I don’t know about you, but the branches of my tree that always seem to be missing are of the wives of my ancestral grandfathers. Over the years I have gone back over whatever small bits of data I have and made attempts to find either names, which is a travesty all on its own, or their family. And, in some cases, I have been successful. In other’s not so much. But, today is one of those good days.

Amund Amundson’s maternal grandmother’s line just stopped with Kristi Oldsdatter, b1791, from Røldal, Hordaland, Norway. Earlier attempts to suss out her family were unsuccessful. The hint though is that we know where she was from, because several records that do exist for her indicate her origins. Including the 1865 census:

Details of 1865 Norway Census, Sjoerteiger, Ullensvang (local parish), Kinzervig (parish):

Page No.    House No.    Name                 Age      Place of birth     Family Position        Marital Status

001            01                Lars Aadsen              76         Kingservik            Husfader                              g              

002            01                Kresti Oldsdatter    74         Røldal                   hans Kone                           g

Røldal.

Previous research attempts were futile, or difficult, because I wasn’t sure of the records and there were easier ancestors to play with. Recently however, I decided to make a more serious attempt. My endeavor found that the Røldal bygdabøk has been digitized by the Family History Library, and is available outside of the library. Just to be clear, I just found this out, I have no idea when the availability of the images happened.

Thankfully, I found it, because I am pretty sure that this has allowed me to add a few more generations to her tree, which also means my tree.

The branches are still a work in progress, as I am transcribing on google translate the text from the farm histories. It works pretty well, although there are a few hiccups in the translation now and then.

I have run into one interesting family already. Tore Helgeson of Hamre, who purchased Tufte in 1673, and his wife, Britte Tolievsdtr, only had one child, a daughter, Ingerid, who married Orm Jonson Sukka from Suldal. He was, by all accounts, rich. But, he was also an ass. Here is the bygdabøk entry as translated with some adjustments by me to make it a bit more readable:

It seems that Orm had good business acumen and was rich in both money and land. In addition to the land estates he got with his wife [Ingerid], he and Tveito bought land in 1713 and also built-up half of the Tufte farm in 1720. This was probably the reason why he was a sheriff in the village from 1706 to 1708.

Various events come up that show Orm was not always successful, [I would say sane], in his dealings with others. As seen in the parliament [court?] in 1701, he was found guilty of slaying a poor woman with a stick, because she was not willing to take on a grain shed [not sure this translation is correct, maybe is means work in the grain shed]. For this case, and for another with Kittel [translation?] in the farm, he was sentenced to a fine of 6 rd. and had to pay 1 rd. to the poor. 

After Orm had died in 1735, his wife, Ingerid, sued Jakob Prestegård, because while Orm was [ill] lying on the floor, Jakob entered the living room at Berge and scolded Orm. The prelude to this was that Jakob had once before lent 10 rd. to Orm’s son Lars. Orm had promised to pay Jakob back this money, but hadn’t, and now Jakob wanted it settled. When Orm was not willing to keep his word either, Jakob became angry. According to Ingerid’s testimony in court, “He should have seen that Orm was in so much pain at the time, that when he goes from here to the world, then she hopes he goes to hell, the old dog.” Jakob refused to admit that such a thing happened. So, because Ingerid had no witnesses to bring, he was acquitted.

I am looking forward to filling out this line a bit more, it is always fun to see those records going back into the 1600s and know that those were your ancestors. I am also glad to see more of where my Norwegian ancestry comes from:

The places of interest for me from these maps are: Røldal, Hauge, Hamre, Tufto, Runnane, Berge they are all farms close together which is easy to see on the closer maps. The larger map shows where Røldal is in relation to where Amund came from along the large waterway, aboutish across the water from Ullensvang. (These image can be clicked on to see larger.)

I really want to go to Norway! Not only is much of the scenery where they lived simply stunning, but I want to see where my Nordic ancestors walked, played, farmed, lived, and died for several hundred years, before they decided that life, and opportunities, would be better for them in the United States.