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JaneC
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
3020 Posts |
 Posted - 28/09/2015 : 14:49:31
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It's my impression it often happened that people did not register their leaving with the parish pastor. That would be pretty normal. It doesn't suggest evasiveness.
Lyndal40 mentioned earlier the need to hold off on getting too attached to that description of the travels of your Hans, as those voyages for him are pretty speculative. Hans worked on a dredge, he was certified as a mariner in coastal waters(?) - the proven facts don't suggest interocean voyages (even though that can't be ruled out). Have I got that right?
Seems you guys, as a team, have left few stones unturned. This search has been energetic (in Australia and Norway both) yet hasn't yielded a definitive answer. A possibility to possibly maybe consider at some point is a DNA test, comparing a descendant of Hans with a descendant of the candidate. |
Edited by - JaneC on 28/09/2015 15:33:32 |
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KerrieTonsen
Junior member
Australia
38 Posts |
Posted - 28/09/2015 : 15:44:48
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quote:
Originally posted by JaneC
It's my impression it often happened that people did not register their leaving with the parish pastor. That would be pretty normal. It doesn't suggest evasiveness.
Lyndal40 mentioned earlier the need to hold off on getting too attached to that description of the travels of your Hans, as those voyages for him are pretty speculative. Hans worked on a dredge, he was certified as a mariner in coastal waters(?) - the proven facts don't suggest interocean voyages (even though that can't be ruled out). Have I got that right?
Seems you guys, as a team, have left few stones unturned. This search has been energetic (in Australia and Norway both) yet hasn't yielded a definitive answer. A possibility to possibly maybe consider at some point is a DNA test, comparing a descendant of Hans with a descendant of the candidate.
Under the name HANS TONSEN there is absolutely NO RECORD of him on board any ship in any maritime records in NSW (or Australia) - the only indication of him working on a dredge in Newcastle Harbour is in a police gazette item and a newspaper article about illegal dumping of ballast into harbour waters in 1875. He is noted as a mariner in 7 of the 10 birth records of his children in Australia, and as a labourer in the birth records of the last 3 children.
The address shown on the birth records of children born after 1880 in Sydney is the same address as shown in the SANDS Street Directory for Sydney which lists a HANS TONSEN Master Mariner in the 1885 directory.
There are newspaper gazetted notices of Hans Tonsen receiving his Masters and Pilots certificates in March and July 1880 - but still NO RECORDS of his as a master or a crewman on any vessel that I have been able to find so far (under the name Hans Tonsen)
The reason for focusing on maritime records is that THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY TO GET TO AUSTRALIA - everyone had to come here by ship (one way or another, as a passenger or crewman or convict) from the date of first white settlement in 1788 onwards
I do appreciate all of the help received so far, and understand that this topic is getting quite long and cumbersome |
KAT |
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KerrieTonsen
Junior member
Australia
38 Posts |
Posted - 28/09/2015 : 15:55:47
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quote:
Originally posted by JaneC
It's my impression it often happened that people did not register their leaving with the parish pastor. That would be pretty normal. It doesn't suggest evasiveness.
Lyndal40 mentioned earlier the need to hold off on getting too attached to that description of the travels of your Hans, as those voyages for him are pretty speculative. Hans worked on a dredge, he was certified as a mariner in coastal waters(?) - the proven facts don't suggest interocean voyages (even though that can't be ruled out). Have I got that right?
Seems you guys, as a team, have left few stones unturned. This search has been energetic (in Australia and Norway both) yet hasn't yielded a definitive answer. A possibility to possibly maybe consider at some point is a DNA test, comparing a descendant of Hans with a descendant of the candidate.
As to the DNA test, if I could find a current day descendent of Nils Josefsen of Akra, I would consider it JANEC - my former husband and my son are both direct descendants of Hans Tonsen. However it is my understanding that Nils Josefsen cannot be located in Norwegian records any time after 1870.
I did find in ancestry.com a possible indication that a (soon to be) brother-in-law of Nils Josefsen (Ole Olsen born 1847, who married Josefine Karine Josefsen in 1876) was listed in the 1871 Scottish Census as an able seaman - along with dozens of other Scandinavian names when the census was taken on 3 & 4 April, 1871 - Ole Olsen is said to have been born in Stavanger, Norway - perhaps Nils Josefsen did something similar. |
KAT |
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AntonH
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
9301 Posts |
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KerrieTonsen
Junior member
Australia
38 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2022 : 12:43:15
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I have found a record that Nils Josefsen was indentured/apprenticed into the Merchant Navy in Greenwich, London in Novermber 1868 (aged 17) to A. Blake of Greenwich - first vessel was called "Violet" and there is a note next to the entry that says "Fishing"
The date of completion of his apprenticeship was said to be May 1872 (but it has been crossed through)
It's possible that he was working in the Atlantic waters between England and Norway and was able to be present to be a godfather in 1870 to one of his sibling's children.
Also possible that he absconded before completing his apprenticeship, and thus the reason for the change in name - to his grandparents' name of Tonnesen - shortened to Tonsen |
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HANS TONSEN
