Number 292

A small piece of the puzzle of Knud Endresen's imprisonment has fallen into place.  Knud's prisoner number at Akerrshus festning slaveri was 292.  My original thought when I saw 292 following his name on the death and burial record was that it represented his prisoner number.  However, as I considered the information following his name might refer to his burial in consecrated ground, I also considered the number could refer to his burial plot.  The confirmation that 292 was his prisoner number is found in communicant records for the prison.  The 1842 and 1844 communicant records for Akershus festning slaveri list Knud Endresen of Stake, prisoner number 292, as one of those receiving communion on 27 February 1842, 16 October 1842, and on 21 April 1844. 

These records also indicate that prisoner numbers were reused.  Lars Engebredsen was listed as prisoner 292 in the communicant record for 21 May 1841.  The next entry for prisoner 292 is for Knud Endresen of Stake on 27 February 1842.  Following Knud's death in September 1844, there is no record for a prisoner 292 in the communicant records.

So it appears that Knud was imprisoned at Akershus between June 1841 and February 1842.  Unless Knud was transferred to Akershus from another prison, he likely commited his crime sometime in 1841.

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.

Akershus Festning

I discovered a Norwegian family tree that references Sevat Knutson of Stake, Gol, Norway. It doesn’t provide source information and I believe it may include some inaccuracies, but it does introduce some new place names and additional generations to our lineage. Especially interesting to me is a reference to Akershus Festning (Oslo Fortress) as the place of death of Sevat’s father. If, indeed, Knud Endreson died in Akershus Fortress in 1844, he may have been a prisoner.  In addition to common criminals, many socialists were imprisoned in Akershus Festning around the time of Knud's death.  So, determining how he came to be at Akershus may prove very interesting.

Knud's death may also provide a clue to the emigration of his sons.  If he was a common criminal, they may have left to escape the stigma of his circumstances.  If he was a political prisoner, they may have left for the promise of a better political climate in America.  Certainly, if he spent time in Akershus, his family would have suffered consequences and his sons' departures so soon after his death were likely among them.  Any information I can find on prisoners of Akershus festning slaveri, on the political climate of the Hallingdal region before the Knudson's left for America, and on Knud Endreson, in particular, will help in understanding the motivation behind his sons' immigration to America.

More puzzle pieces to examine ...

Min tipp oldefar

In last night's class, our Norwegian instructor gave us a handy vocabulary sheet.  It's entitled "Familiemedlemmer paa norsk" which translates to "family members in Norwegian".  So now I know the words for mother, father, grandparent, great grandparent, etc.  I was interested to discover that Norwegians use the word 'tipp' where we use the word 'great' to add a generation to a grandparent.  However, Norwegians do not use this generation-adder for great grandparents, only for great great grandparents and beyond.  The term for great grandparent/father/mother is olde-foeldre/far/mor.  The term for great great grandfather is tipp oldefar.  For great great great grandfather it's tipp tipp oldefar.  And so on.

As a learning exercise, we were asked to generate a family tree and add a description of the relationship of each individual to ourselves.  Since I already have a fairly extensive family tree developed, the challenge was to limit this tree to something manageable.  I chose to reduce it to my known Norwegian line plus a few generations of the remainder of my family.  Since I've learned only a few verbs and am not sure of the rules for conjugation in Norwegian, my descriptions below are limited, but here's a stab at describing some of my family.

min besteforeldre:
Henry Starkey -- min farfar
Nellie Schulz Starkey -- min farmor
William Kalmbach -- min morfar
Jessie Montgomery Kalmbach -- min mormor

min oldeforeldre:
Sever S. Starkey -- min oldefar
Justina Peterson Starkey -- min oldemor
William Schulz -- min oldefar
Wilhelmina Bettin Schulz -- min oldemor


min tipp oldeforeldre:
Sevat K. Starkey -- min tipp oldefar
Carrie Syverson Starkey -- min tipp oldemor
Hans Peterson -- min tipp oldefar
Kari Peterson -- min tipp oldemor


min tipp tipp oldeforeldre:
Knud Endreson -- min tipp tipp oldefar
Kirste Halvorsdatter -- min tipp tipp oldemor