Norwegian translation help please--this may break a brick wall!

Question

A fellow WikiTree member gave me information that lead me to this record which I believe may be the baptism record of my 2nd great grandfather.  I don't read enough Norwegian to confirm this record or understand his first name.  His second name is Emil.

It is the fourth entry down on  https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/6181/31784/2

His parents are Daniel and Oline.  I would love to know every word on this entry please!! I would love to give my grandfather the gift of the next generation on his grandfather Emil's line before he passes from this world.  Thank you!!

Comments

Line 10 is the original marriage record for Daniel and Olemine

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/931/5815/27

---

1st born #40 https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/931/5807/103

---

#48 is I believe Daniel Danielsen's birth record based on the date in the census record  https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/930/5795/7

I can't find Olemine

---

#12 may be Olemine.  Correct year, same residence as marriage record, same father's first name, but last name is different??

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/930/5795/17

---

Same last name as the 1865 census so I think it is right!

Another kid #4 https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/931/5807/113

---

:-) We're going to build this whole family one record at a time!

---

I'll look some more tomorrow but for now I need sleep. Gotta find the 1885 census!

---

Thank you Jamie!  I think the 1885 census would have Emil.

---

They all seem to have gone into hiding in 1885. None of them are coming up on any of the obvious searches.

---

This may have something to do with why Emil left for America in 1890.  15 is very young to leave home!

Answer 1

Translated extract from Bygdebok for Nes herred, Vest-Agder. 1-2 2:1 : Gards- og slektshistorie / Kaare S. Berg

Daniel Danielsen

Fisherman and farmer. Born 31.4.1842, died 4.6.1927. Son of Gjertrud Abrahamsdtr. and Daniel Danielsen Dybvig.

Married 1866 to Olemine Elisabeth Olsdtr., born 4.1.1844, died 12.11.1926. Daughter of Johanne Elisabeth Pedersdtr and Ole Mathiassen Kjeøy.

Children:

1. Deoline Gesine, born 24.4.1867 in Dybvig, died 5.8.1900, unmarried.
2. Ole Johan, born 26.12, 1868 in Dybvig, died 18.5.1888, unmarried seaman. Killed in a fall from the rigging. The main rigging fell down. 
3. Anna Gerhardine, born 25.12. 1870 in Dybvik, died 9.9.1901. Married deck officer (mate) Johan Olsen. Lived at Vollesfjord.
4. Daniel Gerhard, born 12.10.1872, died 21.5.1952. Married Pauline Pedersdtr. Lived at Andabeløy
5. Didrik Emil, born 5.1. 1875, died in California.
6. Martin, born 13.11.1876, died 25.1.1963. Married Anna Berntsen. Lived at Tromøy/Andabeløy/Flekkefjord.
7. Abraham, born 21.10.1878, died 23.2.1904. Unmarried seaman.
8. Olave, born 29.7.1880, died 15.8.1902. Unmarried.
9. Elisabeth, born 26.1.1883, died 25.11, 1901. Unmarried.
10. Bernhard, born 22.9.1885, died 6.8.1905 in Euricha California. Unmarried smith.
11. Ole Johan, born 25.8.1889, died 25.2.1964. (More about him another section)

 

Daniel bought the property of Daniel Andreas Isaksen for 300 spdlr. Deed dated 9.10 to 10.10.1871. The farmhouse burned down about 1916. His son Ole Johan built the current house on the plot.

 

Boats and equipment: Sailing boat, Rowing boat

Animals 1875: 1 cow and 3 sheep.

Emma, I hope your grandfather will enjoy hearing this type of detail. I reckon this makes the final connection with your Ed as it is clear that the folks who wrote the local history book back home knew he died in California. I will send you an e-mail with the original Norwegian extract. 

Comments

Do you have any tips about tracking down these records to begin with?  I have been struggling with my Norwegian ancestors and trying to come up with the records from Norway.  I understand Norway is actually a wonderful place to find records from, but I've been having so much trouble coming up with sensible ways to search them.

For example, I will enter a name, a date, and an approximate location into the phrase search for the Digitalarkives site, and will get a result of every other possible name, date and location except the one I thought I entered.  I know if I was more savvy I could enter the information in a more sensible way.  Any tips?

Reba

---

I personally don't use the look up method.  I browse by date and location.  Of course that means you have to have a possible date and location to begin with which is not always the case.

---

Oh my word, Lynda!!! This is the clincher that puts together everything we have found because indeed Emil was in the Eureka, CA area and the fact he has a brother

1. Bernhard, born 22.9.1885, died 6.8.1905 in Euricha California. Unmarried smith.

Who was also there means I have another connection in California to find.  I am jumping up and down in my head right now (can't do it in reality)!!!!! I am so thrilled.  OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW!!!!

---

R Greenup, I would agree that Digitalarkivets search engine is not the most intuitive. My approach is to start with as little information as possible then narrow it down by adding more filters once I see whether anything at all has come up. It doesn't really handle approximate location searches well, so it is better to start with a wider geographical entity and narrow down from there by adding and deleting filters. You also need to apply a little imagination to which names you play about with. As an example, Emma was looking for an Olive Olson. Her name in Norwegian records turned out to be Olemine Olsdatter. If you have some Norwegian brick walls maybe it would be a good idea to start a new question with one of them and see if anyone can break through it for you.

---

Thought that might be a nice little surprise to start your day Emma :)

---

Thank you, Emma. You're right -- so often there are very few clues besides a name and "Norway".

I am so happy you made a breakthrough -- it gives me hope!

Reba

---

Thank you for the tip, Lynda.  I'll try to broaden my search next time and gradually narrow my focus. I definitely understand how much variation there is in the names.  Someone said that often Danish priests were writing down the information, and they used their own naming conventions that weren't always what the Norwegians used.

Hopefully I'll have some breakthroughs soon, myself!

Reba

---

Partly influenced by the Union of Denmark and Norway.

---

Emma, Thanks for the best answer star.

Answer 2

That 1875 baptism record is certainly not easy to read, but I think you may have found the right one.

Date of birth: 5th January, which could easily fit with your Emil giving his d.o.b as 6th

Date of baptism: 21st February

Full name of child: Didrik Emil (messed up a bit at the end so the priest may have been uncertain whether to write Didrik or Didrich).

Parents: Not sure about the father's occupation. It is not looking like either gaardsbruker (farmer) or fisker (fisherman) which are what we know about Daniel Danielsen from census records. Father: Didrik Danielsen. Mother: Oline Elisabeth Olsdatter. We need to look and see if there is another couple in the area with these names. If not, then it could just be a slovenly record keeper.

Sponsors: Tricky to read, but the first name on the list is very clearly Daniel Danielsen. Thoughts that spring to mind here are that either this Didrik Emil could be a cousin of your Emil with baptism sponsored by his uncle Daniel, or the priest may have screwed up and put the names for father and sponsor in the wrong boxes. I need to work a bit more to make sense of the other sponsor names, but among the patterns I think the names might include Peter, Hans, Abraham and maybe a Gabriel.

I have posted the record on facebook group "Vi som driver slektsforskning" and asked if anyone can read it. I didn't give them any hints as to what we think we are looking for so that they have no preconceived ideas that might influence what they make of it.

Comments

Can a grandparent be a sponsor?  Because if I have the correct birth record for Emil's father, then his father is also named Daniel Danielsen.

---

Here is the second copy of the parish church record for Emil's birth.  The father is correctly listed as Daniel on this version

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/9469/87573/69

---

Good find. Since the sponsor list includes a Daniel Danielsen Dybvig, try searching the 1885 census with Dybvig or Dybvik as a last name to see if any of the family may be using a locational name at that stage.

---

Yes, anyone can be a sponsor. Usually a family member or close friend.

---

Just as matter of interest, I got a response from the folks on the facebook group. We don't need it now you have found a clearer version of the document, but here it is if you want to see what they said:

Didrik Emil, born 5. januar, bapt 21. februar. Parents: Didrik Danielsen og Oline Elisabeth Olsdatter. Sponsors: Daniel Danielsen ... Dybvig, Petter Hansen Tjerland, Gabriel ....., Gjertrud Abrahamsdatter, Bendine Hansdatter Birke...., Maria.. Hansdatter Løvaas

---

Gjertrud Abrahamsdatter is the name of Daniel Danielson's mother according to his birth/baptism record :-)

---

Great. The pieces of the jigsaw are starting to fit together. So now we have both grandma and granddad as sponsors.

---

Yay!  The funny thing is, if he was born Didrik Emil Danielsen--he went by Emil Danielson officially in America, but everyone called him Edward.

He listed his mother as Olive Olson on his Social Security Application.  I suspect he was trying to Americanize her name.

---

And his birthdate is January 6 on every record I have which would make the baptism record incorrect by one day.

---

Yes, I can see why he would want to drop Didrik as there is no easy American equivalent. The same goes for Olemine.

---

Marriage record for his grandparents Daniel and Gjertrud on line 3.  This is getting addictive. Woo hoo!

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/930/5803/1

---

Fantastic. Now you have two more 5th great grandfathers: Daniel Larsen and Abraham Larsen, both living in Dybvig. We also now know that you have a couple of 6th great grandfathers with first name Lars.

When you start trying to connect up with other people researching the same families I expect you will find that some have used Dybvig as their names and some have used Larsen.

---

Another thought while we are on the subject of people taking locational names as surnames to distinguish from the many duplicate names created by patronymics. Check you DNA matches to see if they have any of these surnames in their trees: Helland, Dybvik, Dypvik, Dybvig, Dypvig, Nes, Ness, Næs, Næss. You may just hit on lucky and find a living cousin who already knows a lot about these new ancestors you have just met today.

Answer 3

The baptism you found for Olemine is correct. Since her father is Ole Mathiassen, her last name at birth is Olsdatter.

Comments

But the marriage record shows her father's name as Ole Helland.  This is not a standard last name so I wonder if he had a second surname?

---

Sorry, I missed looking at that one. I am more observant in the evenings than I am in the mornings :)

Helland is quite a common surname in the south and west of Norway. If Ole moved at some stage he may have added a locational name such as Helland to make a distinction if another Ole Mathiassen was living close by. We need to try and track him through the various censuses and see if he varied his name at any stage.

---

I have found the marriage record for Olemine's parents.  The first one on this page

https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/929/5791/22

Interesting that Ole Matthiassen's father is listed as Matthew Helland.

---

Good find. That dispells any lingering doubts you might have had about the Ole Helland on her marriage record. If you run into any problems following Matthias Helland in Vest-Agder then you might broaden your search to include Rogaland and even further up the west side if necessary.

---

Interesting that you mentioned Rogaland.  I was peeking at my Norway DNA matches who I have yet to connect with and quite a few of them are from Rogaland.

---

Take a look at Hordaland too.

Answer 4

I took a look at emigration records. Nothing at all came up for a Didrik Danielsen. For Emil Danielsen I found only one that might be your man:

https://www.digitalarkivet.no/view/8/pe00000000274058

1890 aged 15, so the age fits. Travelled from Kristiansand, which makes sense if he was from Vest-Agder. Only question is the parish which is given as Næs. There is another place with that name, but it could easily be a wrongly recorded version of Nes. 

Comments

He did emigrate in 1890.

---

It is young to be going alone. Might be worth looking to see if an older sibling could have gone on ahead and was waiting to take him in.

Answer 5

Something a bit fishy about this 1910 census record for Daniel and Olemine. All of the others are listed as sons and daughters, but it looks as though most of them may be grandchildren. Highly unlikely that the 5 who were born in Arendal were produced by Olemine. She would be mid-60s by the time Alf arrived. However, it does tell us that someone in the family has lived in Arendal for a while, so may be a useful clue.

Comments

They are most likely Martin's kids, he is listed as hf

---

So he is. I missed that there were two hf. Starting to go cross-eyed with this lot :)