The following is the life story of Helmer & Johnie’s oldest sister, Oline (pronounced Oh-leena).  Oline stayed in Norway as she was not able to emigrate to America as her brothers had done.

The story about Oline's life is taken from "Double Cousins by Ralph Hammersborg, A Norwegian Family Chronicle, produced in 1996.”   

According to Hildegunn in Norway:  Jakobine’s second husband, John Johansen, was of coastal - “Sami” people.   The Sami ( Laps, Laplanders) are a nomadic people, who keep reindeer (caribou) and live the way they have been living for thousands of years in Northern Scandinavia.

She goes on to say there is a certain confusion about family names, as the habits in this respect have varied somewhat in this country in earlier days.  In some places, people took the first name of their father and added - sen, - son, or -datter (daughter) to it, but sometimes they took his family name.  And sometimes again, especially if they lived in farms with a certain property, they took the name of the farm or the area.

So in the case of Jakobine, for example, she is in some papers referred to as Jacobine Antonsen, in other places as Jakobine Antonsdatter.  Oline has the same name Martinussen on her birth certificate but took the name Johansen at the time of her confirmation because her father's first name was Johann.  Lars Gundersen says that the name of Jacobine’s first husband was Johan Sivertsen, but I have seen Oline's birth certificate myself, and it says Oline Martinussen.  It is all rather confusing.

1885 - Oline Andrea (Johansen) Pettersen
born June 21, 1885, died at age 97 on March 23, 1983.
Daughter of Johan & Jakobine  (Antonsdatter) Martinussen

Written in 1996

Oline Andrea Pettersen nee Martinussen, was born in Valfjord, Sortland and died in Trondheim.

Oline's mother Jacobine Antonsdatter (1862 to 1943) was left a widow only 23 years old, as her husband Johann Martinussen died when fishing in Lofoten in 1889 (probably from blood poisoning).  They had two children, Oline and Helmer.  The third was on its way (Johan). There was no social security at that time in Norway, so Jacobine had to go out and earn her living as a maid.  She could only take the youngest son (Johan) with her, the other two she had to send to foster homes.  Helmer was taken home from the foster home after a short time by Jacobine, who saw that he was very unhappy.  Later Jacobine married John Johansen, and had five more children:  Alma, Thorvald, Margrethe (Margit), Elfrida (Frida), and Jenny.  They settled down at Lahaug in Eidsfjord. 

Oline thus from the age of five grew up without security and the love of close friends or relatives, and she said she thanked God that her own children didn't have to go through the same kind of childhood (to a journalist who wrote about her on the occasion of her 90th birthday in 1975).

She grew up in two different places.  The first years in the home of a couple (sister and brother) who kept the rural post office at Sortland.  They were very strict, not a spot on her dress, not a tear was allowed.  Once, when some visitors had left a pair of skis outside the house, she wanted badly to try them on, even though she knew it was wrong.  She made a downward run, leading to the top of the well, fell down, and broke both the skis.  Frightened she hid, but finally had to stand forth and confess her guilt, and got a punishment she never forgot (she was beaten and shut-in).

At the age of 10, she came to a family with many small children where the mother was ill with tuberculosis.  She had a lot of work to do but was quite happy because the family was good to her.

She was very clever at school, and loved being there, but was often set to teach the other children instead of getting time to learn more herself, which was what she wanted.

She was proud of the fact that she was placed first on the floor in the church at her confirmation which meant that she was the cleverest of all in biblical knowledge.  She would have liked to train to be a teacher, but of course, that was quite out of the question.  

After her confirmation, she came to a big farm to serve as a maid, and she worked for some years in the house of a rich merchant (Steiro), where she cooked for 18, and she also was a chambermaid.

Her two brothers Helmer and Johan had then gone to North America, after having tried to earn their living as miners in Sulitjelma, Fauske (copper pyrite), and in the fisheries around Lofoten.  She had planned to go there with them, but fell ill (appendicitis), and couldn’t go.  She instead went to Narvik with her younger sister Elfrida (from her mother’s second marriage) and worked in a cafe/restaurant there until she got married in 1914 to Adolf Johan Pettersen (22 Nov 1879 to 24 Dec 1969). 

Adolf came from Steine in Lofoten.  From the time when he was very young Adolf fished around Lofoten (islands off the coast of Northern Norway with very important seasonal fisheries even today) and in Finmark further north. They also took the fish to Bergen (about a 1000 km further south) on fishing boats, in all kinds of weather.

For some time he worked for the stingy and Rich Julius M. Johansen in Stamsund, owner of the entire fishing village there, a supplying port for the fishing fleet, with shops and fish processing; he even owned the church!

Later Adolf went to Narvik to work at the mining company (loading pyrite from Kiruna, Sweden; on to cargo boats).  There he met Oline, at arrangements for young people by the Salvation Army.  Oline later described him as “the kindest man in the world, and a marvelous family father”.  She told her children about the first time they left a meeting together, that a man she didn't like very much wanted to walk her home.  She saw Adolf and said to him, “Tonight we shall walk together, Adolf”.   And he answered, “So you will walk with me?” And after that day they were a couple.

They married in 1914, and their first born child Hjordis was born in 1915.  In 1916 they returned to Steine in Lofoten, to the house Adolf had helped his father build there, because there wasn't much work in Narvik after World War I started in 1914.

But life was difficult at Steine too (uncertain income, harsh climate, barren soil), all in all the living conditions were miserable at the time in Northern Norway, so in 1919, when Hjordis was four, and their second child Arne was two, the family moved to Trondheim.

Adolph's sister Anna Saltnes, who lived in far better conditions there, had generously invited them to come and live with her in her flat in the house she had just bought at Mollenberg (Mill Hill).  Her husband had earned good money as a pilot on the coast, and she herself had been a ship's cook.  Now she lived in Wessels Gate 9 (the house is still there) with her daughter Solveig, earning her living by letting rooms and flats.  There were five flats in the front house, and also a little house in the backyard with two three-room flats and a flat in the attic.  She had a milk shop in the basement and a little bakery where she made “vafler”, buns and coffee bread rings, that she sold to other milk shops in the neighborhood, and to the ships on the Harbor.  The children helped her deliver those things.

Anna's sister, Amanda, also lived with her, with her daughter’s Connie and Ruth, and across the street, in Wessels gate 12, her sister Emilie, whose children were grown up.  She came and had dinner with them every day.  So the house was a lively one.

Oline and Adolf lived there for eight years, and in the meantime, three more children had been born: Thorleif (1919), Reidun (1922), and Dagny (1924).

In 1927 they were lucky to get their own flat at Lademoen, in Ulstadlokkveien 18,  Birgit was born there the same year, and now a happy family of eight lived in a flat of two rooms, a kitchen and a water closet, which was considered quite a luxury at the time.

They had come to Trondheim thinking that the possibility of getting work was better in the “city”.  And they were right.  Adolf got first a job as a sailor on the coast, later as a dockyard laborer, and added to his income as a shoe repairer.

They were rather poor, like most people in Norway at the time, but they were good, hardworking people. There was a lot of fun, family gatherings, singing and music, picnics in the hills, camping by the sea around the city, walks in the summer and skiing in the winter.  And they were regular churchgoers.  It was quite an occasion in the Methodist Church the day Adolf, his wife and three sisters joined the little congregation.

As the children grew up they joined the youth club, “The Epworth League”, Hjordis was editor of the paper Bien (The Bee), some of the children joined the church choir, Thorleif and Arne and two friends formed their own quartet (“Ekko”), some of them were scouts, and Oline and her daughters were active in the Women’s Club.

And when the in-laws and the grandchildren started coming, Ulstadlokkveien 18 was a place where everyone gathered on Sundays and holidays. 

Adolf died in his sleep on Christmas Eve 1969, 90 years old.  Oline then moved to live with her eldest daughter Hjordis and her husband Johan, and lived there until she died on March 23, 1983, nearly 98 years old.  They are both buried at the Lademoen churchyard in Trondheim.

The following is from Larry Shaw.   As told to Hjordis Nordhaugen by her mother Oline Petterson

Oline Pettersen was born in 1885-June 26th

Her parents are Jacobine Andersdotter and Johan Martinson.  She grew up in Valfjord by her Grandmother.  Her brothers, Helmer and  Johan, were also born there.  When Oline was 3 or 4 years old their father died in Gravdal Hospital.  He was fishing on Lofoten and became ill there with a rupture.  He had worked on his own house before he left for fishing, which was on Oshougen. We think the house is still there.

After her Father’s death, Oline came at first to foreigners? as a telegraphist Larson in Sildpolten.

Helmer was 2(?) years old, and his mother had to go out to different places to work.  She had to take Helmer with her.  Johan was not born until 3 weeks after his father died. 

Johan was raised with his Grandmother.  Mother Jacobine married after 10 years of widowhood.  She married Johan Johnson, and Helmer and Johan grew up with their mother in Lohaugen.

Five children were born to Jacobine and Johan Johanson. They were Jenny, Margreth (usually called Margit), Elmar, Thorwald, Elfrida

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