52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 27 Travel

For the Adolf Hansen family of Bergen, Norway, things began to unravel in the late 1880’s. Dorette Hansen died 4 July 1887[i]after giving birth to a daughter Aagot Dorette in June of 1887. In February of 1889 their father Adolf married Nathalie Bull Egbert and began another family. That Nathalie was only five years older than Adolf and Dorette’s oldest child undoubtedly contributed to the friction in the family.

Several of Dorette’s siblings had immigrated to the United States already and had settled in Chicago, Illinois. Hearing of the family friction they encouraged the motherless children to come to Chicago to establish their lives. On 21 May 1894 three of five of Adolf and Dorette’s surviving children: Adolph Halfdan Hansen, then twelve years old, along with his sister Dagny Amanda (16) and brother ArturDaniel (15)  walked to the police station in Bergen, Norway and registered their intention to emigrate to the United States. Adolph traveled as Halfdan Hansen.[ii] 

On 21 May 1894 they boarded the Norge to sail to New York via Copenhagen.

SS Norge photo credit:wikipedia

The Norge was built in 1881 by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse, Glasgow, for the Belgian company Theodore C. Engels & Co of Antwerp; her original name was Pieter de Coninck. The ship was 3,359 GRT and 3,700 tonnes deadweight (DWT), and the 1,400-horsepower (1.0 MW) engine gave a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She could carry a maximum of 800 passengers.[iii]

On June 8, 1894 the Norge docked in New York, New York at Ellis Island.[iv] The manifest of the Norge shows that the three children sailed alone and brought with them a total of $6.00. ($209.78 in 2018 ) Not a large sum to get them from New York to Chicago.

They did travel safely to Chicago where the 1900 census shows Artur and Adolph living with their aunt Olga Pederson and her family where Adolph was a packer.[v] Sister Dagny was working as a domestic and living with the family she worked for.

In 1901 their brother Sigurd would immigrate to New York leaving only their brother Thorolf in Norway along with their five half siblings from their father’s second marriage. 

This wasn't the end of the Hansen immigration from Norway. Lili Augusta, the daughter on Adolf and Nathalie would settle in New York and Thorolf's daughter Lili Riis Hansen would immigrate in the late 1930s shortly before WWII.

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[i] Norwegian Lutheran (Oslo fylke), Ministrial Book #12 Dode og begravede, page 300, death and burial record of Dorette Christiansen; arkivverket.no, Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

[ii] "Digitalarkivet.uib.no," Norwegian Digital Arkiv,  (http://digitalarkivit..uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=arkivvert/EMIBERG&brukar=&loc=5017848&spraak : accessed 6 June 2002), transcription, "Emigrants from Bergen 1874-1930," .

[iii] wikipedia

[iv] Arrival of Adolph Halfdan Hansen; Norge passenger manifest, 8 June 1894, ; in Ellis Island Records; (Washington, D.C.: National Archives), .

[v] 1900 U S Census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Ward 28, enumeration district (ED) ED 844 precinct 4 West Town Chicago city, 11B, 204, Adolph Hansen; digital image, FamilySearch.org (http://familysearch.org : accessed 6 February 2013); United Stated Archives and Records Administration (NARA).