How to find a information about a death at sea?
Anne Hansdatter (LZGM-T1M) left Norway with her husband and 5 children in 1862. I've found the outmigration record in the parish record: https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/8916/43436/15 On the right hand side, #38-44.
I'm seeing in several MyHeritage trees, that she died at sea. How could I find a record to support that death? Thanks!
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I don’t read Norwegian and I am not very familiar with Norwegian records, however, if you know the name of the ship and/or shipping line upon which they sailed, I have had some success researching the ship’s/shipping line’s passenger records for deaths at sea. Also, you might Google something like “deaths at sea records” and see what you can find.
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Ronald's suggestions are very good!
I was able to find the family in a farm book that covers Lom, Garmo and Skjåk. It mentions that Anne died before arriving in Quebec, Canada but there is no other information about her death beyond that. It doesn't record that she starved to death, but it does say there was a lack of food on board the ship. I will attach an image of the pages covering the family. Also, I transcibed most of it so you can drop it into Google translate if you want. Some of it makes sense and some of it must be slang or something else that GT has trouble with. I will also enter that transcription.
One thing I did notice is that it says her husband, Lars Larsen Hjelter died in Flekkøy, Skjåk, Norway in 1899. I searched for his death and it is here (entry #8): https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/4717/128 so he must have returned to Norway. There is another version of the same record here (#9-the "t" in Hjelter didn't get crossed so it was indexed as Hjeller. If you look at the other entries, no "t's" are crossed): https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/5036/112. The farm book does talk about the "corrosive homesickness" experience by many who emigrated so he must have returned to Norway and died there.
Farmbook transcription:
Hvo ved hvor nær mig er min ende.
….
Men for Anne Øyom og mannen Lars, som dette er fortalt om, fekk amerikafeberen tragiske følgjer. Dei reiste med barneflokken i 1862, den minste ungen var "sugarbån". Anne hadde ikkje på noko vis hug til å fara, men dei la nå i veg. "Men da denne flokken for burti Brukrokom, batt ho Ainne eit turklæde for augon - ho tyktest ikje vera gofor sjå burt - te Nord-Sperstad, så gale va de me'n". Sperstad var barndomsheiman hennar Anne.
Turen over Atlanteren med seglskute vart dramatisk, og har vore mykje omtala sidan. Felles for dei litt ulike versjonane av historia er at skipet brukte 13-14 veker over havet, og at det vart knapt med mat og amper stemning om bord. Særleg spent vart det da det byrja å gå rykte om at kapteinen var slavehandlar og hadde tenkt å bortføre passasjerane.
Til slutt kom nå likevel skipet fram dit det skulle, Quebec i Canada. Men Anne hadde omkome før dei kom i hamn. "Ho svolt ihel - ja sorje va vel me og tærde live utu'n me. Liksalma va denne: Hvo ved hvor nær mig er min ende.-"
Både Anne og Lars var fødde inn i det solidaste gardbrukarsjiktet i bygda. Anne var dotter til Hans Hansen d.y. på Nordigard Sperstad. Ho var fødd i 1819 som den femte av åtte sysken. Den tre år yngre mannen hennar var frå Nedre Hjeltar, den siste i rekkja på sju born i familien. For dei som ikkje fekk overta garden, vart det jamvel i velhaldne familiar lite velstand å arve når det var mange å dele på.
Etternamnet Øyom har opphav i at Anne og Lars måtte røyne tilveret som plassfolk på det besle bruket med det namnet på Dalane. Plassen låg under Sperstad.
Historia om Øyom - folket endar slik: "Hain Lars Øyom treivst ikje der - burti, kæ hard Amerika-feber'n hadde havt, for hain kom att og for imillom folkje sine her i bygden te sin døyand dag. De drog vel ette se både eitt og hitt, va von, for 'om" Han døydde i Flekkøy i 1899. Korleis det gjekk med ungane i det nye landet, er ukjent.
Heller spildrande nakjen midt i Honsrøven...enn grædende ved Babylons Floder.
Fyrst amerikafeber, så ein tærande heimlengsel. Slike sotter råka mange som drog over Atlanteren. Eit sterkt uttrykk for heimlengsla er det som er hermt etter Jehans Bakve da han på sine gamle dagar fanst att i Amerika: "Det vøre de såmå um e ha stande spildrande nakjen midt nordi Honsrøven, berre e vøre i Skjåk att." Honsrøve er eit ulagleg stygt terreng der ein snøgt går seg vill norda Botn i Billingsdallen.
When I am at the Family History Library in SLC next Tuesday, I will see if I can find someone who can translate the parts that Google translate can't do.
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Thank you SO much! I looked at this in Google Translate and you're right, there are whole parts that don't translate well :) I look forward to hearing if anyone at the SLC FHC can translate it better. What a fascinating story, wife dies on the ocean journey, he stays for some years but is homesick and goes back to Norway and dies there.
How did you find this information in the farm book? Is there an index somewhere? I need to learn how to find and access these farm books!
I'm pretty sure that this Lars Larsen is the one found in the 1870 and 1880 census living in Harmony, Vernon, Wisconsin. The children are the right names and ages. But, he has a wife named Carrie listed in 1870 and he is a widow in 1880, so she dies between there. I need to find this marriage information to verify! Also, he has an extra son named Hans Larsen, b 1849 L52B-GNG that I can't find in the birth records in Skjaak, Opland, Norway and he is NOT in the emigration record from Norway with the rest of the siblings. All the other siblings are there, but not him. I'm making a guess that he is actually Carrie's son from a previous marriage, but again need to find sources to prove that.
Thanks for your help and insights.
-- Julie Lofgreen
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The farm book was listed as a source on a tree in Ancestry or MyHeritage that matched your family. I looked at the book while at the Family History Library last week. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to locate that tree again. But the source gave the exact page number in the book, so I knew where to look.
Family Search has a couple of recorded webinars on how to use the Norwegian farm books.
and
Those webinars appear to be about online farm books. Most of the farm books at the Library are not available online. This page in the FS Wiki will probably be useful to you: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Norway_Farm_Books .
To find a farm book from the Family Search Catalog ( https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog ), you need to enter the parish name where the farm is, in the place field. Then look for "Genealogy" in the search results. Not all farm books have genealogy in them (some only have history). Keep in mind that farm books are secondary sources and that any information found in them should be supported from primary sources-church records, censuses, etc.
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