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Mari Samuelsen
Starting member
Norway
13 Posts |
 Posted - 02/04/2011 : 12:25:29
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I am a norwegian archaeologystudent, and a couple of years ago my family and I started with genealogy. I have always heard stories of my great-great grandfather, Thorvald Kristian Tönnessen, who went to USA and then disappeared, and we wanted to see if we could figure out what happend to him. According to norwegian emmigration-papers he went on a ship over to New York in 1889. It has been said that his wife, at some point, came to New York, but they had an arguement and he left her all alone without any money. She came back to Norway with help from the embassy, and she and the daughters went to live with her father. The norwegian census of 1901 says that her husband had been in America for some time without been heard from.
I went to familysearch.org, and there I found a naturalization petition from 1896, in New York, and we thinks that Thorvald Tonnessen might be the same person as my great-great grandfather. The birthday/-year on the picture fits perfectly and according to church books and censuses he seems to be the only Thorvald Tönnessen born on that date:
https://www.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2F...
I have not been able to find anything else on him on the internet, but while playing around on familysearch.org I found this:
https://www.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpilot.familysearch.org%2Frecords%2Ftrk%3A%2Ffsrs%2Frr_1215076045%2Fp_583484912&hash=HloWXpZgU9zB10k5M56iYku8TUc%253D
It is a woman called Charlotte C Tonnessen, a widow, who lives in New York in 1910 and when I looked at the information on her children it said that their fathers nationality was norwegian. The oldest daughter is born in 1896. I know that there were many immigrants in USA called Tonnessen, but we are hoping that these might be related to our Thorvald.
We live in Norway and it is very difficult for us to find anything that's not on the internet. So if there is anyone that can help; either in finding information or has got some tips on how we can go about it ourselves we would really appreciate the help!
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Mari Krogstad Samuelsen |
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jwiborg
Norway Heritage Veteran
Norway
4961 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2011 : 15:17:41
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Census-1900 for New York City, Kings, New York shows her husband's name as Louis Thompson, born in Norway in July 1852.
Your Thorvald is born in July 1858? Is it this one?
Thorvald Christian Tønnesen
Born 05 Jul 1858, Chr 15 Aug 1858, Vestre Moland, Aust-Agder, Norway
Parents: Tønnes Andreas Salvesen & Thea Thomine Thorsdr
Census-1900:
Louis Thompson, 47, born July 1852, Norway. Married for 13 years, imm. 1894.
Charlott Thompson, 39, born July 1860, Sweden.
William Thompson, 15
Amy Thompson, 14
Harry Thompson, 11
Letacia Thompson, 5
Hellen Thompson, 2
1886 ?
1889 ?
Jan Peter |
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Mari Samuelsen
Starting member
Norway
13 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2011 : 15:54:47
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Yes, that's him. There has been many stories about him; one of them is that he bought a farm not far from Minnesota and that he maybe remarried and even changed his surname. I don't think that we'll ever find out what really happend too him, but it would be really cool if he got a new family over there and we found some of his descendants.
What annoyes me is that I can't find anything after the naturalization petition. I would think that as soon as he was in the system that there at least would be a death sertificate on him or something like that.
Both the names and the ages of Charlott and her three youngest children fits with those on familysearch.org, but the surnames doesnt' (but then again a lot of the surnames where spelled wrong though). |
Mari Krogstad Samuelsen |
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Trying to find a "lost" ancestor
