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| 1865 Norway Census which lists the family of Hans Johan Gunderson and Anna Soffie Olsdatter |
Sometimes genealogy research just goes like this....
In my last post, I shared the partial transcript of my Grandfather Harold Hansen's Life Story and how he went on a grand adventure to Norway to visit his father's family when he was a young man. Harold's father was John Hartwig Hansen who immigrated from Norway and eventually settled in Grass Valley. In that story, there were clues. Clues that were important, because this side of the family has always been a mystery. I don't have much information on the Norway family in my possession, nor have I been able to find anything when I did preliminary research. Yet, there is a still a strong cultural connection with the country of Norway that has been handed down to members of my family on the Hansen side. We still identify in some ways as being "Norwegian" to this day. I've always been curious about this family that my Great Grandfather John Hartwig Hansen came from.
Who were John Hartwig Hansen's parents? Did he really change his name to Hansen when he immigrated to America from something else? Who exactly did Harold Hansen visit when he was in Norway? Grandpa said that his father John Hartwig wrote to his brother-in-law Harald P. Klemmetsen who had a shipping firm out of Norway. He said his father's sister was Aunt Hulda. Aunt Hulda and Uncle Harold had a son named Ralph who was a ship captain, and another son Christian who was a farmer in Ski. So, from these clues I was able to find the Klemmetson family in Christiana, Norway. From there, I discovered an 1865 Norway census on Ancestry.com that listed not only Johan Hartvig, but his sister Hulda E. Christine. This family lived in Christiana. The father listed on the census was Hans Johan Gunderson. Humm.....Hans, Hansen, son of Hans. Yes! After some quick research on Scandinavian family name etymology I found out that heritable family names were adopted rather late within Scandinavia. More precisely in 1923 in Norway it was ordered by law that each family should have a single, hereditary last name. So, before 1923, names were originally patronymic and commonly ended with the suffixes "--ssen", "--sson", "sdatter", "-sdotter" which is the genitive s plus the word sen or son for son or datter or dotter for daughter. The genitive s was often dropped; compare Hanssen and Hansen. Light bulb moment. Two days later, this is what I came up with. Looks like I found them!
Hans Johan Gunderson b. 1824 d. 1874 Christiana, Norway
married
Anna Soffie Olsdatter b. 1824 Christiana, Norway
1. Gustav Olaf Hansen b. 1848 Christiana, Norway
2. Carl Fredrich Hansen b. 1855 d. 1875 Christiana, Norway
3. Hulda Elvine Kristine Hansen b. 1857 Christiana, Norway
4. Oliver Valdemer Hansen b. 1861 Christiana, Norway
5. Johan Hartvig Hansen b. 1865 Christiana, Norway d. 1945 Grass Valley, CA
*********************************************************************************
Harald Peter Klemmetsen b. 1862 Christiana, Norway
married
15 February 1885
3. Hulda Elvine Kristine Gundersen (listed as Gundersen on her marriage certificate).
(Children all born in Christiana, Norway)
1. Hartvig Harald Aleksander Klemmetsen b. 1885
2. Elvira Matea Sophie Klemmetsenb. 1887 d. 1894
3. Marie Kristiane Harolda Klemmetsen b. 1892
4. Kristian Valdemer Klemmetsen b. 1892 (Christian the farmer in Ski)
5. Emma Hansine Klemmetsen b. 1894
6. Hans Petter Klemmetsen b. 1896
7. Rolf Henry Klemmetsen b. 1898. (Ralph the ship captain)
Grandpa also talked about Mia and Emma. Mia may have been Marie. This family was easier to find as they all kept the name Klemmetsen. (Thank goodness).
5. Johan Hartvig Hansen (aka John Hartwig Hansen)
married 3 July 1904
Clara Vere Burrows in Grass Valley, California
1. Hulda Elizabeth Hansen b. 1905 d. 1905 Grass Valley, Ca
2. Jack Klemmet Hansen b. 1906 d. 1986 Grass Valley, Ca
3. Robley Evans Hansen b. 1909 d. 1985
4. Harold Lloyd Hansen b. 1910 d. 1993 (my Grandfather).
What is interesting to me is that the only information my Auntie Claire had written down for John Hartwig Hansen's parents were the names Hans Gundersen and Annie Alson. I found a copy of John Hartwig Hansen's marriage certificate at the Historical Society and the names listed as parents were Hans Hansen (father) and Sophy (mother). Alson could have been close to Olsen, which refers to her last name of Olsdatter (daughter of Ole, which would have been Olsen, son of Olsen). Norwegian genealogy research is not for the faint at heart. Other interesting connections are the names Hulda and Klemmet in my Grandfather's family. I always wondered at the origins of those very Norwegian names! John Hartwig was obviously very attached to his siblings and brother in law. Maybe he missed his Norwegian family very much. And, his last name was always Hansen. He did not change it when he came to America, but he Americanized his first and middle names like so many immigrants before and after him.
And so the mystery is mostly solved. There is still more research to do, but Ancestry has limited resources that have been digitized for Norway. Maybe someone in the future can find more information. I would love to travel to Oslo and do some hunting for original source material. And how about this question... was Hans Johan Gunderson's father named Gunder? I found a buriel record for a Gunder Knudsen in 1829. His buriel place is listed as Den Norske Kirke, Froland, Aust-Agder, Norway. It is suggested by 23andMe that our Norwegian DNA may be from the Aust-Agder area of Norway. So, another mystery that needs solving!
PS...the name of Christiana was changed to Olso in 1924.
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