I ran into a few complications as as I was tracing Helene Olsdatter back into Norway. Things were going pretty smoothly until Helene failed to show up with her family in the 1865 census listing.
| District no. | School distr. | Local parish | Parish | Farm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 758 | 9 | Bødalens | Nykirkens | Gausdals | Bradtland* |
I searched the churchbooks, and found birth records for all four of the children listed above. Although the farm name (residential surname) changed several times, indicating the family moved from farm to farm more often than most, the witnesses were from the same two or three farms, in some cases the same individuals. There was no doubt I was following the same family as the one in Helene’s birth record.
Then I discovered that the 1865 census, unlike 1801, grouped each family on the same farm separately, so there were 8 listings for the Bradtland farm (there definitely were not 8 different farms by that name). And, lo and behold, there was Helene (I hadn’t found her earlier because here, her name is spelled slightly differently).
| District no. | School distr. | Local parish | Parish | Farm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 756 | 9 | Bødalens | Nykirkens | Gausdals | Bradtland* |
Well, at least I found her. But according to this, she was living as a foster child with another family, while her four siblings, both older and younger, lived with their parents. Yet another intriguing but surely untraceable story. More fiction, anyone?
