan Jakob Roos.  This explained how Akoline could be either Johansdatter or Jakobsdatter. 

Everything so far seemed simple enough, right?  Well, Akoline turned out to be anything but a simple woman.  I knew that Emil's father had died while out at sea when Emil was but 4 years old.  My father had written a school book report on Norway's maritime history and adventures, and he had interviewed his great-grandfather Emil who had once sailed the seas, following in his father's footsteps.  His father was Samuel Andreasen, and all he knew was that Samuel had died off the coast of South America after climbing the mast to make a repair on the bramsail and falling to his death.

Having some knowledge of names and a date of birth for Emil, thanks to the 1900 census, I had an idea of where to start looking for his parents' marriage record.  I assumed they married shortly before he was born but decided to start looking through the records starting two years prior to his birth.  Vestre Fredrikstad did not become its own parish until 1871, the year Emil was born, so I had to search the Glemmen parish records starting in 1869.  These particular records were quite hard to read because the writing was faded, but luckily there were parish register copies for these years.  And when I did find the record, I was more than blown away!  In the marriage record, Akoline was written in by her middle name alone, Oleane, and the surname, Jakobsdatter.  Her husband was Samuel Andreasen.  And both were born in Sweden, Tanum Parish!  My father had never heard of Swedish ancestors, so this was big news to him... and to me. 

Record Translation:
Oleane Jacobsdatter marries bachelor seaman Samuel Andreasen from Trosvigbjerget, Glemmen Parish, 12 December, 1869.

Information: Østfold county, Glemmen, Parish register copy nr. 4 (1867-1875), Marriage records 1870, page 349-350.

Permanent sidelenke: http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_kildeid=7458&idx_id=7458&uid=ny&idx_side=-172

Samuel was 28 and one-half years old. Oleane was 19 and one-half years old. They were both born in Tanum, Sweden -- “begge fodt i Tanum i Sverige.” They married in Glemmen Kirke, 12 December 1869.

The previous record from the parish register copy was easier to read. Here is the record from the official book. However, again there is the Tanum parish in Sweden listed for both as a birthplace. Also, her father is Johan Jacob Ru?? (hard to make out the name). His father is Andreas Pettersen. You may need to zoom or use a magnifying glass to read it well.

Information: Østfold county, Glemmen, Parish register (official) nr. 8 (1862-1871), Marriage records 1870, page 284.

Permanent sidelenke: http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_kildeid=377&idx_id=377&uid=ny&idx_side=-271

Stay tuned next Sunday to learn more about the mystery of Akoline/Oleane, her Swedish beginnings, and what I learned about her father Johan Jakob and who he really was.