ANDERS MICHAEL ANDERSEN was born on the 16th of March in 1817, the youngest of 6 children born to Anders Hansen Alvenes and Bereth Jensdatter. Anders and his siblings were the 2nd  generation of our family born at Alvenes farm. His grandfather, Hans Andersen Hauknes, was likely the first  farmer of that land in our family, having moved there as an adult from a more northwest section of Steigen municipality in the early 1700s.

ANNE SOPHIA BONDESDATTER was born on the 16th of July in 1823, the second of only two children born to Ane Marta Olsdatter and Bonde Sivertsen at Storlien. Anne Sophia had an older sister named Elen Olina, who was born in 1821.  In 1829, Anne Sophia's mother died at the age of 33, leaving 5-year-old Anne Sophia and 8-year-old Elen Olina without a mother. Their father remarried in 1830, so they were raised by their stepmother who gave birth to their half-sister, Karen Oline Bondesdatter, in 1834 when Anne Sophia was 11 years old.

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Anne Sophia Bondesdatter married Anders Michael Andersen on the 29th of July, 1843 when she was barely 20 years old and Anders was 26 and Anne moved into Anders' home at Alvenes farm to start a family.

Anne and Anders had their first child, a son named Aron Michael, on the 22nd of June in 1844. 16 months later, they welcomed their daughter, Guline Marie, my 2x great-grandmother. 9 months later, Anne Oline joined the family and almost exactly one year after that, Ingeborg Maria was born. The young family was growing quickly, with 4 children born in the first 5 years of their marriage. This should have been a time of joy, but instead was when the first of several tragedies happened. 

Newborn Ingeborg Maria lived only 3 weeks. About 2 years later, both Aron Michael and Anne Oline died on the same day. I would assume that the 2 children (ages 6 and 3, respectively) had died as the result of an accident; perhaps they had drowned. Anne had given birth to 4 children, but on May 15, 1851, only my 2x great-grandmother, Guline, was still alive. Anne was pregnant at the time and gave birth to her 5th child, a girl, on July 13, 1851. In honor of the daughter she had just buried, Anne Oline, she named the new baby Anne Olina. 

Her next child was a son named Hans Olai, born in 1853. Hans lived just 4 days.  Fortunately, this was the last of their children to die in childhood. Between 1854 and 1868, Anne gave birth to 6 more children--Abigael, Arnert, Jens, Karoline, Konrad, and Marine--three girls and three boys. Amazingly, even though Anne was between the ages of 37 and 44 when she gave birth to her last 6 children, they all lived past the age of 20.  Arnert died at the age of 25 without having married. Abigael lived to 64, but never had children. Guline, Jens, Karoline, Konrad, and Marine all married, lived long lives, and had a whopping 36 children between them. That branch of my family tree is well-populated.

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I believe there is a good reason why Anne had better outcomes with her last 6 pregnancies even though she was so much older by that time. In 1856, Anders Michael (Anne's husband) was elected mayor of Nordfold--the first time they had held an election for that position--and he was sent to represent their district in the county government. He served as mayor until 1862. Anders was able to read and write at a time when it would have been unusual for a farmer in that remote region. Family lore is that Anders was instrumental in securing funding to send young women from their district to school in Oslo where they could be trained as midwives. If a woman wanted to be trained as a midwife, she had to first learn to read and write, which were not skills that everyone had. They had no midwives at that time near them and it was left to women to help each other through childbirth. Getting trained midwives was likely an important issue with Anders since two of his children had died within days of birth.

Before 1850 or so, the lack of midwives in northern Norway was not just because it was too expensive to send young women for training or because they lived in such remote areas. The other factor was that the people were very religious and believed that whatever happened--both good and bad--was the will of God. If a baby was born dead, it was the will of God. If a young child drowned, it was the will of God. For these people in that time in history, they saw no need for midwives. They looked upon midwives as women who were trying to interfere with God's will. It took time and education for the people of northern Norway to begin to see the benefits of modern medicine and to trust the midwives and doctors.

In the period between 1845-1854, 150 out of 864 children died before the age of 1 year due to the lack of midwives. The only help mothers received during birth--besides from their own family members--was from someone called a hjelpekone (helpwife). The hjelpekone could only say prayers, hold the hand of the birthing mother, and offer emotional support. In the local Steigen book it says (translated from Norwegian): "Because of the large size of the district, it made this a great place for charlatan doctors that traveled from farm to farm. Midwives were not used often enough, probably not more than six times per year." In 1872, the only midwife in Steigen (the municipality in which their farm stood) was a woman by the name of Stine Marie Isaksdatter, born in 1830. She was distantly related to me through Anders. 

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From the mid-1850's until the mid-1860's, Alvenes was a very busy place. Anne and Anders had six surviving children by 1868, plus they had lodgers and servants living at the farm as well. In addition to serving as mayor, Anders was also a helper for the parish priest in 1868. He is also listed as "Lagrettmann" in 1849. At that time, the Lagrettmann was a farmer that was appointed to be the judge, to witness the signing of legal documents, and to execute the taxing of citizens. Anders’ father, Anders Hansen, was also an Lagrettmann in 1808. Both Anders and his father must have been important people in the Steigen municipality. Another indication of his important standing in the community is the fact that Anders owned his farmland. That was highly unusual at that time. The church owned virtually all the land and the farmers leased the land from the church. They owned the buildings on their leased land, but did not typically own the land itself.

As prosperous as they appeared to be during this time, life was still very difficult for the family in such a remote place and in that climate. The youngest of Anne and Anders' children, Marine Sophia (born in 1868), immigrated to the United States in 1891 and raised her family in Everett, Washington. She  used to tell her youngest son, U.S. Senator Henry M.  "Scoop" Jackson, stories about her childhood in Alvenes and how they would have to row many miles across Folda fjord every Sunday to attend church. The church in nearby Nordfold was not built until 1884, so they had to go by rowboat to Rørstad until then. It would take about three hours each way for the family to cross the fjord. Their faith and fortitude is awe-inspiring.

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Anders died on November 28, 1868--just nine months after the birth of his youngest child, Marine--leaving his widow to run the large farm with their children. He was not buried until May of 1869 because the ground was too frozen to dig a grave. His body would have been kept in an outbuilding, frozen and protected from animals, until such time that they could row across the fjord to Rørstad Church and bury his body in the graveyard (see record below).

I wonder if Anne continued to row across the fjord every Sunday after the death of her husband.  Her eldest son, Arnert, would have been about 12 at the time, so it's hard to imagine him being able to row the family that far. Perhaps there was someone else who took them. It was not until 1884 that there was a church opened in nearby Nordfold.

The 1875 Census looks much different than the 1865 one, with far fewer people living in their household. Their eldest surviving daughter, Guline, had gotten married in 1869, so she was not part of their household in the 1875 Census.

Anne Sophia died March 20, 1885 at the age of 61. At the time of her death, her eldest living daughter, Guline (my 2x great-grandmother), was a few months shy of 40 years old and Anne Sophia's youngest daughter, Marine, was only 17 years old. As you will see in the death record at the bottom of this page, Anne Sophia died on the 20th of March in 1885, exactly one week after the death of her grandchild, Guline's newborn girl named Thea Amalia Elida. Anne had lost 5 of her own 12 children, but Thea was the first grandchild that Anne Sophia had lost. Maybe that was just one infant death too many for her. Anne Sophia and her granddaughter were both buried on April 17th. So much sadness in one week for the family, but particularly for Guline who was burying both her daughter and her mother. 

Anne Sophia's legacy--and the legacy of her husband, Anders--is the huge number of descendants from their five children who had families. Anne and Anders have multiple generations of descendants throughout Norway and the United States.