Roots at Røo

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Roots at Røo
By Keith Thomsen

During our 2003 trip to Norway, Colin and I traced Thomsen family roots back to the 1750s and to the island of Tysnes in the Hardanger Fjord region. We learned about Røo, a farm on Tysnes where Thomsens lived for 64 years. And we obtained new information about Tolleif Thomsen, the first of our ancestors to use the Thomsen name.

This new information was gleaned from "bygdeboks" (community annals) shown to us by historian Tore Moe at the Sunnhordland Folk Museum in Leirvik. These records tell a tale of lepers, loss and lawsuits, taxes or rent paid in butter and goatskins, "double" Christian scholarship and traveling evangelists. A more complete picture of Tolleif emerged as we learned about his amazing life. In the fall of 2003, I sent this information to Thomsens who had earlier expressed an interest in our family history.

Then, in January 2004, Colin found an internet website dealing with Tolleif and contacted the man who posted it, Roger Fossum of Kvalavåg, Norway. He discovered that Roger is a descendant of Tolleif's son Karl Andreas, and that Roger has an interest in both computer technology and geneology.

What followed was an exciting exchange of information. Roger's research had located Thomsen relatives in Norway and the United States that we were only vaguely or completely unaware of. He, in turn, didn't know about Tolleif George (T.G.) Thomsen's book "Saga from Western Norway" and the stories about Tolleif's capture, imprisonment and involvement in a mutiny during the Napoleonic Wars.

Since then Roger has been uncovering new information about Tolleif and his family. His research is not been limited to the bygdeboks, which sometimes contain inaccurate information. His skills allow him to dig deep into Norway's rich trove of archives. This work with original sources has cleared up some mysteries in the family saga but also uncovered some new ones.

In short, Roger's research means that an updated version of "Roots at Røo" is needed to include the most recent findings. Here is that update:

Thomsens on Tysnes

Tolleif's father was Tomas Tollevson (1753-1836), who was also known as Tomas Røo. He was born at Ytre Vikana. Tolleif's mother was Inga Torsteinsdatter (1753-1823) from Samland. Both Ytre Vikana and Samland are in Jondal, a picturesque town and mountain region on the south side of the Hardanger Fjord near its junction with the Sør Fjord.

In 1775, Tomas acquired a farm called Røo or Røen on Tysnes, which is near the mouth of the Hardanger Fjord complex. That same year he and Inga were married. Getting the farm probably allowed them to wed.

By the standards of the time, the 22-year-old Tomas was very young to have either a farm or a wife. Most of the marriages recorded in the bygdeboks involve men in their thirties marrying women in their early twenties. Men commonly had to have property, "penger" (money) or prospects before they could expect to win the consent of a prospective bride's parents. The minimum for matrimony was a place to live, and that often took lots of hard work, saving and a little luck to acquire.

So how did Tomas manage this at age 22? To answer that question we must first look into the story of the previous owner of the farm, a doomed man named Nils Svenkeson Vestheim Røo.

Nils bought Røo in 1768 and moved there with his second wife, Anna Hansdatter, and his three children by a previous marriage. In 1773 one of those children, a nine-year-old girl named Ragnhild, fell victim to leprosy. This debilitating disease attacks the skin, flesh and nerves and causes open sores, scabs, and deformities. It is communicated by long and close personal contact, so the rest of Ragnhild's family was at risk.

The risk proved all too real. Nils developed leprosy at age 53 in 1775. He then gave or sold his farm to Tomas. The nature of the transaction is unclear. While the Tysnes bygdebok states flatly that Nils purchased Røo, it says Tomas "took over" the deed or lease. The phrase "took over" may have a precise meaning in Norwegian, such as assuming a mortgage, or it may mean Tomas stepped in to help when Nils' health failed.

Roger's research has revealed why Nils chose the 22-year-old Tomas to receive the farm. The Tysnes bygdebok says that the people on the island thought Tomas was Nils' son or foster son but, despite the differences in their ages, Nils and Tomas were actually first cousins. Nils' father, Svenke Mikkelson (1702-1769) and Tomas' father, Tolleif Mikkelson (1705-1783) were brothers originally from Ulvik, a town at the head of the Hardanger Fjord.

Elderly or ill people often settle their affairs when they fear death or debilitating disease is approaching. Nils probably thought his young cousin was a good prospect to help him in return for a start in life. Tomas and Inga may have agreed to care for Nils and his doomed family as part of the terms of the property transfer, sale or bequest.

Retirement or pension arrangements involving room and board for former owners were sometimes part of farm sales in Norway. However, the number of dependents at Røo and their plight were very unusual. Lepers were commonly shunned because of their appearance and the risk of infection. A decision by Tomas and Inga to care for them, even in return for a farm, would have been a brave and kind one.

Nils' foresight in settling his affairs was well justified. Within a year he was dead, and within two years the rest of his children had developed the disease. The two boys and their sister were eventually hospitalized in Bergen and probably died there. What happened to Anna Hansdatter is unknown, but she may have remained at Røo. Records show that Tomas and Inga built a new "sengbu" or "vilkårhus" (a dormitory or pension home) at the farm.

Tomas' tenure

Tomas and Inga ran Røo until 1806. They had four children, Torstein (1776-1837), Tolleif (1779-1864), Ragna (1781-1856) and Brita (1795-1840). Another boy named Tolleif was born in 1778 but died as an infant.

Tomas preferred to make his living as a coastal fisherman and leased half of Røo to a neighbor, even though the farm was one of the smallest on Tysnes. In fact, it was so small that the first tax or rent for it in 1591 was one pound of butter and a goatskin. The farm faces Lukksund (Lukk Sound) on the east coast of Tysnes island. The nearest town of any size is Onarheim to the southwest. Røo, or Røen as it was also spelled, originally meant "The Clearing" in the local dialect. It is the Western Norway equivalent of a common farm name in Eastern Norway, Rød or Ruud.

The Tysnes bygdebok says Tomas and Inga were "velstandsfolk" (wealthy people) and paid a church tithe or tax of 2 specie (silver) dollars in 1816. They were devout Christians and staunch supporters of an important person in Norwegian religious history, the lay preacher Hans Nilsen Hauge. When the evangelist toured the Hardanger Fjord area in early summer of 1799, he was invited to hold a religious meeting at Røo. The bygdebok says many people were "saved."

Tolleif and Torstein

Tolleif and his brother Torstein shared their parents' support for Hauge, but that didn't prevent them from sowing a few wild oats. The bygdebok says they left home early to travel. Where they went and what they did is not recorded, but they probably went to Bergen. They eventually returned home properly chastened and became hard-working fishermen like their father. But unlike Tomas they were not satisfied with local fishing. Instead they "reiste pÅ sorafiske" traveled after "southern fish."

The term "southern fish" is not explained but implies that Tolleif and Torstein went to Southern Norway or beyond to fish. The term may refer to spring herring. These fickle fish, also called sprat or alewives, changed their migration pattern in the 1780s and disappeared from the waters of Western Norway. They did not reappear there until 1808. Spring herring were particularly important to full-time fishermen like Tolleif and Torstein because they provided income during an otherwise slow time of the year. The fish were gutted, salted, packed in barrels and shipped to other parts of Norway and to Sweden and Russia.

The bygdebok says Tolleif and Torstein owned a spring herring net, something they wouldn't have needed unless they fished outside of Western Norway. The two brothers also had several other nets. As we will see later, a net might have cost as much as 300 specie dollars, so Tolleif and Torstein were exceptionally well-off and well-equipped for fishermen in their mid-twenties. They may have hired men to help handle their nets or outfitted other fishermen in return for a share of their catch. The records state that Tolleif, and probably Torstein, owned a fishing boat and had a herring salting business.

Torstein settles down

In 1806, Torstein took over the farm at Røo from his parents. He married Kari Mortensdatter (1782-1838) from Malkenes the following year. Malkenes is on the northeastern tip of Tysnes Island at one entrance to Lukksund.

They had five children: Anna, born 1808; Berte, born 1810; Tominga, birth date not given; Johannes, born 1820; and Moraline, born 1822. The parents showed some creativity in two of the names. Tominga is a combination of Tomas and Inga; Moraline is believed based on the word "moral" and stems from the parents' Christian beliefs.

Torstein died in 1837 at age 61. The Tysnes bygdebok cites three remarkable things about him. First, he had a house with a two-story iron or tile stove, the latest thing in central heating in the 1800s. Second, he owned a cabinetmaker's bench, implying that he was a skilled and serious woodworker. Such benches had to be imported from Germany at the time. And third, Torstein had a small library of Christian literature. He owned two collections of Hauge's sermons, an account of Hauge's evangelical travels, excerpts from a Norwegian church history, the Bible, several church songbooks, nine books of "basic Christian scholarship" and three books of "double basic Christian scholarship."

Torstein and Tolleif's two sisters did not fare as well in life as they did. Brita married Jens Mortensen of Malknes in 1816. They leased a homestead called Nobbelen, a part of the Røo property, about 1820. They struggled to survive. In 1826 they had to mortgage the house and grain storage building on their farm to Ola NeravÅge for 16 specie dollars. After every payment they were forced to seek economic assistance from the community. Jens married Ragna after Brita died in 1840. All three were listed as community-supported paupers.

Tolleif on his own

The Tysnes bygdebok confirms that Tolleif was imprisoned by the British during the war of 1807-14 and made serveral long voyages. There is no mention of a mutiny during an Icelandic voyage. An attempt to learn the name of the ship and the date of the mutiny at the Bergen Maritime Museum was fruitless. The museum's Lloyd's register of ship losses only goes back to the 1880s.

However, Roger has located English records of Tolleif's capture and imprisonment. These records state that Tolleif was taken into custody aboard the ship Welforenniet ("Well-United" in Dano-Norwegian) on Sept. 1, 1807, at Yarmouth, a port on the east coast of England. The ship was taken by a cutter (a small sailing vessel), apparently while visiting the port. The seizure occurred two days before the British attack on Copenhagen and before there was a formal state of war between England and Denmark-Norway. The timing of the capture shows that Tolleif was not a privateer, one of the government-licensed pirates who preyed on British shipping during the Napoleonic Wars, but an unfortunate sailor who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the war started.

According to T.G. Thomsen's "Saga from Western Norway," the ship Tolleif was board was owned by Hans Nilsen Hauge. In 1801, Hauge founded a shipping company in Bergen to trade primarily with Northern Norway. Between 1804 and 1814 Hauge was in prison for preaching without permission. Tolleif may have been aboard Hauge's ship because he supported Hauge's cause and wanted to help him during his imprisonment.

The English prison records describe Tolleif as being five-foot four-inches tall with red hair, blue eyes and a pimply face. He was first imprisoned in Yarmouth but was transfered to Chatham on the Thames River estuary Dec. 03, 1807. Roger's research shows there were 12 prison ships and a hospital ship anchored near Chatman at the time. Which of these vessels Tolleif was aboard wasn't recorded, but the 12 ships were named Fyen, Kronprins Fredrik, Nassau (all captured Danish ships), Crusty, Sampson, Buckingham (later replaced by Brunswick), Irresistible, Bahama, Canada, Glory and Belliqueux.

In most of the prison camps, the sailor-prisoners were pressured by the English to enter British sea service in return for their freedom. Some Danish-Norwegian war prisoners took the offer of berths on English merchant vessels, mostly on ships bound for the East Indies. This manner of gaining release was disdained by the remaining prisoners and by public opinion in the homeland, but taking jobs on merchant ships was not considered treason. The Norwegian-born priest Ulrik Fredrik Rosing, who worked among the prisoners until 1811, estimated that about 300 of the 7,000 prisoners went into English service, less than five percent.

Roger's research shows that some of the prisoners were shot during captivity, while others died of disease, such as typhus, gangrene or hemorrhages. Under these inhuman conditions Tolleif was held until at least Jan. 17, 1809. He was then, ironically, discharged to a ship called Bedre Tider, Better Times in English. It is possible that this was the ship he was aboard when the crew mutinied on the way from Iceland to England. Why Tolleif was released to a ship with a Danish or Norwegian name is a puzzle. Perhaps it was a captured ship that was allowed to keep its Scandinavian name as a cover for trade during an Iceland voyage.

According to T.G. Thomsen, Tolleif was in prison for 2 1/2 years, but the period described in the English records was from Sept. 1, 1807, to Jan. 17, 1809, about 1 1/2 years. Tolleif may have been aboard the Bedre Tider a year before the mutiny, or it may have been a prison ship. Or perhaps there is a mistake in the English records. An anomally in the records points in this direction. They show Tolleif was first issued prison clothing on March 9 but no year is given. Since he was captured on Sept. 1, 1807, this could have been no earlier than March 9, 1808. Other clothing allocations were made on March 18, Dec. 11 and June 13, no years given. Since the entries are handwritten in ink in chronological order, the last issue would have been made on June 13, 1809, five months after Tolleif was reported as being discharged. Perhaps the clerk who recorded the January discharge had a memory lapse and forgot that the year had recently changed, writing 1809 instead of 1810.

A new beginning

We know from "Saga from Western Norway" that the mutiny and sale of the seized ship allowed Tolleif to get a new start in life through the purchase of a coastal trading vessel. This is confirmed by tax records. In 1816 Tolleif paid a tax of 27 specie dollars as the owner and captain of a large sloop. There were few people on Tysnes who paid more, indicating he was among the most prosperous people on the island.

In 1819, three big changes occurred in Tolleif's life: He got citizenship at Bergen, he got married and his first child was born.

The importance of city citizenship ("borgerskap" in Norwegian) is a little difficult to explain because there is no English or American equivalent status. Borgerskap meant more than mere residence in a city; it formally established a man's relationship to the place where he lived, worked and/or did business. By taking citizenship, a man assumed certain civic duties, such as paying taxes. In return, he got the right to run a business in the city or to be a master craftsman, journeyman or ship captain there. The inclusion of that last occupation may explain why some bydgeboks say Tolleif became a ship captain in 1819. The title had more to do with his new social status than with his seamanship.

His new wife's name was recorded as Katrine Nilsdatter, but otherwise little is known about her. She was either 42 or 43 when she died in 1839, so she was born in 1796 or 1797. She would have been 22 or 23 when she married, while Tolleif was 40 or 41. She was apparently from Bergen.

When Tolleif and Katrine's first child, Thomas, was baptized at Nykirken in Bergen, their names were listed on the church register as "Skipper (Captain) Tollew Thomsen and Madame Catharina Thomsen." Roger says it was unusual at the time for a wife to take her husband's last name, so Katrine's family name might have been Thomsen (daughter of a Nils Thomsen ?). The Madame before the name shows that she had a high social status in the society.

The church records Roger located show that Thomas Thomsen was born on March 26, 1819, and was baptized on April 16, 1819. One of his godfathers was "Kjopmann (Merchant) Amund Helland." This may have been the "Hans" Helland who was Tolleif's companion in the ship mutiny or a relative of his. Other baptismal sponsors were Ingeborg Johannsesen, Gunnild Evensen, Samson Fraae and Peder Odland.

The bygdeboks differ on the names and birthdates of Tolleif and Kartine's six other children, but Roger has located church records that provide an accurate account. Here is what he found: Nils Elias, born Sept. 18, 1820; Inger Katrine, Aug. 13, 1822; Hans, Sept. 12, 1824; Karl Andreas, Dec. 26, 1828; Taulerius Cornelius, July 12, 1832; and Gerhard Conrad, Feb. 10, 1835.

Nils Elias, Inger Katrine, Hans and Karl Andreas were all born at Røen; Taulerius and Gerhard were born at Engesund. One bygdebok includes the name Kari in the list of Tolleif's children. This may have been the name of a baby girl who died in infancy. There is an unusually long gap of four years between the births of Hans and Karl Andreas that may indicate a missing child. Or it may be a mistaken reference to Hans' wife, Kari Knudsdatter from Austvik.

Tolleif continued to sail, fish and maintain a home on Tysnes through the 1820s. At first he lived at Røo but later established a home and business at a place called Kroken Under Sunda. This farm, like Røo or Røen, is on the Lukksund between Tysnes Island and the mainland. Today it called Faerstad. Tolleif first bought a piece of the Kroken farm from Jon Sunda in 1818 and set up a fish-salting business along the shore there. In 1821 he got a tax license for the whole place for 2 specie dollars a year. He established a home there in 1822 called Muren, "The Wall" in Norwegian. In 1821 Tolleif was fined for illegal brandy sales at Kroken.

In 1831 Tolleif bought Engesund and received the government license to run the inn and store in 1832. The 1830s were a time of upheaval and change for his family. Tolleif's father died in 1836; his brother Torstein in 1837; his sister-in-law Inga in 1838; and his wife Katrine in 1839.

The farm at Røo was left to Torstein's only son, 18-year-old Johannes, but he had it for only a short time before he moved to Engesund to work for his uncle. His name disappears from the records there. He apparently died young and unmarried. The farm at Røo was taken over in 1839 by Johannes Torbjornson, who married Torstein's daughter Tominga the following year. Thomsens had lived at Røo for 64 years, longer than they were to live at Engesund or Enstabovoll.

Examining Engesund

The name of Tolleif's new home (Engesund) can refer to four things: a property unit, a farm, a business and a shipping channel.

The property of Engesund consisted of a main island, called Engesundøy, and several small islands, Flatholmen, Skatholmen, Dyrsholmen and Big and Little Porsholmen. "Holmen" means the small island in Norwegian. One of the islands was given to a neighbor's child as a confirmation gift. Another part of the property was a place called Saetramarkjo on Ivarsøy, a large island just west of Engesund.

The farm on Engesund was established in the 1600s and is "ikke gamle" (not old) by Norwegian standards. It lies on the southeast part of Engesund island and was measured at 23.5 acres in 1945. In Tolleif's time it supported one horse, 15 cows and 16 sheep. The farm has some beautiful meadows in ravines where peat has formed. These fields are a lush green and are springy and soft to walk on. They look very much like the fairways of a golf course. The rest of the island is barren rock outcrops with only a few trees, low plants, moss and lichens. The trees were introduced during a forestry project after 1945. Prior to that there were none on the island. Tax records note that Engesund had no firewood and that peat was burned for fuel there.

There were at least three "husmannplasser" or tenant farms on Engesund. Their names were Level Island, The Luxury and The Reef. The Reef has recently been restored by a member of the Kleppe family and is a beautiful collection of red buildings trimmed with white and green paint. They face the sea northeast of the old inn on Engesund.

The bygdeboks don't say anything specific about the tenants or their farms at Engesund. In Eastern Norway, tenant farms usually consisted of a cabin, a small acerage for some livestock or a garden and limited fuel-gathering rights. In return the tenants or husmenn had to work for their farmer-landlords at a fixed low rate of pay. Sometimes their wives and children were required to work as well. When they got too old to labor, they could be evicted from their farms. In Western Norway there was less demand for workers, so many husmenn were renters who made a living from the sea or as craftsmen such as carpenters.

The business at Engesund was a complex, changing one but mainly consisted of an inn, a store and a seasonal herring salting operation. In return for providing certain services to the government, the business was granted trading privileges for the area, a sort of limited monopoly.

One of the required government services was to provide a room for a court to convene. Soon after it's founding in the 1600s Engesund was the site of a trial for a Fitjar woman accused of witchcraft. The unfortunate lady was convicted and later executed in Bergen.

Finally, Engesund was the name given to the shipping channel along the east side of the island. This channel was part of the ancient coastal shipping route between Bergen and Stavanger, but it is exceptionally narrow. "Engesund" means narrow water passage in Norwegian. At one place ships and boats must pass between underwater rocks no more than 60 or 70 feet apart.

Times change

Tolleif actively ran Engesund until he was 72 or 73 in 1851. Then, according to the Fitjar bygdebok, the inn and store were taken over by his oldest son, Thomas. Thomas supposedly ran the business until it was sold in 1859.

However, Roger's research has shown that this is not true or is at least misleading. Records Roger discovered show that Thomas moved to the Grude farm near Klepp, a town south of Stavanger, in 1841 when he was 21 years old. Thomas worked as a school teacher in the Nordre School District. In June 1853, he married Anna Kristine Nilsdatter from Klepp and took over a part of the Grude farm the following month. He lived there until 1880. He and Anna had seven children, all born at Grude.

So who was running Engesund during the 1850s? Roger believes that in 1851 Tolleif wanted to retire and settle his affairs. He may have done this by transferring the business and/or property to his oldest son on behalf of all of his children. This would ensure a smooth transition in the event of his death. Thomas may have been the titular owner of the business while Tolleif actually oversaw day-to-day operations at Engesund with the help of his other children, who lived at Engesund or nearby.

The 1850s brought hard times to Engesund as the business went into decline. Fishing was poor. The laws that gave places like Engesund trading privileges were relaxed to allow competition. Steamships took over coastal shipping, and their owners preferred to dock at Fitjar and avoid the narrow passage at Engesund.

In 1858 Thomas used the inn and store as colateral to borrow 1200 specie dollars from Hypotek-banken, a new mortgage agency that offered credit to struggling farmers. The debt may have led Tolleif to sell his holding on Engesund in 1859 for 3200 specie dollars. The sale apparently allowed Tolleif to stay on at Engesund as a boarder. Thomas may have arranged the sale, since the three men who were the new owners were all from the Klepp area.

Business problems were not the only thing that darkened Tolleif's final years. Three of his children also died.

The first to go was his son Hans. He had bought a farm at Straumøy in 1851, where he was acknowledged to be a clever manager who made the farm pay. Hans had also married and his wife was expecting their first child when he died on Oct. 8, 1853, at age 29. His son, Hans Carl, was born on Jan. 5, 1854, at Straumøy. Among the sponsors at his baptism was Taulerius Thomsen.

The second death was that of Tolleif's second son, Nils Elias. Nils owned half of Avløypet, a farm on Ivarsøy, where he struggled to survive. On Dec. 26, 1855, he drowned in the sea near his father's home at Engesund. His body washed up on Porsholmen the following summer. He was 35. He left a wife, Sofie, and several children.

The third death was that of Tolleif's only daughter, Inger Katrine, who had lived near him at one of the tenant farms on Engesund. When she married Berge Endreson of Tufteland in 1848 Tolleif was their best man. Inger Katrine's first three children were born at Engesund, but sometime in the mid-1850s the couple moved to Ivarsøy. Inger Katrine died there on Feb. 15, 1859, during childbirth. She was 37.

CONCLUSION

The bygdeboks say Tolleif was a "velstandsmann" (a wealthy person) when he died. He left an estate of 2913 specie dollars. Specie dollars cannot be easily converted into any modern currency because of vast differences in purchasing power, but here is a comparison to give some idea of what they were worth: When violinist Ole Bull bought the 160-acre island and farm of Lysøen near Bergen in 1872, he paid 600 specie dollars for it.

Tolleif had lived a hard life, and he could a hard man when challenged. He had been sued twice. In 1829, he was ordered to pay 315 specie dollars to some fishermen from Austevoll for cutting up their herring net. According to historian Tore Moe, such disputes were common in Western Norway at the time. Nets could be set in such a way as to prevent herring from reaching the nets of other fishermen, prompting acrimonious disputes. The second lawsuit was brought against Tolleif in 1834 by a Lutheran minister for non-payment of a fish tithe or tax. The minister may have been the notorious unruly priest of Stord, Erik Olsen, who was the grandfather of the woman who would become Taulerius Thomsen's wife. This second lawsuit probably involved the sum of three specie dollars.

Tolleif's last years were lonely as he became more and more reclusive. The new owners of Engesund were very friendly, but none of his own family were at Engesund. Karl Andreas had the farm at Dyrsholmen, Gerhard lived on Ivarsøy and Thomas was at Grude. Taulerius was at sea making a series of long voyages that kept him from Norway for many years. When Taulerius returned home in 1861, he found he no longer had one. He settled with his new wife in Valestrand.

Tolleif stayed on alone at Engesund until his death in 1864 at the age of 85. He was the first and last Thomsen to live in the large house he had built there.

NOTES

Hans Nilsen Hauge was born in 1771 on his family's farm near Tune in Østfold, a county southeast of Oslo. After a profound religious experience in 1795 or 1796, Hauge felt a call to preach. For the next nine years he traveled all over Norway spreading a message that captured the religious discontent of the times. He believed that laymen had a right to preach; that everyone, even the wealthy and powerful, should follow the rules of the Bible; and that any place believers came together was a church.

Basically, his message was a protest against the then-worldliness of Norway's Lutheran pastors. Priests of the time were linked by family ties, training and social background. They identified with the wealthy and the powerful elite of the country and were accused of despising ordinary people. Many of them were arbitrary and overbearing, especially to anyone like Hauge who questioned their social position, power or privileges. Those privileges included government salaries, free homes and farms and free travel by horse or boat at the expense of farmers.

In the 1790s, religious revivals started in Norway. Instead of heeding the protests and reforming, many ministers launched a crackdown on dissidents. They were particularly hard on a small band of Quakers in the Stavanger area. There priests had sheriffs seize Quaker children for forced baptism. People were fined for not attending communion. Parents were compelled to have their children confirmed. In one case, even the dead were exhumed so they could be reburied according to Lutheran ritual.

Another favorite target of hard-line priests was Hauge. Priests tried to silence him by charging him with breaking a 1741 regulation making private religious assemblies illegal without the permission of the local clergy. Hauge was arrested many times for this crime or for vagrancy. Usually he was released within a few days, but his resistance eventually led to his imprisonment in Oslo in 1804. He was held under various levels of duress until either 1809 or 1814. Accounts of this period vary widely, apparently on the basis of whether the individual historian was for or against Hauge. His most ardent admirers claimed he was held in conditions that ruined his health. These Haugeans or Readers, as they were also called, were energized by their leader's martyrdom and spread his message far and wide. Many early immigrants to the United States were Haugeans, and there are still Haugeite churches in the state of Iowa today.

Hauge's teachings were in line with other "pietistic" revial movements in Europe at the time, including the Plymouth Bretheren in England, a group that many Thomsens in the United States and New Zealand later joined. But there was one unusual aspect of Hauge's ministry. He often combined Christianity and capitalism. The basis was his belief that idleness was one of the deadliest sins since it often led to other vices. During his early travels he carried a load of knitware, which he sold on the road to finance his work. He also took part in the daily labor at the farms where he stayed.

The authorities accused him of using religion to enrich himself "under the guise of sanctity." Hauge did indeed have an unusual sense of enterprise. In 1801, he took citizenship in Bergen and started a firm to trade in Northern Norway. On Hauge's initiative, one of his friends started a printing shop and another a paper mill. He himself wrote books about his travels and collected his sermons in volumes that were reprinted many times. But Hauge's emphasis on enerprise was not so much about personal enrichment as it was about self-reliance, alleviating rural poverty and ending the exploitation of the poor.

Hauge emerged from prison with health problems and was unable or unwilling to carry on his evangelical work. He died in 1824.

Norwegian names and language present a lot of difficulties for a family researcher.

First, Norwegian has 186 recognized dialects and two officially recognized forms - bokmål, a formal kind of Danish-Norwegian used in books; and nynorsk, an attempt to both modernize the language and return it to its original roots. Nynorsk is strongest in Western Norway because of its similarity to local dialects.

Second, there is the Scandinavian naming tradition whereby the last name of a boy was derived from his father's first name. In our family, Tolleif was called Tolleif Tomasson because he was literally Tomas' son. Girl's names were similarly formed, only the word "datter" or daughter was used instead of "son." Tolleif's sister Ragna would have been called Ragna Tomassdatter. Such names are called patronymics.
Third, a farm or place name was often tacked onto the end of a regular name to differentiate between, say, the many Ole Olsens in an area. Our fictitious Ole Olsen might have been called Ole of Røo, for example. However, Norwegians commonly drop the "of," so our Ole would have been known as Ole Røo. This is true even today. When Colin called Fitjar trying to reach Ingeborg Kleppe, the current owner of Engesund, he was told he wanted to speak to Ingeborg Engesund.

Fourth, Norwegians in the 1700s and 1800s were very casual about spelling. Karl is sometimes Carl; Katrine sometimes Catharine or Catherine. Tolleif is also spelled Tollev or Tollef in the records. I've kept the Tolleif spelling because that's what T.G. Thomsen used in "Saga from Western Norway." Otherwise I've tried to use traditional Norwegian spellings.

Written by
Keith Thomsen
2004.