Haugane, Housken, and Kleveland are they near each other

Kayla Kittleson

I am updating the information on my great-grandmother, Margrethe Olsdatter. She was born to Brønla Jakobsdatter (1827-1918) at Haugane. Margrethe's parents were not married. They lived with Brønla's parents, Jakob Samsonsen and Margrethe Tjerandsdatter, Brønla married Lars Larson Tuntland. In 1866 Brønla, Lars, and their two daughters left for the United States, leaving Margrethe with her grandparents. I do not have the exact date of Margrethe's emigration, different year on each US Census. I am trying to find out what she was doing before she came. Looking at the 1875 Norway Census I find a Magrette or Margreta Olsdatter working as a maid in Kleveland and in Housken. There is a different year of birth for each of these, but I know the years are not always accurate. Now with all that, I am wondering if one of the Margretta/Margreta's could be my Margrethe. Is Housken or Kleveland near to Haugane?

Thank you,

Kayla Kittleson

KK0213@gmail.com

Gordon Collett

In which area of Norway are you referring to? There probably at least one farm named Haugane in every community of Norway. Looking at the reference map site I use there are four different Kleveland's scattered around southern Norway.

Kayla Kittleson

Gordon,

Realized this morning that I forgot to add that important informtion. They were located in Hjelmland, Rogaland.

Sorry,

Kayla Kittleson

Gordon Collett

Thanks for the additional information. Now to work!

I'm going to go into far too much detail in case some one with no background at all reads through this. Sorry if it's far more than you need.

The best resource for place locations in Norway is the Norwegian government's official map at https://www.norgeskart.no It names everything. However, it only has the current place name so sometime you have to figure out the current spelling that corresponds to those 1875 place names. The search system works well though.

For example, you first want to narrow down to just places in Hjelmland so put just that in the search box:

Where you learn there is no such place. A quick google search shows that the municipality/parish is currently spelled Hjelmeland. Putting in that, you see all the places that start with that name. Moving your mouse pointer up and down the list, the place the pointer is over turns to red. The third choice on the list is Hjelmeland municipality in Rogaland

Now you know you have the name right, you can find all the places in Hjelmeland that start with Kl by putting Kl, in front of Hjelmeland. The initial consonants tend to be the most stable part of a place name. Scanning through the results you will find on page 3 the only possible place, Kleivaland, which is listed as a farm:

Clicking on that result zooms into that farm:

You can confirm that this is the right place by going to the 1875 census and checking the Tellingkrets (census district) where Kleveland is: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/district/tf01052251001342

Kleveland is farm number 103 (you have to click on Vis Mer - Show more) to see it. Checking on surrounding farms you find that 101 is Haugen, 102 has sections named: Klevelandsmoen, Kleveland, and Stykke, and 109 is Ritland and Myrene.

Put in a few of those names and they all are right there in the same area:

So you have the right Kleivaland.

Gordon Collett

Housken is a bit of a problem because I can't find it on the map. It's probably a spelling problem. To deal with that, go to the census and find it there and check the tellingkrets. It shows up in tellingkrets 6 as farm 173/174. Farm 175 is Mjølhus. That is spelled the same way and is on the map and just to the northeast you can see Hauske. A vowel change and dropping a terminal n are very common spelling reforms so Housken and Hauske are the same place:

Here is a link to see this on the map site: https://www.norgeskart.no/#!?project=norgeskart&layers=1002&zoom=13&lat=6596249.82&lon=-6164.71&markerLat=6596249.815342764&markerLon=-6164.706998942886&p=searchOptionsPanel&sok=mjølhus,%20hjelmeland

Gordon Collett

Haugane is going to be an even bigger problem. That could be spelled any number of ways now: Hauge, Haugen, Haugene, or something else. Putting in Haug, in the map, however only gives a couple of choices fortunately. These are Hauga and Haugen.

Here to the best place to start is the census, this time with the people you found. I want to know where Haugane is, which is where you said Margrethe lived with her grandparents along with her mother. Since her mother did not emigrate until 1866, Brønla should still be there in the 1865 census. And here they are: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01038210001732

They are in tellingkrets 5. Following the links to the list for that one: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01038210001732 shows Haugane to be farm 101, right next door to Kleveland and to be the Haugen used to confirm the identity of Kleivaland.

Gordon Collett

Here is a composite map showing all three areas:

Click on the image to see it larger.

Gordon Collett

The image that was blocked just showed Kleivalandsmoen right next door to Kleivaland like this: https://www.norgeskart.no/#!?project=norgeskart&layers=1002&zoom=13&lat=6598045.76&lon=9546.49&markerLat=6598045.760722393&markerLon=9546.491330653895&p=searchOptionsPanel&sok=kleivalandsmoen,%20hjelmeland

Not sure why that one out of all the others, was screened out. I hope the composite map shows up eventually. If not, you will just have to play around in Norgeskart finding the three places and seeing where they lie in relationship to each other.

Or you can just follow these search results:

Haugane/Haugen - https://www.norgeskart.no/#!?project=norgeskart&layers=1002&zoom=13&lat=6598991.70&lon=8976.64&markerLat=6598991.697611992&markerLon=8976.640725132369&p=search

Kleveland/Kleivaland - https://www.norgeskart.no/#!?project=norgeskart&layers=1002&zoom=13&lat=6598586.03&lon=9151.13&markerLat=6598586.029074852&markerLon=9151.131661997992&p=search

Housken/Hauske - https://www.norgeskart.no/#!?project=norgeskart&layers=1002&zoom=13&lat=6596600.09&lon=-5751.23&markerLat=6596600.085662643&markerLon=-5751.228903360665&p=search

Gordon Collett

Just for completeness: checking in Google maps, Haugen and Hauske are about 23 kilometers (14.5 miles) apart and Haugen and Kleivaland are about 0.75 kilometers (0.5 miles) apart.

Kayla Kittleson

Gordon,

Thank you so much for all you have done, useful information. Reviewing everything here I would say Margretta Olsdatter that worked on the Kleveland farm as maid, is my Margrethe. This is exciting for me, another step closer to finding out when she may have come over to the States.

Thank you again, I'm sure I will be referring to this message again and again, 3 out of 4 grandparents are of Norwegian descent.

Kayla Kittleson

Gordon Collett

Glad to help out. It will definitely be worth your time to get very familiar with www.norgeskart.no