Family Group Sheet

Thursday, May 12, 2011

New Information on the Petterborg Farm

It happened again--a cousin, reading the blog, shared new information about the Petterborg farm. The cousin is R.S. She speaks Norwegian, works part of the year as a consultant on the International floor at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and has really helped me in the past.
Thank you, again, R.S. for sharing your expertise.

I wrote here about not being able to find when Ole and Maria moved onto the Petterborg farm. R.S. sent an email with the information. Here is what she said:
Here(below on this blog) are two images from tinglysingsdokumenter (the court documents). The first is from the register or Mortgage book index, the second is from the Mortgage book. This gives the date Ole Olsen leased the part of Prestegarden which was called Petterborg. They were dated the 29 January 1861 and read in court the 9 March 1861.
From The National Archives of Norway website
Above: Image of the Mortgage Book Index. Since this image is so small you can see the original image here. It is on the right hand page, the next to the bottom entry.

Below: Image of the Mortgage Book document. The original can be seen here.  It is #10 on page 181.
          The document translates as: Lease document dated 29  January, court  dated 9 March 1861, from Priest Wille to Ole Olsen at (on) the place,  Petersborg. (That is the way it is spelled there).

From The National Archives of Norway website




Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Ole and Marie's Graves

Franklin, Idaho Cemetery
The Franklin Cemetery is a very pretty, well maintained, active cemetery. There is even a spreadsheet of the graves posted on the Internet.
Image from Franklin Cemetery website:http://franklinidaho.org/Cemetery.htm




Marie & Ole came to America in 1876. Marie's health had not been very well for many years. They had lived under some pretty rough conditions. When they first got to Oslo, in the late 1860's, food was scarce and Marie went without many times. I am pretty sure the conditions in Idaho were not much better when they arrived. I have conflicting information on the exact year of her death. I have that she died 24 Jan 1879 but the grave marker says 1878. I will have to do some more research and see if I can find the correct date. She died from consumption or what is known today as tuberculosis.
Ole and Marie were so poor that they couldn't afford to purchase burials plots.The story goes that Hans Olsen and his wife, Nettie, gave the family two plots. At the time they only put up wooden markers to show the grave locations. I am sure these rotted many years ago. Ole died in 1885. The cemetery records burned in a house fire, so the exact location of the unmarked graves in unknown. Lucille Petterborg Perkins showed some family members who attended her sister, Ruby's, funeral the location of the graves, as best you could remember them. She had been shown the location by Nettie Olsen. The Olsen family is no relation to Ole.

R.P. made the following drawing to show the actual location of Ole and Marie.He was with Lucille the day she showed the spot.




Lee Arnold Petterborg's family are the ones who had the marker placed as a memorial to Ole and Marie. Lee is Emil's oldest child with his wife, Annie Dobson. The marker is not on the exact location of the graves. Thank you for your kindness!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Google Earth

Easter Sunday I got home from church and saw the light blinking on the answering machine. That was quite unusual because most of the people who would be calling me, knew I would be at church, so I was anxious to hear the message.It was my cousin, R.P. He had been on Google Earth and had pictures of the Petterborg farm as it looks today!

Before I post the pictures, there needs to be a short explanation. Marie was born and raised on the island of Helgoya on a farm named Hovinsholm. According to Wikipedia,  Helgoya is the largest fresh water island in Norway. It is connected to the peninsula known as Nes by a bridge since 1957. It was formerly a part of Nes municipality.
The island consists of 32 farms. The most notable of these are the old manor Hovinsholm that until 1612 had its own church. Here is a link to the article on Wikipedia and a small map that puts into perspective where Helgoya and Nes are located.

I am not sure how Ole and Marie met--was Ole on Helgoya or was Marie on the peninsula? I do know that Marie was born on Hovinsholm. The parish records for her birth, christening and marriage show her birth place. The parish records for Gine, Ole Johan and Anne Mathea's christenings also show Hovinsholm. I always thought that meant the three children were also born there, but the more I look at things, the more I think it was in reference to her birth place and not theirs.

Enough said--here are the pictures:

Image from Google Earth
Above: The land at the bottom of the picture is the peninsula. The picture is looking south onto Helgoya. Hovinsholm is at the far tip of the island.

Below: is a picture of the Hovinsholm farm. Pretend the red line is an arrow pointing down at the farm. I don't know how to make a real arrow and have it transfer to blogspot!

Image from Google Earth
Below: A picture of the area in the winter time. This is gorgeous!!! It looks like a Christmas card.

Image from Google Earth
Below: You can see the bride connecting the two pieces of land--Helgoya to Nes. Helgoya is at the top.

Image from Google Earth
Below: Here is another picture of the bridge. The land on the left is Nes and Helgoya is on the right but is not showing. Notice the church on the tip by the head of the bridge.

Image from Google Earth
Below: Here is a closer look at the church at the head of the bridge.

Image from Google Earth
Below: Here is the chapel in the wintertime:

Image from Google Earth
I am not sure when the family moved to the area of Nes known as the Petterborg farm. Here is an earlier post about the books that give the history of the farms. It does not tell when they took over the farm.

Below: The picture sent by R.P.of the farm. The red line at the top of the picture is just above 3 buildings. This is where R.P. has figured out the farm in located. The red line at the bottom is pointing to the church that is shown in the 2 pictures above.
Image from Google Earth.
I am sorry these pictures are so small. If you would like bigger pictures, just double click on the image and it brings up a much larger image. When you are finished with the larger image, there is a white X in the right corner of the image. Click on that and the image closes and you will be back on the blog.
If you want to save a copy of the image, right click on the larger image, a menu will pop up. Choose the choice that says something like "Save image as" (depending on the browser you are using, the wording may be a little different). Give the image a name and choose where you want to save it on your computer.

Below: A closer up view of the farm. This is from the side so that you can see more.
Image from Google Earth.
Thanks to R.P. for finding these modern day pictures.
In an earlier post I showed the farm as it was in 1988 when L.P. was able to visit in person.
I hope someday, I too, can visit the farm.