August 9, On This Day in My Family Tree

164 years ago in 1849 my 4th great grandmother Ædel Bergitte Hansdatter Friis died of typhoid and cholera in Norway, Racine County, Wisconsin at the age of 66. Her husband followed her a mere six days later of the same diseases. They had only been in America for just over a year before their deaths, having emigrated from the parish of Herad in Vest-Agder County, Norway. It's sad to think that came to America for a better life but had they not, they might have lived longer. They are both buried in Norway Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Ædel's name is spelled with a letter called "ash" which was common in Old English and is still found in alphabets of certain languages today, including Norwegian.

Source:

• Findagrave.com. "Aedell Bergitte Friis (1781 - 1849) - Find A Grave Memorial." 1886. Web. 3 Aug 2013. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36869971>.

July 20, On This Day in My Family Tree

Marriage record for my 4th great
grandparents from the parish of
Herad in Norway.

253 years ago in 1805, my fourth great grandparents Jeremias Frederick Hanson Friis and Ædel Bergitte Hansdatter were married in the parish of Herad, Vest-Agder County, Norway. He was 20 years old and she was 23. They resided on the Fulland farm until they moved to America in 1848 and both died a year later within a week of each other in Norway Township, Racine County, Wisconsin of Cholera.

National Women's History Month: Favorite Female Ancestor

March is Women's History Month in the US and over at The Accidental Genealogist, it's being celebrated with daily prompts, each one with specific ideas for bloggers on how to honor the women in your tree. I won't be able to keep up with all of them but I thought I'd pick out a few that inspired me.

Abelone Gundersdatter and her husband,
Gabriel Andreas Adams Friis

The first was "Do you have a favorite female ancestor?"

I have several but the one that always sticks out in my mind immediately when I think of strong, independent characters is my Norwegian 3rd great grandmother, Abelone Gundersdatter Fries. She was born in Lyngdal, Vest-Agder County, Norway in 1825 to Gunder Leegsen and Aase Olsdatter and grew up on the Fladen farm. When she was 23, she decided to pack up and leave the family home on her own. At this point, I'm not sure exactly where she went. When she left Lyngdal, she was recorded in the parish records as heading to what looks like 'Kobbervig' but I can't confirm where this is. In any case, within three years, she had immigrated to America and married Gabriel Andreas Adams Friis on September 15, 1851 in Chicago. They settled in a town called Norway in Racine County, Wisconsin where Abelone tended the farm while her husband sailed the Great Lakes. She gave birth to ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Even considering her hardy Scandinavian heritage, some of her behavior was quite masculine, she smoked a clay pipe and when visiting neighboring farms, would discuss the fields with the man of the house. Bizarrely, she loved the smell of manure and would actually dip a corner of her handkerchief in it and carry it around with her.

According to my great grandfather, her grandson, she had favorites among her grandchildren and when they were sick, her favorites were given sweets while the others received bad tasting medicine.

After the death of her husband when he was only 50 years old, she continued to tend the farm which remained in her name throughout her 60s until she died when she was 70 years old in 1896. She is buried in Norway Lutheran Church Cemetery in Racine County.

She was certainly a unique character and independent woman to immigrate to America on her own and tend the roles and tasks on her farm that were typically performed by men, and so (despite her favoritism among her grandchildren) I always think of her foremost when I think of strong female characters in my tree.

Family History Writing Challenge Day 16: Mills, Moyer, Narum

Yes, I'm behind now so I'm going to post three today!

The Mills family, supposedly descended from Dutch royalty but likely not, never stayed in one place for very long and eventually married into the Smith family.

The Moyer family, once Meyer, is another colonial Mennonite branch which eventually fed into the Godshall family via Kratz.

Narum is another Norwegian family who are a part of the Fries branch via Larson.

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Family History Writing Challenge Day 12: Larson

Back to Norway! Sad though, not much is known about the Larson branch. I'm not even sure where Norway they are from - supposedly Telemark but nothing more specific than that.

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Family History Writing Challenge Day 7: Fries

Almost didn't finish this one! The Fries family, originally Friis, are another Norwegian branch but fortunately, this one actually had a surname that carried through the generations. Phew. One name was removed for privacy.

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Family History Writing Challenge Day 4: Skaar-Eiesland and Bruskeland-Eiesland

I know this throws the alphabetical order out of line a little bit but this chapter was originally a part of another chapter (which was called Eiesland) and in light of new info and complicated Norwegian names, I've decided to give this family their own chapter. This also means I'll have more than 28 chapters to cover so I'll also be posting both today.

Anyone with Norwegian heritage knows how common patronymic names are - that is, the practice of one's surname being a combination of one's father's Christian name plus a suffix of "sen" (son) or "datter" (daughter). This presented a problem in my family history book of what to call the family as a whole! Each generation had a different surname. I decided to call the family by their farm name, since this is often attributed to their names in records, but this also presented the problem of there being more than one farm in different generations of the family. In this case, there were only two farm names for each chapter so I decided to just use both: Skaar-Eiesland and Bruskeland-Fladen. I have yet to come across more than two farms for the same family but I think if I did, instead of hyphenating three or more names, I'd just go with the most prominent name or two.

Skaar was a farm in the parish (like a township) of Konsmo, in the county now know as Vest-Agder. Eiesland was located in the parish of Lyngdal of the same county. Bruskeland was a farm in Laudal and Fladen was in Lyngdal, both also in Vest-Agder. At the time, the county was called Lister Og Mandal until 1919. The Skaar/Eiesland family married into the Bruskeland-Fladen family before moving to the Mid-West of America in the mid-19th century and marrying into the Friis/Fries family (more on them in a few days).

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