Black Sheep Sunday: Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt

Since it's Black Sheep Sunday...

Years ago, I came across another researcher's notes on a now-defunct personal website. Another member of the Trondelag-L listserv was kind enough to translate it for me. This is obviously not good research on my part (I haven't found the original document yet), but I love the story just the same. Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt was my 5th great-grandfather, born 1771 in Akershus, Norway.

Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt
Forhør på Spillum i Fosnes 8/12 1809 av noen passløse personer, bl.a. Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt, for tyveri. Han sier seg 39 år gl og født i Agers sogn i Akershus stift og konfirmert i samme kirke. Han har i 12 år bodd på Bakklandet i Trondheim og har ernært seg som smed. Men på grunn av uheldige omstendigheter har han flyttet på landet og flakket omkring for å nære seg av sitt arbeid. For 6-7 år siden satt han arrestert på Nordmøre, men rømte derfra. Hans siste nattverd var i Vår Frue kirke i Trondheim.Den 11/1-1811 ble han dømt til ett års arbeid i Trondheim Tukthus.

Translation by Olaf Kringhaug, 2003:

Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt
Hearing at Spillum in Fosnes 8/12 1809 [8 December 1809] for some persons without identitification, among them Søren Johnsen Nordtvedt, for theft. He says he is 39 years old and born in Agers parish in Akershus county and confirmed in the same church. He has for 12 years lived in Bakklandet in Trondheim and has supported himself as a smith. But because of unlucky events he has moved to the country and roamed around to support himself with his work. About 6-7 years ago he was arrested in Nordmøre, but escaped from there. His last communion was in Vår Frue church in Trondheim. The 11/1-1811 [11 January 1811] he was sentenced to a year of labor in Trondheim House of Correction.

from: http://home.no.net/khasselb/nordtvedtsj.htm

Just eight years earlier, in the 1801 census, he could be found living in Bakklandet with his wife, Guri (35), and their four children: Jon (6), Gunder (4), Jacob (2), and Martha (1). He was listed as a "master smith," with two other smiths, two apprentices, and two female servants also living in the household.

Bakklandet

I wonder now what "unlucky events" led Søren to this life just a couple of years later. Had his wife passed away? Did she leave him? Did he do someone wrong at work, or did someone else do him wrong? I hope I'll find out someday.

In 2003, my mother and I traveled to Norway, and I walked the streets of Bakklandet in Trondheim. It's such a beautiful place now, though it was once the poorer, working class part of town.

Mom and me in Bakklandet, 2003

At any rate, it turned out alright for the Nordtvedts. They went on to be a family of shipbuilders and carpenters, and the little boy Gunder became the father of my immigrant ancestor, Søren Gerhard Nordtvedt.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: August 29, 2009

1) Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).

2) Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.

There isn't so much to tell on my list, because fortunately four of these people are still living.

* my dad, living

* my mom, living

* my paternal grandfather, Howard Benjamin Scriver (1915 - 1983), lived in South Shore, SD

* my paternal grandmother, living

* my maternal grandfather, living

* my great-grandmother (mother's mother's mother), Marie Mathilda Brandon Peterson (1903 - 1990), lived in Irene, SD

There's also my maternal grandfather's second wife, who has always been Grandma to me, and his stepmother, Helen Alida Miller Nordseth (1903 - 1989), who raised him and was Great-Grandma to me.

Ancestry.com

I love how the Internet makes the world a smaller place. Despite being young in the genealogy world, I started my research the old fashioned way: with paper and pencils, trips to to the courthouse and local church and cemetery, letters to my grandparents' siblings and cousins, and my much-loved copy of Unpuzzling Your Past.

Then I subscribed to Ancestry.com for a while years ago, while it was relatively new. In the past few years, I haven't had a lot of time for family history, and I hadn't paid a lot of attention to what new resources were available online.

So last night I signed up again, and WOW.

WOW.

You all have been busy, haven't you? ;-)

In the span of a few hours, I struck gold, thanks in large part to distant cousins who were sharing what they had. I found a photograph of a ggg-grandfather whose face I'd never seen before, as well as information about where he spent the last part of his life. I found a new-to-me photograph of two ggg-grandparents and two gg-grandparents.

In other Ancestry.com databases, I found my husband's gg-grandfather's 1926 passport application, complete with a photograph and the name of his father in Wales (and that information led me to another cousin). Best of all, I may have found someone who has already shattered my biggest brick wall: my gg-grandfather's origins in Denmark.

So to those of you who have been diligently uploading what you have to share with others, thank you. I'm going to work on doing the same now, so that the photographs and stories in my albums aren't lost to other branches of the family.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" on NBC?

Have you noticed that NBC has an American version of the BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" on the preliminary schedule again? It's set to kick off with features on the genealogy of Sarah Jessica Parker, Lisa Kudrow, and Susan Sarandan, but they're not naming a specific date yet. It's been announced and then nixed before, so I hope it makes it this time. I watched the David Tennant episode yesterday evening and loved it... though my husband repeatedly rolled his eyes at me. ;-) That's quite alright, as I feel the same way about WoW.

Wordless Wednesday: Mervin Peterson

The kids are already back to school around here, which made me think of the school photos I have in my collection. School photos are timeless, aren't they? This is my maternal grandmother's brother, Mervin Peterson (1928 - 2008). I look at this picture to remember that he was once my great-grandmother's little boy.

Tombstone Tuesday: Alvilde Stenseth Skaugen

grave of
Alvilde Marie Stenseth Skaugen
Gamle Aker Kirke - Oslo, Norway
photo: 2003

(This photo--which isn't mine--has a view of the name.)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: August 22, 2009

Every Saturday, Randy Seaver at Genea Musings writes a prompt or challenge known as "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun." This week's challenge:

1) Is there someone on your list of 16-great-great-grandparents that you don't have a census record for, and for which one should be available? If you have all of your great-great-grands (or they are not on the census records), what about your great-grands, your grands, or your parents? What about siblings of your great-grands? What about your spouse's family lines? Go find at least one!

2) Tell us about it in your blog, comments to this post, or comments in Facebook. While you're at it, give us a source citation for your census finding too (you do make source citations, don't you?).

Choosing somewhat at random, I decided to search for one of my husband's gg-grandmother's siblings, Ward JAMES. From earlier censuses, I knew that he was born around 1895, in Illinois, and I knew that by 1930, most of his family was in Brown County, South Dakota.

Using Footnote's limited time free access to the 1930 census, I quickly found Ward and his family living in Lansing Township, Brown County, South Dakota.


* Ward R. James - head, renter, owns a radio, lives on a farm, male, white, 35, married, first married at 28, did not attend school this year, can read and write, born Illinois, father born Illinois, mother born Illinois, able to speak and write English, Farmer, farm

* Ines E. James - wife, female, white, 25, married, first married at 18, did not attend school this year, can read and write, born Wisconsin, father born Wisconsin, mother born Wisconsin, occupation none

* Ivan W. James - son, male, white, 2, single, did not attend school this year, can not read and write, born South Dakota, father born Illinois, mother born Wisconsin, occupation none

1930 U.S. Federal Census, Lansing Township, Brown County, South Dakota, ED 7-37, Sheet 1a, Family 6, Ward R. James household, jpeg image, [Digital scan of original records in the National Archives, Washington, DC], subscription database, accessed August 2009.

I'd previously known nothing about Ward James as an adult, so I added his wife and child to my file today.

This was also a chance to check out the census on Footnote, and I was impressed. The search function seemed to work well, and I was glad to be able to lighten or darken the image myself.

I did a little more digging online and easily found when Ward, Inez, and Ivan passed away, as well as the name of Ivan's wife. It appears that she is likely still living.

Wordless* Wednesday: Annette & Lee

my grandmother, Annette, and her little brother, Lee
photographed August 9, 2009
(picture shared by my cousin, Kristi)

*It's never wordless on genealogy blogs. We can't stand unlabeled photos!

On Genealogy

I know, I know. The word "genealogy" brings forth images of little old ladies with too much time on their hands. There are a lot of those, sure. I've hung out with them at the genealogical society. They're nice. They bring cookies to the meetings. Still, the thing about genealogy research is that it reminds you all the time that those little old ladies aren't just who they appear to be on the outside. They were once infants in long christening gowns, children who swung from trees, young adults who went to dances, young mothers who cradled babies... None of us are just who we appear to be on the outside.

During the summer between 4th and 5th grade, I decided to try to earn as many Girl Scout badges as possible. By the fall, my green sash was covered in the round, embroidered patches, but one in particular left a lasting impression. I believe it might have been “My Heritage,” if that was in use in the late 1980’s.

The only task I remember was a simple one: create a family tree, as far back as you can go. I knew my grandparents’ names, as three of the four had been alive when I was born. Two of my great-grandmothers (one my grandpa’s stepmother) were also still living, though I’d never thought to ask Great-Grandma Peterson much about her ancestry. I knew only that we were Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish, like most of the people we knew in South Dakota

I asked my parents for their grandparents’ names. Each of them could name them, but my dad’s insistence that his grandmother was called Josephine Johanson made my mom and me laugh.

To learn more, they took me to visit my paternal grandmother and her sister, Dolly, who still lived in the town where my dad and all his cousins had grown up. I drew my first pedigree chart on lined notebook paper as they spoke of my dad’s family—their own parents and grandparents. I was fascinated by the idea that my cantankerous grandmother had once been someone’s little granddaughter. (And as Grandma explained, my great-grandmother was Josephine, but my great-great grandmother was the Johanson.)

A few years later, in junior high, I discovered my two heroes of genealogy. The first was Emily Anne Croom, who wrote a beginner’s guide called Unpuzzling Your Past. The second was Alex Haley, whose epic family history, Roots, taught Americans that their own personal history mattered.

I’ve been interested ever since, though there never seemed to be enough time or money. Now, as I settle into my 30’s, I’m ready to begin again. With this blog, I hope to organize my efforts and connect with other researchers in the “genea-blogger” world.