The ship Hannah Parr which brought the Ellson's to America in 1868
Since my first blog was centered on my paternal grandmother, Hannah Larson Enger, I will start this session with what I know about her family history. She was the daughter of Martin Christian Larson and Mathea (Mattie) Ellson who had both emigrated from Norway as children with their parents, and met and married in Vernon County, Wisconsin in 1878. But for a twist of fate, this marriage may never have happened, in fact I would not be sitting here right now writing this blog--or anywhere else for that matter! You'll find out why later!
Mathea was born in Ostre Gausdal, Oppland, Norway as the daughter of Ellef Erlandsen (born 1842) in Gausdal) and Ronnaug Hansdatter (born 1841 in Gausdal). In the 1865 census as recorded in the Norwegian digital archives, Ellef and Ronnaug were living on the farm Torgersrud in Ostre Gausdal with her parents, Hans Olsen Torgersrud (born 1795) and Marte Hansdatter (born 1790). Ellef and Ronnaug had two daughters, Mathea Ellefsdatter (born 1862) and Kjerstine Ellefsdatter (born 1865).
Fast forward to April of 1868, and this family is found on the manifest of the ship Hannah Parr, leaving Christiania (now Oslo) on April 12, 1868, heading for Quebec with 400 Norwegian passengers. Passenger numbers 275-280 were listed as follows: Ellev Erlandsen Torgersrud 26 yrs., Ronnaug Hansdatter, 27 yrs., Matia Ellefsdatter, 6yrs., Christine Ellefsdatter, 3 yrs., Hanna Ellefsdatter, 6 mos. and Hans Olsen Torgersrud, 73 yrs. From this you can deduce that Hans Olsen's wife had died since the 1865 census and a new baby, Hanna, had been added to the family.
As a general rule a ship of this size leaving Norway could expect to reach its destination in an average of 51 days, but that was not to be the fate of the Hannah Parr which did not arrive in Quebec until 107 days after departure. On April 28, a little over two weeks into the journey, there was a storm at sea just off the coast of Limerick, Ireland, and on the second day a huge wave engulfed the stern and carried away the pilothouse and its gear. That night more sails were blown out so the ship couldn't be steered and the foremast was destroyed. When the wind finally died down on April 30 the crew was able to clear away the wreckage and head for port, and the ship docked at Limerick on May 7, 1868.
Lucky for us, the descendants, the Hannah Parr journey is probably the best documented of any of the immigrant voyages prior to 1875. A great source for information on the journey of the fateful ship is the awesome website norwayheritage.com which chronicles the journeys of many Norwegian immigrant ships, with information and photos on individual ships, passenger lists and questions and answer forums.
Not all of the passengers who left Christiania in April survived the prolonged journey of the Hannah Parr. Sadly, two of the passengers who did not make it to Quebec were Ellef and Ronnaug's two youngest daughters, Christine and baby Hanna. I have not been able to determine whether the 3 year old, Christine, died on the ship or in port, but family lore relates that baby Hanna died and was buried at sea. According to what my Grandma Hannah was told by her mother Mathea who was an eye-witness to the events, when the baby died Ronnaug tried to hide for some time as she knew what would happen. When the death was discovered, the body was placed in a crude hand-made wooden casket with several holes drilled in it. The casket was then lowered into the sea where it floated out a ways and then slowly began sinking out of sight. Mathea said that her mother, Ronnaug (called Rena in America), had to be held back to keep her from jumping into the ocean with the casket and she nearly went crazy. It is hard for us to imagine those seemingly cruel tactics today, but as a practical matter, bodies of the deceased could not be kept on the ship for more than a day or two for health and sanitation reasons.
I can't help but think, what if my great-grandmother Mathea would have died on the voyage also, or in place of one of the other daughters? There would have been no Mathea descendants and I wouldn't be sitting her contemplating the alternatives. The whole concept is just too mind-boggling!
I must digress here to say a few words about Norwegian naming patterns in those days, a constant frustration
for genealogists and descendants to the present day. First of all, the surname of each person changed with each generation. For example, Ellef was the son of Erland Christiansen, so his surname became Erland's son,"Erlandsen". Ellef's children, being girls, had the surname of Ellefsdatter. To try to alleviate confusion as to which "Erland's son" was being referred to, they began adding the name of the farm where the father or the child was born (Ellef Erlandsen Torgersrud) but that could change if the father or the child lived on a different farm later. And the wife, of course, did not take her husband's surname when she married so she would have a different surname than her husband or children. To complicate matters further many of the immigrants changed their names completely or "Americanized" their Norwegian names when they came to America, i.e., The birth name of Grandma Hannah's father was Mathias Christiansen in Norway, and became Martin Larson in America. Last but not least, if there was a death of a young child or an infant in a Norwegian family, and there were many infant deaths, the next child born of the same gender would most likely be given the same name. Therefore there may be two or more Peders or Ellings born to the same parents. A real joy when looking up birth records!
Well, that's enough for today. More about the Ellsons and their life in America next time!
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