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tor
Starting member
Norway
9 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2003 : 17:32:54
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On May 5 1882 Helena Maria Olsdatter b. 1848 left Oslo together with a 13 years old son; both from Ø.Toten, Oppland County.
They arrived New York 1882,June 6?? on S/S Hekla.
The boy was baptized JOHAN CHRISTIAN EDVARTSEN, but at the local emigrant archives and at DIGITALARKIVET the name is noted as MATHIAS EDVARTSEN (maybe a petname; I'm sure it's the same boy.
What was the nAme he was registrated on in New York??
Edvartsen, Edwards, his mother patronymic changed to Olsen/Olson or something else?
Is there any available records telling that?
(his mother was unmarried; if she married in the US and the boy was adopted I'll have a big problem to find him..)
Anyway;I'd like to trace his descendants in the US
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Brining
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
868 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2003 : 03:22:38
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Your best bet is to try and locate them on passenger arrival records. The LDS is the best source for microfilm copies and they have locations all over the world. Hopefully one near you.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
The name on the arrival record should be the same as the one they used on leaving. The record should have their final destination which would help in your search although I'm not sure that it was on earlier records. You might want to go to the NARA link below and click on immigration to get more information about the records.
What name they used in the US? I think Helena would have used Olsen/Olson and Johan/Mathias could have used his mothers name or gone by Edwardson or they could have taken the name of the gard they lived on in Norway. Not easy, wish I had a good on line site for you to search in the US. Unfortunately the one of the best you have to pay for  http://www.ancestry.com/main1.htm
Carla |
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tor
Starting member
Norway
9 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2003 : 03:53:27
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Thank you Carla.
I don't think they used a farm name as a surname in the US; both Olsd. and Edvarts. is suitable for US-surnames.
Same name as the mother?? Well; many times I've seen the immigration officer changed the patronymic names of the children to a surname like the fathers patronymicum; but I don't know in this case; the boy went together with a "single" mother.
Yes; I'm a subscriber at Ancestry.com and have searced there - also at Census 1920; but I gues I have to start at the harbor to get their "US-names".......
(sorry for my poor English)
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Brining
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
868 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2003 : 01:15:50
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Your English is fine no apology needed. I always admire Norwegians for doing so well with English. It is a difficult language, now if I were to try and write in Norwegian you would have a good laugh  .
The name used in the US depended as much on what the individual wanted to use as what name was written on arrival. That doesn't make it any easier.
Good Luck
Carla |
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kkkkaty55
New on board
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2003 : 18:22:32
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Just a comment on names of Norwegians (or others) once they are in the US; be verrry flexible. My great-great grandfather was born Halvor Pedersen and emigrated from Norway unmarried. he was generally called halvor, but was listed in the 1860 census as Alfred Peterson. His childen were initially known as Peterson after they were born in the US. As adults, however, they took the farm name Slette, where their father was born, and abandoned the name Peterson. Halvor's son, my GGfather, was known most of his life as Knute Halvorson Slette, although at birth he was Knut Peterson. It was kind of fun tracking all this down, but if I'd gotten hung up on what i thought I knew about the names, I never would have found anything on them.
By the way,
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tor
Starting member
Norway
9 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2003 : 19:15:30
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Thanks to all of you.
Now I got him; with allot of help at DIGITALARKIVET, Norway.
"John Edwardson" Steele county MN Census 1920.
Why "Mathias"?? Maybe the clerk at Oslo Harbor was drunk!!
I think some of his descendants still use the Edwardson surname; I'll try to find some of them.
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kkkkaty55
New on board
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2003 : 22:44:09
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The Minnesota Historical Society has an on-line database of death certificates; ordering those can be very illuminating, since it is commonly a child or spouse who acts as the final "informant", as they call it. It can also help verify that you ahve the right person, because they will commonly list parents names. http://www.mnhs.org/
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Jo Anne Sadler
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
1100 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2005 : 02:28:57
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Didn't you mean the Death Certificates from 1905-1996? That is what is online with the Minnesota Historical Society. |
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torrustad
Junior member
Norway
61 Posts |
Posted - 30/11/2006 : 16:34:48
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Hello;
A nice story for all of you: One year after my last posting here I got in touch with descendants of Johan Christian Edvartsen!
In the US he of course cxhanged his name to John Edwardsen; and a lot of his descendants still use Edwardsen as a family name.
(The Edwardsen name is taken as a patronymic from my G. Grandfather's brother Edvard Rustad.)
In April 2005 my wife and I visited one of his daughters in Minnesota. She was at that time 97 years old.
What a lady!!
She still could say some of the prayers she had learned from her father - in Norwegian!
And she was of course happy to meet one of her distant cousins; and to learn about her dad's birth and life in Norway.
She didn't know anything about his roots on the paternal side.
(his parants was not married; his father emigrated to America in 1867, one month and five days before his son was born. I know the never met...)
One year later she was dead.......
Thanks to large network of genalogists in Norway and the US, and also all the records awailable on the net it's possible to tell stories like this! |
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dpersell
New on board
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 15/12/2006 : 01:28:44
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| Hello. I just came across this thread recently and wanted to see if anyone was still reading it. I am the daughter of Donald Edwardson, who was son of Jon Edwardson, Steele County, MN, USA. My father died when I was 7 years and I am trying to track down family history back to Norway. Can anyone help? |
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What name in the US?
