There are so
many of my ancestors I’d like to meet but for this week, I am choosing my
paternal grandfather Adolph Halfdan Hansen. Adolph died when I was only four
years old but I still remember his twinkling blue eyes and the Sunday afternoon
trips to Kiddy land at Amlings Flowers. Let me tell part of his story before I
tell you why I’d like to meet him and what I would ask him.
 |
| Adolph Halfdan Hansen 1880 - 1946 |
Adolph was
born to Johannes Adolf Hansen and his wife Dorette Cristensdotter on 29 Jan
1880[i]
in the military parish on Oslo, Akershus, Norway. He was baptized there in the
state religion Lutheran faith on 18 April 1880[ii].
He was the third child of the marriage following after Dagny and Artur.
Adolph’s
father was a music instructor and composer in the Norwegian Army. He and his wife
went on to have four additional children before Dorette’s death from childbirth
in 1887.[iii]
Two years
after his first wife’s death, on 2 Feb 1887, Johannes Adolf married nineteen-year-old
Nathalie Egeberg in Olso.[iv] Apparently,
Nathalie’s young age caused problems with the older children especially with
the oldest daughter Dagny Amanda.
 |
| Johannes Adolf and wife Nathalie in Bergen with family shortly before the 1894 emigration of Dagny, Artur, and Adolf |
On 21 May
1894, Dagny, 17, along with her brothers Artur, 15 and Adolf, 14 traveled from
Bergen to Kristiana where they boarded the Thingvalla ship the Norge[v]
which arrived in New York on 8 June 1894. They had a single suitcase between
them and each had $1.00 U.S.. They were traveling to Chicago.[vi]
The three
siblings traveled on to Chicago where they went to stay with their mother’s
sister Olga Petersen and her family.[vii]
By the time of the 1900 census Dagny had left the family to work for the Charles
B Ayers family as a servant.[viii]
All of the
siblings made a successful life for themselves in the United States and were
eventually joined by their younger brother Sigurd. Only Thorolf remained in
Norway and the 1901 census shows him living in Oslo with his grandmother Sofie.[ix]
Nathalie and
Adolf( as he was by then called) had a family which included the five children
of that marriage and moved from Oslo to Bergan shortly before the three of
Dorette’s children emigrated.
Adolph remained
in Chicago where he finished his education and went to work for his Uncle Oscar
in the iron work and shipbuilding business. This business required frequent
travel since the company had many jobs going on in locations around the
country.
On 30 Oct
1907 Adolph married Henrietta Eva Burbach at a nuptial Mass in Gesu Church in
Milwaukee, WI.[x]
There would be frequent trips between their home in Chicago and Milwaukee where
Henrietta’s family lived. Including a trip in 1907 to be the Godparents of
Herman Adolph Burbach, Henrietta’s nephew.
There is lots
more to say about Adolph, but I wanted to present the backstory so I could
explain why I’d like to meet him.
I would like
him to tell me about his mother. Other than the basic dates there is very
little known about her. Did she tell her children stories, did she sing to them?
Were her eyes the same twinkling blue as his? Was she tall? How was the
seventeen day trip across the ocean for a fourteen-year old? Were the seas calm
or rough?
How was he,
a Lutheran, able to have a Nuptial Mass, become a Godparent in a Catholic
Baptism, and finally be buried in a Catholic Cemetery at a time when all of
these were denied to non-Catholics?
This inquiring mind wants to know!!
[i] Aker,
Garnison: Den Norske Kirke, Births 1857-1880, Birth and Christening of Adolf
Halfdan Hansen; FHL microfilm FHL film 255742 batch C428255.
[ii]
ibid
[iii] Norwegian
Lutheran (Oslo fylke), Ministrial Book #12 Dode og begravede, page 300, death
and burial record of Dorette Christiansen; arkivverket.no, Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
[iv] Norwegian
Lutheran Church, , FHL film 1282501 ITEM 2 bk 13, , Marriage of Johannes Adolf
and Nathalie; FHL microfilm .
[v] "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," .
[vi] Norge
passenger manifest, 8 June 1894, ; in Ellis Island Records; (Washington, D.C.:
National Archives), .
[vii] 1900
U S Census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Ward 28, ED ED 844
precinct 4 West Town Chicago city, 11B, 204, Adolph Hansen.
[viii]
1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 35, Cook, Illinois; Page: 15; Enumeration
District: 1132; FHL microfilm: 1240291
[x] Adolph
Hansen and Henrietta Burbach marriage, 30 October 1907, Marriage Register of
Gesu Church (English): v. 4 p. 76, Roman Catholic.
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