Knud Endresen

The Digitalarkivet parish records for Akershus festning slaveri document the death of Knud Endresen of Stake on September 1, 1844 at age 63 years.  I'm having a little trouble deciphering some of the words on the record so I'm still unsure of the cause of death.  (My best guess is he died of a heart attack or pneumonia.)  If I'm unable to figure it out by Tuesday, I plan to take a copy of the page to class for some assistance.  In the meantime, I took another look at the Gol parish records for late 1844 and early 1845 and found a record for the marriage of widow Kirste Halvorsdatter of Stake, Gol and widower, Ailak Thoreson.  They were married in July of 1845, about 9 months after Knud's death.  According to my language instructor, it was not uncommon for widows or widowers to remarry quickly following the death of a spouse with the purpose of saving the family farm.  So, Kirste's marriage to Ailak may have had a more practical than romantic motivation. 

Another curiosity derived from these records is the question of Kirste's age.  The marriage record for Ailak lists her age as 46 and Ailak's as 48 years.  If accurate, Kirste would have been born in 1799 and would have only been 13 years when Knud's son Halvor was born.  Though not impossible, she would have been a very young mother.  If Knud had a wife before Kirste, I may be able to find church records of her death or marriage records for Knud and Kirste's marriage.  If Kirste was not the mother of Knud's first children, including his oldest, Halvor, I'm suspicious that Knud may have been married to an older sister of Kirste's  (another Halvorsdatter) prior to his marriage to Kirste.  Of course, locating Kirste's christening record would be useful in determining if she was indeed born circa 1799.  Unfortunately, it may be a while before I am able to find those records since they are not available in the Digitalarkivet at this time.

All of this is speculation and the facts may be quite different.  Whatever the truth, there are enough interesting questions to keep me busy for quite a while.