Collect the Low Hanging Fruit
I started by collecting the 'low-hanging fruit: the research done by others. For me, that fell under the branches of my family which are best identified by my grandparents names (Larson, Viste, Gyland, Nuland) . I also collected my own immediate family and parents (whose names and dates I am aware of). In addition, I listed the aunts, uncles and cousins. My maternal grandparents were best documented by my mother, Karen and aunt Olga who have been collecting info for years and have history and Gylands and Nulands. Most of that is in here. Dr. Stanley Nuland, my mothers cousin, supplied his research on the Nuland branch which was an excellent collection based his research.
My father's side was a little sparser with respect to the genealogy information. Sally Treichel in Sturgeon Bay, WI had supplied her research to my mother which covered my paternal Grandmother or at least part of it. There's still a lot of gaps there.
All this covered about 300 entries of the 1200+ relatives that I have accumulated so far.
Doing Online Research
After rummaging through everyone's web pages for pointers, I have consistently ended up in the same the place, the University of Bergen Digital Archive Project, http://www.hist.uib.no. It's a good starting point. I started getting familiar with it by verifying the data that I already had, that is, looking up the known relatives of others and checking the dates and locations. This also got me comfortable with the database there. Most of the work was centered in the 1865 census and the 1801 census of Norway, since I had most of these people. In this way, I discovered a number of brothers and sisters in the households and could approximate birth years by the ages given. The key to birthdates from the census is that the dates are for the next birthday. If the age given in 1865 is 42, then the birthyear is about 1824 (age of 42 in 1866-42 = 1824) . I list it as about 1824. This is useful in narrowing down other records. At this point I lots of data but wasn't prepared to understand it. It was time for some due diligence in understanding the naming conventions, the current geography, the historical geography, and finally the language (current and for the period).
Naming Conventions
The naming conventions are different but actually make the search for ancestors a bit easier in some ways. The practice of taking the father's name as the child's last name means that you always know the father's first name. Isak Abrahamsen's father is Abraham. Isak's sister is Boel Maria Abrhamsdatter. Women tend to keep their maiden names for recording in census and church records. There is also a tendency to reuse names through the generations. In that way, for the previous example, Isak Abrahamsen's father or mother has more possibility to have an Isak as a father or uncle. The farm name may or may not be involved in the name. If it is used as a last name, the birth records and census records are likely to ignor it for the record. It seems like the records of the 1800's and before tend to record first name/surname and farm In the later 1800's, the farm name may have been selected as the last name, such as the Gyland, Nuland, Braaten and Viste names were in my family.
Permutations of a Name
I found myself frustrated a number of times because a search for a known relative at a known farm produced no results. 99% of the time, the name was spelled incorrectly somewhere or the spelling was varied in different sources. The Isak Abrahamsen could be Issac Abrahams, Isac Abramson, Isaak Abrahamsn, etc. Women use the -datter suffix on the last name and that could be shortened to -dttr, -dtr, -d or mistakenly -sen (especially true in the FamilySearch database). The Digital Archive of Norway recognizes this and allows searching for first names and last names "starting with" or 'like". I prefer the 'starting with' and then select the results that could be correct. Isak Abrahamsen could be best found by searching for firstname starting with 'Is' and Lastname starting with 'Abr'.
Norwegian Geography
I found that you need to become well versed in Norwegian geography to cope with the results that come back. A good starting point is a detailed map of Norway. Learn the counties first. Then understand what their names were at the time of the record you were using. Apply this knowledge to the family branches. It is likely that people in the mid 1800's and before were fairly local. If they couldn't be found in the same farm or parish, they are likely located in the same county. I didn't understand the significance of this at first, but as time went on, I found myself using the farm as a mental check that I was on the right track as I found new material. As you locate a new person in the census, birth record or other source, keep a list of the locations. I found it convenient to list the farm , parish (and sub-parish, if applicable) and county For me the places of interest include:
- Gyland and Nuland family branches - located in Vest-Agder (currently), a.k.a. Lister og Mandal (early 1800's and before). Parish is usually Gyland (pronounced "Gee-land") or Bakke (pronounced "Buck-eh". Farm names include Feggestad (Fedjestad), Nuland, Gyland, Heggland, Litle-Eigas, Oftedal, Sandsmark, Yrdre-Sandsmark, Seland, Tesak, Mydland and others.
- Viste Branch - located in Oppland (currently), Christian Amts (early 1800s and before). Parish is usually Slidre or Aurdal in Valdres. Farm names include Viste, Viste Ovre, Windingstad, Jonsrud, Hamre, Alfstad, Hødne, Hambre, Sørboe, Hauge and others
- Larsen branch - located in Telemark (Bratsberg) and in Aust-Agder. Parishes include Bamble (pronounced 'Bom-leh') and Brevik (Brevig). Many there resided in the town of Stathelle, Risor or Brevik, Some at the farms of Rosland, Hoen (also Hon), Kragerod, Ombli, and Skoven.
Norwegian Language
As an english speaking person, I was pleased at the consideration given by the authors of the Digital Archive of Norway database since it did a fair job. Even so, it was useful to understand the word being used because sometimes the Norwegian language kicked in. For the census, a number of words were useful to know:
Fylke = County
Sogn = parish
Prestegjeld = sub-parish
Gardsnavn = farm
Personnummer = person number
Nytt hushold = Number of households?
Fornavn = firstname
Etternavn = Lastname
Familiestatus = family role
Yrke = occupation
Sivilstand = civil status?
Alder = age
Kjønn = gender
Fødested = birthplaceI also have the following translations and abbreviations from the "Bygdebok for Gyland" listed at the end and translated by me:
f. = fødd = Birth or born on
g.m. = gift med = married to
n. = nemnd = A committee or jury elected to handle legal matters of decisions.
sk. = skift = Administration of an estate
A good Norweigian language dictionary is helpful. Sometimes browsing the internet for the translation is useful. Some of the links I have enclosed have Norweigian language references, especially useful for obsolete phrases. I have yet to find adequate translation software.
Types of Sources
I found the following sources to be the most useful. I've ranked them by how often I've relied on them.
- The Digital Archive of Norway - Census 1865, 1801, 1677. The other sources (church books, etc.) are good too, but these census' I use frequently.
- Other Digital Archive sources - Churchbooks (kirkebok), Cemetery Listing (i.e Gravlagde i Slidre 1725-1814.), Marriage Listing (i.e., Gifte i Slidre 1725-1814), others
- "Bygdbok fra Gyland" 1960 by Lars Fredrik Nuland (my great uncle). This one was given to my grandmother Bertha by Lars and I do have access to it. It has been very useful. The people living in each farm have been researched and listed by the author chronologically for each farm in Gyland. This reference is frequently referred to as a source, even though it is written in Norwegian. Critical to using this reference is the knowledge of the farm name. There are a number of Gunnar Olson's in the book, and in order to find him, you would need to know that he lived in Mydland farm on the Gyland parish. Additionally, you should know approximately what dates he lived there. I was able to reasonably deduce about 50 ancestors through the name + farmname. I suspect that where there were gaps in the written records for these farms, the author had also deduced the names of residents. The farms were split into subfarms over time and you need to check each for the lineage of people.
Another feature not yet explored in this book is the list of school, church, government and other history chapters which would yield interesting information on these ancestors in Gyland parish, Vest-Agder county in Norway. I signed up to do lookups in this book through Books We Own.- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index (R), (C)1980, 1997.Acquired through web page http://www.familysearch.org
- MANNTALL FRA BAMBLE 1780. (CENSUS FROM BAMBLE 1780). This was found on a page posted by Kirstie Sorter in Norway.
- "Bygdbok fra Gyland" 2nd edition 1973 by Lars Fredrik Nuland (my great uncle). Translated by Olga (Nuland) Nelson. I don't have access to this directly.
- Rootsweb and all the related web stuff. I have been communicating with some newsgroups and received a response from the Valdres Samband regarding the Valrdes branch. Betty Rockswold, the genealogist of the organization, has microfilm on the Valdres area records and will assist members with their research. Their publications are also very interesting history.
- Other Internet Sources - Kersti Sorter Brevik Churchbooks- Death 1901-1924, Brevik Cemetery Listing, Brevik Bamble Probate, Bamble Census, University of Tromso
- Emigration listings - I am just starting to look at this.
- Translation from "Grannen" by D.E.Petersen from the original publication dated September 1933. An article by my great-uncle Lars F. Nuland titled "Ættesoga frå Gyland" was translated in 1991 and provided to me by Richard Petersen (Thanks again!).
- I received a number of Skifter (Probate) transcriptions from Dick Petersen, who received them from Signe E. Zijdemans. I have not gone through these all as of yet, but they cover parts of the 17th, 18th and 19th century in Vest Agder parishes of Bakke, Feda, Gyland, Fjotland, Flekkefjord and Nes.
- Signe sent me the enclosed Ahnentafel. I am still marching through it. The highlighted sections are in conflict with the research I have done, but in most cases, Signe has been correct when I research further. I guess this just proves the point that when ever someone writes something down, they have the potential of introducing errors. I do a lot of writing, I make a lot of errors.
