Ingeborg Sophie from Tysfjord married Jens Marius from Nordfjord and emigrated to South Dakota in 1892

Lødingen parish

My great great grandmother Ingeborg Sophie was born in Djupfest (Dybfest)/Fiskøya (Fiskøen) in Tjeldsund in Lødingen parish on a Sunday, on June 8th in 1845. Her parents were Jens Christian Wasmuth Olsen and Karen Kjerstine Henriksdatter. She was their second child. Her eldest brother, Ole Andreas Jentoft, was born in 1842.

This is a copy from the church book from Ingeborg's christening on July 13th, 1845. To understand the information, you must be able to read Norwegian and bad handwriting! From this I am able to read that her father was a farmer and that he also baptized Ingeborg in their home, which was a common procedure in those days.

Three years later, when Ingeborg Sophie's brother Jens Mikael was born, the family had moved to the farm Helland in Tysfjord, and they were still living there at Ingeborg Sophie's confirmation day in 1862. She had then just turned seventeen, but even though she was three years older than confirmation candidates nowadays, this seems to be rather normal. The priest graded all the candidates and listed them in the church book from top to bottom, based on their grades. Ingeborg Sophie was far from the top of the list, actually she was number 24 out of 34 girls, as she was graded "Maadelig". This should have been the lowest grade, but the priest obviously had to make up an even lower grade to make the candidates pass in this parish. Eight of the girls was graded "Almost Maadelig", as he called it.

The 1865 Census

The next data we have on Ingeborg Sophie is from the 1865 Census when she lived with her parents and siblings on the farm Sommersæth on Hulløya in Tysfjord. This farm is called Njalmaus or Jalmaus in the 1875 Census and up until today. Now Ingeborg Sophie's father was listed as a farmer who owned his own land. His two sons, Ole and Jens, were helping their father on the farm. Ingeborg did not have any occupation, although she then was 21 years old.

The agricultural information gives us the possibility to judge the size of the farm. On this farm they used just 2/8 barrels of barley and 2 barrels of potatoes, which was very little compared to many other farms. Further on we can see they had just three cows and six sheep, and that would mean they had no horses.

The original handwritten 1865 Census is also available at the Digital Archives. Sometimes it is possible to find some extra notes there. In this case it has an "X" in the column for horses, but that must have been just to hide a typing mistake.

My great grandmother - an illegitimate child

Almost ten years later Ingeborg Sophie, now 29 years old, gave birth to a girl named Joachime Sofie, born on a Sunday, on November 29th in 1874. We get some information from the church book to understand the circumstances. The church book states that Joachime Sofie was an illegitimate child. Her father's name was Johan Pedersen, a baker. Johan Pedersen was most probably from Tromsø, where Ingeborg Sophie had stayed for 3/4 years. Unfortunately we have not been able to find any more information about Johan Pedersen or what Ingeborg Sophie was doing in Tromsø.

The 1875 Census

In 1875 the farm was rather crowded with family members. Ingeborg Sophie's brother, Ole Andreas, was now married with Oliana Olsdatter Eid, daughter of the sheriff Ole Andreas Eid in Måsøy, Finnmark. Oliana's mother was Anna Elisabeth Abelsted, daughter a well known trader named Hans Christian Abelsted. They had three children at that time. Ole Andreas was the owner of the farm, but his parents were still living there. So was all his siblings, except for Hans Christian.

What is very interesting, is that they now had a servant and a maid. How could they afford that when they had even less barrels of barley, just 2 cows, 5 sheep, 2 goats and all these mouths to feed? A possibility is that it was financed by Oliana, maybe she inherited some money when her parents passed away? (I must remember to check this out)

In the column Residential status we can see that Ingeborg Sophie was listed as "f", that means she was not living there. Her Occupation says she was dependent on her parents. So where was she? We can see that her one year old daughter, Joachime Sofie, although listed as Ole Jensen's child (this is not correct), was living at the farm. Ingeborg Sophie was working as a maid on the farm Helland, so that must mean she was not dependent on her parents after all, but at work to be able to support herself and her child.

Jens Marius from the small farm Nord in Nordfjord

Jens Marius Pedersen Nord was born in Nordfjord in 1858. His parents were Peder Pedersen Skarstein and Ingeborg Marie Weltzin. Jens Marius had nine siblings, including a twin brother. In the 1865 Census his father was registered as a blacksmith with land, but although he owned his land, he was listed as poor. They had no farm animals and just 1 3/4 barrel of potatoes. Ten years later, in the 1875 Census, we can see that Jens Marius was learning the skills to become a blacksmith. It says that his father had little land, and during the 1880's his brothers and sisters, and even his parents, decided to leave the farm.

Emigration to the United States

Rebekka Fredrikka was the first sister of Jens Marius to emigrate to the United States. She left from Bergen in May 1881. Anna Katrine Andrea and Karoline Marie followed her in April 1882. Their parents went with their youngest child Ragnhilde Elisabeth in July 1885. They settled in South Dakota, in Jerauld County.

Emigration to the north of Norway

Jens Marius's brother Frantz went to Lofoten in 1881 and settled in Buksnes, where he got married and became a farmer and a fisherman. Jens Marius's brother Frederik Undahl went to Tjøtta in 1884 and got married in 1886. They had a son in 1887, but then his wife died in 1888 of "blodgang" which means dysentery. In 1891 he started over again in Kjerringøy. He got married and lived as a carpenter and builder. He also owned a property in Narvik. Jens Marius's twin brother, Peder Mathias, went together with Frederik Undal to Tjøtta in 1884. He was a shoemaker. He got married in Tjøtta and they got a girl there before they moved to Alstahaug and got another girl. In 1900 they had moved to Bodø, and ten years later, in 1910 they had settled in Rognan. In 1900 Peder Mathias and his family lived in the same house as his sister Petrine Antonie and her family.

Marriage in 1887

It then seems like Jens Marius must have been the one in the family who decided to leave Nordfjord first. At the age of 22 he went to Korsnes in Tysfjord in 1880 to work as a blacksmith. There he met Ingeborg Sophie and even though she was 13 years older than him, they got married in September 1887.