She is not my biological ancestor, but as Ole Larson’s second wife, was mother to several half-siblings of Grandpa Isaac Larson. As such, she is a direct ancestor of hundreds of my relatives. Click here for Helene’s place in the family tree
Early Life
Here is Helene’s baptism record from Gausdal Parish, Norway:
(year 1854) (born) Oct. 11, (baptized) Oct. 29, Helene; (Parents): Inderst* Ole Johansen Brettingen (and wife) Anne Hansdatter.
*Inderst is a type of tenant, who owns neither his house nor use of any land.
Her first name has been recorded with at least four variants: Helene, Helena, Hellina, and Lena (as in Ole & Lena jokes!).
Oddly, Helene failed to show up with her family in the 1865 Norway census. Instead, she was listed as a foster child with another family on the same farm. Why was she not with her parents and four siblings, both older and younger?
Immigration
All that came down in family lore about the immigration of Helene Olsdatter was, that she came “on the same boat with the Slettens.” Oslo police emigration documents show this is at least partly true.. Here are two separate excerpts from the police records.
| date | departure | Given name | Last name | Marr.status | Occu | Sex | Age | Domicile | Dest. | Line | Ship |
| Jun 2, 1881 | Jun 3, 1881 | Gunder | Ols. | ug | Arb. | m | 17 | Ringebo | Westby | Blichfeldt | Angelo |
| May 19, 1881 | May 20, 1881 | Helene | Ols. | Pige | k | 26 | Kr.ania | Eau Claire | D. Connelly | Angelo |
Indeed, Helene was on the “same boat,” although her passage was two weeks earlier. Here is a picture of the steamship Angelo, from NorwayHeritaige.com
They most likely crossed the Atlantic on the SS Lord Clive, of the American Line.
The ship arrived in Philadelphia on June 19 or 20; the manifest was signed on June 21. Names closely matching Gunder and Engebret Sletten appear on the passenger list. I did not find Helene Olsdatter on this or any other ship’s list, but this one seems the most likely possibility.
Marriage
Ole and Helene (here spelled “Lena”) were married on 28 Dec. 1886. This was almost two years after the death of Ole’s first wife, Anne Samuelsdatter.
But the situation was complicated. The two already had a child together, almost three years old. Alma Larson was born in January 1884, a month before Ole and Anne’s last child (my grandfather Isaac), and a full year before Anne’s death. I did not uncover the living arrangements of the family (families?) during the interim period, but it could hardly have been comfortable. I can only imagine the gossip and ostracism they all must have faced in their small, strait-laced community of Norwegian Lutherans.
Nevertheless, Ole and Helene had a total of seven children together, adding to the four surviving children of Ole and Anne. Grandpa Isaac had a strained relationship with his stepmother, perhaps because she naturally tended to favor her biological daughter of the same age. Whatever the reason, it may have been a factor in Grandpa’s decision never to remarry after his own wife died at age 39, leaving him alone on the North Dakota homestead with five young sons to raise.
Be that as it may, Helene visited North Dakota for a family gathering in 1917, and posed for a snapshot with Isaac and his young family, shown at the top of this article. Of the seven children of Ole and Helene, six grew to adulthood and had families of their own, some of them very large.
Helene died on 12 July, 1927, and is buried at Brush Creek Church, just a few feet from Ole and his first wife. Her headstone is inscribed with yet another spelling variant of her given name. R.I.P. Helene (or Hellina, or Lena) Olsdatter Larson.
Addenda
Prior daughter?
In addition to the youngest seven of Ole Larson’s 13 children, Helene was said to have an older daughter named Kari Hanson. Larsons and Slettens 1985, in most cases very complete on dates and names, gives only the sketchiest outline of this, on page 62:
I found the family of Frank and Julia Polzin, with their first four children, in the 1940 US Census, in Dover Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota. It looks just about like the list above, without the youngest child.
| Household | Role | Gender | Age | Birthplace |
| Frank F Polzin | Head | M | 40 | Minnesota |
| Julia M Polzin | Wife | F | 39 | Minnesota |
| Luther W Polzin | Son | M | 11 | Minnesota |
| Etta Mae R Polzin | Daughter | F | 9 | Minnesota |
| Jessie Ann M Polzin | Daughter | F | 6 | Minnesota |
| Orvilla C Polzin | Daughter | F | 0 | Minnesota |
In the Minnesota state census of 1905, there is a Julia Steadman, seen above as the daughter of Kari Hanson.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159387-209078-98?cc=1503056
Other documents show that Julia’s parents were George and Carrie Stedman, and that Carrie (alt. Kari) died before this census, at age 25, and that Carrie’s (Kari’s) maiden name was Hanson. So, there can be no doubt this is the family listed in Larsons and Slettens 1985. However, the trail petered out, and I found no documentary evidence that Kari Hanson was Helene’s daughter.
Helene’s father was not Ole Lien
Helene’s death certificate, and Larsons and Slettens 1985, give her father’s name as Ole Lien, a farm name that does not appear in the records of her birth and childhood in Norway. I believe this was a mistake by those reporting her death to the authorities.
Transatlantic Crossing
Here is page 43 of the SS Lord Clive’s passenger list, when it landed in June 1881:
Note that everyone on the page is listed as from “Sweden.” It may be that the ship’s purser or clerk was so busy or careless as to conflate the nationals of two countries with similar surnames, languages, and appearance. Also, although Norway enjoyed considerable autonomy during this period, it was officially a co-monarchy with Sweden.
At the beginning of the page is an “M Olsdatter,” traveling with a 4-year-old son named Ole. I later learned her first name was Marit, and I found no known connection with Helene. The next name is “E. Olsen,” approximately the age of Engebret Olsen Sletten; three names later is “G. Olsen,” precisely the age of Gunder Olsen Sletten. I have some confidence these are indeed the Slettens, even though some of my cousins in that line are skeptical.
