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Michael Farringdon
New on board
United Kingdom
1 Posts |
 Posted - 11/03/2011 : 10:31:01
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| My grandfather, Franz Wilhelm Dresen (aka William Dresen), born 1850 in Elberfeld, Germany, lived in Christiana after 1874 for some years but moved on to London, England where he appears in the 1881 Census. Can anyone suggest ways of finding out what he was doing and where while in Christiana? Did foreigners have to register with the police and if so would their records be available? The last entry in his Prussian passport is for December 1873 when he took a job in Nurmburg, Germany. The British 1881 Census gives his occupation as Tin Worker; certainly he had expertise in making metal boxes and in tin canning (of food). (Unfortunately, about 50 years ago my grandmother destroyed a large quantity of letters from a lady in Christiana to him.) |
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Erik Carsten
Advanced member
USA
578 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2011 : 17:40:40
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There was a large German community in Kristiania and Trondheim.
According to Knut Kjeldstadli, Professor University of Oslo many immigrants from Prussia, Berlin and Hanover (among others) were artisan bakers and candy makers as well as professional musicians.
Again, according to Knut Kjeldstadli, the links between Trondheim and the German speaking region of Schleswig and Holstein go way back to the Flensburgers, who had a history of migration to Norway in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Norway was an agrarian state that was on the verge of being modernized. The first spurt of modern industrialization came around 1850, and the country required trained persons. Many Germans filled this need. Norway also lacked a resident court, due to the King residing in Sweden from 1815-1905. A court always stimulates music and the arts; hence, Norwegian musical life was to a large extent filled by Germans, whose country already had a long history of nobility and royal courts.
Perhaps he was a musician or a baker of some sort?
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Hopkins
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
3351 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2011 : 00:22:38
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He doesn't appear to have been registered in the 1875 Norwegian census. Oslo/Kristiania is one of the areas that is included in the online database for1875.
http://www.rhd.uit.no/indexeng.html
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Franz Wilhelm Dresen workingin Christiana in 1870s
