How do I know if I have the right Ole Olsen? - Using Norwegian probate records

We all have those ancestors who's name is super common.  It can be very easy to start up the wrong family tree if you're not careful.  I recently helped a patron move to the next generation beyond everybody's common ancestor, Ole Olsen.

In Hof, Hedmark, Norway we find the following birth record for Regine "Rika" Olsdatter.  

Hedmark fylke, Hof, Ministerialbok nr. 6 (1822-1841), Fødte og døpte 1830, side 244-245.

We see that she is born in Eig to Ole Olsen and Karen Pedersdatter.  Since this is Norway, we should be off to the Bygdebøker for Hof.  Right?  Well, it's not that simple.  Hof (in Hedmark) was one of those "super" parishes that became several different parishes.  In 1848 Våler and Åsnes were split out of Hof.  So now there are three sets of Bygdebøker we need to look at.

In Våler Bygdebok, we find Vestre and Østre Eid.  (Eig is an old spelling of Eid.)  We don't know which one to look at so you have to look at both.  As luck would have it, this particular Bygdebok is an older one and is very focused on the property transactions.  Compared to some others, there is very little details on the families.

Now, back to the church records to find more kids.  We find three other children:  Cornelius, Ole, and Pernille Emilie.

Cornelius Olsen born 19 May 1828 in Østre Eig.
Hedmark fylke, Hof, Ministerialbok nr. 6 (1822-1841), Fødte og døpte 1830, side 180-181.

Ole Olsen born 19 May 1833 in Eid Østre.
Hedmark fylke, Hof, Ministerialbok nr. 6 (1822-1841), Fødte og døpte 1830, side 322-323.

Pernille Emilie Olsdatter born 24 Apr 1836 in Østre Eig
Hedmark fylke, Hof, Ministerialbok nr. 6 (1822-1841), Fødte og døpte 1830, side 426-427.

We see the parents are married when Cornelius is born (1828).  So now we look at the marriage records for Hof beginning with Cornelius's baptism date and working backward.  We are looking for an Ole Olsen that marries a Karen Pedersdatter.  If one of them has a connection to Eid, then we can almost be sure we have the correct couple.

We work backward and we do find an Ole Olsen marrying a Karen Pedersdatter but there is no connection to Eid.  To make things even murkier, the farms in the marriage record are both in what would become Åsnes.  Here is the marriage record:

17 Apr. 1827
Hedmark fylke, Hof, Ministerialbok nr. 6 (1822-1841), Fødte og døpte 1830, side 604-605.

The farms listed are Udnæset (Utneset) and Trongaard (Trondgården).  The fathers of the bridal pair are listed, Ole Audensen and Peder Bergersen.  We can check the Bygdebøker for Åsnes and see what we can find.  We find both the bride and groom as children.  It says nothing about what happened to them.

Most Norwegian probates have been indexed.  Several years ago, a card index was created for most probate records.  They were organized by farm and contain information about the family.  So let's look and see if there is a record for Ole Audensen.  From the Bygdebok we find he died in 1845.  We find his probate card.

Hedmark fylke, Solør og Odalen sorenskriveri Skiftekort side 2156

There it is.  Ole Olsen from Utneset is the same as the Ole Olsen in Eid.

We have used the probates to prove that the Ole Olsen in the marriage record is the Ole Olsen who is the father of Regine.

Best Swedish Gazetteer on the internet

http://www.gis.scb.se/atlas/RikIndAtlas1992/index_en.htm

I don't know how long the above link will work.  It is a link to the "Atlas of Regional Divisions in Sweden, 1992"

It has very good maps for each Län that show neighboring parishes.

Hallands Län

This is an example of one of my counties.

Another great spot for Swedish places is:

http://www2.sofi.se/SOFIU/topo1951/_cdweb/index.htm

You need to know the Län (county) but it will help you with place names.

Swedish Court Records

Recently, I attended a Swedish Research Series at the Family History Library in Salt Lake.  One of the classes taught was on Swedish Court Records  The class was "Finding your Family in the Court Records of Sweden, part 1 Domböcker, Småprotokoller"  by Geoffrey Fröberg Morris.  (You can check out his website here:  https://sites.google.com/site/gfrobergmorrisswedish/ .)

Some of the things I learned were:  

1. Swedish Court records offer the best chance for finding the name of a father when the child is born to an unwed mother (oäkta).
2. You should scroll all the way through the book before you really start searching.
3. There is a list of persons fined that acts as an index for the Domböcker (Court Minutes)

With this information I set out to see what I could find.  I first found a court case involving my own grandmother but I'm going to share a different success story.

A patron at the BYU Family History library brought me the following problem:  Her grandfather, Nils Gustav Olsson was born to an unwed mother, Maria Christina Sjöberg.

(Äsphult Kyrkoböcher 1755-1832 page 273 from Arkiv Digital)

Next I went to the 1816 Domböcher (Court Minutes) (FHL Film 141519) , I went to the Saköreslängder (list of persons fined) and found the following:

(Gerds Härad Dombok 1816, FHL film 141519)

From this entry we see we need to look at case 91.

Even though the father is only mentioned as a man from Äsphult, we know where he's from.  The patron's family history/tradition gives the name of Ole Jeppeson.

Next we turn to the Husförhörslänger (Clerical Surveys/Household Examinations) for Äsphult.  After reviewing them, we can only find one Ola Jeppsson in Äsphult.  

(Äsphult Husförhörslänger 1813-1830 page 129, Arkiv Digital)

Now we can go searching for Ola Jeppsson!!!

See how much fun you can have with court records?

Kopulations Pengeprotokol - København marriage licenses

I took some time this week to learn how to use another source for København.  This week it was the Kopulations Pengeprotokol, 1720-1863.  The Family History Library Catalog describes these records as follows:  "Records of marriage licence fees paid to the city treasurer. These lists and indexes gives the grooms name, marriage date, and the name of the church where the marriage took place."

                             

A brief overview from www.progeneologists.com reads:

Marriage Tax (with Index) 1720-1863 (FHL film 0048119-0048124). Each couple had to pay a marriage tax. If you know the groom's name and approximately when he was married, using this source will be faster than searching each parish separately. The marriage tax record will identify which church and when the couple was married. It includes an index as well as the original record (#0048119 index 1735-1800; #0048120 index 1801-1858; #0048121 index 1851-1863; #0048122 list 1720-1724, 1735-1783; #0048123 list 1784-1843; #0048124 list 1843-1863). 

I was looking for a Søren Olsen in København who married sometime between 1825 and 1840.  I went first to the index for the years 1828-1843.

(FHL# 48120 1828-1843 Register p. 234)

We find 4 Søren Olsens on pages 15,73,177 and 346.  (Note:  The Søren Olsen I am looking for does not have a middle name so I am not looking at the one on page 171.)

(FHL#48123 Kopulations Pengeprotokol 1828-1843 p. 15)


The third from the bottom is Søren Olsen.  The date is 23 Mar. 1829 the parish is Trinitatis.

(FHL#48123 Kopulations Pengeprotokol 1828-1843 p. 73)


On 2 Dec. 1830 we find Søren Olsen in the Garnisons parish.

(FHL#48123 Kopulations Pengeprotokol 1828-1843 p. 177)


On 26 Oct. 1834 we find Søren Olsen in [Vor] Fresler.

(FHL#48123 Kopulations Pengeprotokol 1828-1843 p. 346)


On 15 Mar. 1842 we find the last Søren Olsen in the Trinitatis parish.


The next step is to go to the actual parish registers and review the information they contain.  I am using www.arkivalieronline.dk to look at the church records.


In the 1813-1841 Trinitatis marriages (image 354) we see the following:

He is marrying Kirsten Clausdatter.


In the 1826-1847 Garnisons parish records (image 87) we see the following:

He is marrying Elisabeth Katrine Wolfarhl


In the 1813-1835 Vor Fresler marriages (image 286) we see the following:

He is marrying Inger Larsdatter.


And finally in the 1842-1857 Trinitatis marriages (image 4) we see:

He is marrying Sidse Olsen (born Christiansdatter).


I reviewed the set of records before these but there was no one named Søren Olsen listed.  

København Polis Mandtaller (Police Censuses) 1900-1923

These records are organized alphabetically by street name then within the street name are odd numbered dwellings followed by even numbered dwellings.

If you have an address, you're set.  If you don't, here is a link to online images of index cards http://www.politietsregisterblade.dk/.  I actually had two addresses for my Great Great Grandparents (Niels Christian and Ingeborg Mortensen):  11 Korsgade and 3 Ole Bullsgade.

FHL# 376390 Ole Bullsgade bd 2138 1923-1919

Here are my grandparents:

The neat thing here is their former address in Ålborg is listed.  They were on Ole Bullsgade for May 1920 and Nov. 1920.  They are there in Feb. 1921 (See 1921 Folketælling) but they are not on the Nov. 1921 lists.  I jumped to 11 Korsgade.  This is the LDS mission office.  I found them in Nov. 1922.

Here is a close up of my grandparents.

Wow!  I have another place they lived  34 Øresundsgade.  I cannot wait until I go to Denmark again.  I can try and find these street addresses and take a look at another place my grandparents lived in Denmark.

Tak igen Sherry!!! 

København Polis Mandtaller (Police Censuses) 1869-1882

My friend Sherry told me about these and naturally, I couldn't wait to head to Salt Lake and play in this record. 

This is an AMAZING tool for working in København.  It makes finding your Hans Jensen a lot easier, well from 1869-1882 anyway. 

Here are some basic instructions from Gary Horlacher on www.progenealogists.com (http://www.progenealogists.com/denmark/copenh/ to go straight to the instructions I'm quoting)

Police Census Index 1869-1882 (FHL #0322451-0323358). These indexes are divided by year and then by Kreds (Districts). Within each of the six districts is a listing of each surname by the first letter of the surname, street by street. For example, each of the surnames starting with "A" within District 1 (Kreds 1) will be listed street by street (streets listed alphabetically under each letter of the surname), then the surnames starting with "B", etc. Although it takes some effort to search these indexes, it is much faster than searching the entire census and helps identify the street and district where the family was living at a particular time. This census was taken twice a year in May and November

I don't have anybody I'm currently researching living in København from 1869-1882 so I decided to look for my friend Carl Bloch.

The first step is to pick a census month and year.  Then review each of the 6 Kreds Alphabetical Listings of Surnames.  These are broken down in within the letter by street name:

(FHL Film 322499 Alf. Reg. Kreds 1 1874-1875 Bd 906-907)

You can't see it but this is a "B" page.  We see Gl. [Gammel] Strand and Gl. [Gammel Torv].  The Streets are in alphabetical order under each letter.  Listed are Residents of both sexes and their children 10 years and older in the first column who's surname begins with B.  The second column lists servants and lodgers who's surname begins with B.  The way the index breaks out:  Census (May or Nov.) for each year (1869-1882) => Kreds => Surname => Street name.

Carl Bloch and Alma live on Gl Strand 52

Next we go to the film 322806 (Nov 1873 Kreds 1 Frederiksholms Kanal - Klosterstræde Bd 228)  The actual record is organized alphabetically by street name.  The dwellings are listed numerically within the street name.  All odd numbered dwellings are listed followed by even numbered dwellings.  The way the record breaks down:  København => Kreds 1 => Gammel Strand => Even numbered dwellings => 52 => Carl Bloch household.  This pattern is repeated each May and November for the years 1869-1882.

This is the title page for each dwelling.

This is a list of those living (age 10 and over) at 52 Gammel Strand

This is a close up of Carl Bloch and Alma Bloch.

Mange tak til Sherry!  I learned how to use a new record.

Danmarks Præstehistorie

One set of books I always seem to end up looking at is Personalhistoriske, statistiske og genealogiske bidrag til en almindelig danske præstehistorie : eller alphabetisk ordnet fortegnelse over alle sognekald, sognecapellanier, hospitalspræsteembeder o.s.v. i Danmark med anførelse af præsterne i dem siden reformationen, og efterretninger om deres personalia o.s.v. (the Priest History  for Denmark.) 

This is a chronological list of Priests for each Danish parish from the reformation to about 1878.  It is also on the web: http://tom-stryhn.com/viberg/windex.php 

So, if you have Danish priests up your family tree, check it out.