52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1: Adolf Johannes Waldemar Hansen

It really began “In the Year 2000”. That’s when I posted on a Norway message board looking for my Adolf Hansen. In my genealogy newness and knowing that the Norwegians used the Patronymic naming system, I was looking for a Hans who fathered Adolf Hansen. He was not to be found, but I did connect with a Norwegian author who was writing a biography of my Adolf Hansen in honor of his 150^th Birthday. The book was to be published in 2002 in conjunction with a concert of his music. The author, Egil Gunderson and I corresponded for the next two years as I tried to find the parents of Adolf Hansen, Norwegian Composer and Music Instructor. I didn’t find all the answers in time for the publication of the book, but I have finally pieced his story together.

Adolf Hansen was born Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen on 11 October 1852 and christened at Aker, Akershus, Oslo, Norway on 26 December 1852.[i] He was the illegitimate son of Johanne Sophie Johannessen and Martin Hansen. Martin was in the military, but I haven’t yet determined Johanne Sophie’s occupation.  Sponsors at the christening were Johanne Marie Johannessen, Martha Marie Andersdatter, Adolf Anderssen and Julius Johns. 

Martin never married Sophie (as she was called) and she raised her son on her own. The 1865 Norwegian census shows Sophie Johannesdatter living with Adolf in a house with 47 other people at Grønslanderet 2. She was born in 1829 and her occupation indicated she was a peddler of vegetables. Adolf was 13 years old.

In 1867, an impoverished Adolph joined the 2^nd Brigade Band as a drummer, and at the same time, he also joined the Mollergadens Theater Orchestra as a clarinetist. Both were under the direction of Paolo Sperati. One day in 1868, Adolph showed Sperati 2 pieces he had composed. One was a march and the other was a galop. Sperati had both pieces performed and they were a hit.[ii]

From 1875, Adolph was employed by the Kristiania Theater Orchestra under the direction  of Johan Edvard Hennum. He remained there for ten years and was known for his performing abilities.

The 1875 census shows Sophie Hansen, now 46, an unmarried seller of newspapers living at Grønslanderet 4 with Adolph who is listed as a musician. Band. As his talent became more evident, he was sent to Paris for additional studies and training. Adolph’s primary instrument was the clarinet, but he was also a proficient pianist as can be attested to by his many compositions.

On 12 Dec 1877, Adolf married Dorette Christensen in Grønland Parish[iii] and the couple moved into the military Garrison in Oslo where Adolf continued his work with the Norwegian Army Band. Dorette bore seven children, five of whom survived infancy, before her death on July 4, 1887.[iv]

Adolph was the conductor and director of the orchestra at the Tivoli, an amusement park, in Christiania from 1885 until he and his new family moved to Bergen in 1892.

Adolph joined the Brigade Band in Bergen and continued with his work composing musical pieces. Some of his music was used in theatrical performances featuring Nathalie. While their careers soared, the family grew with the addition of five children born to Adolph and Nathalie. Of the children born to Dorette and Adolph, four, Dagny, Artur, Adolph, and Sigurd, immigrated to the United States and one, Thorolf remained in Norway. Of the five children born to Nathalie and Adolph one, Lili came to the United States while Eilif, Elvind, Edit, Adolph remained in Norway.

It is known that Adolph visited the United States in of 1909 as there is a photo of him with his children Dagny and Adolph and their spouses.

Adolph died in Bergen, Norway on 24 Jan 1911 and was buried there on 31 Jan 1911. 

Today Adolph's music can still be heard on YouTube here

[i] SAO, Aker prestekontor kirkebøker, F/L0019: Parish register (official) no. 19, 1842-1852, p. 395

[ii] Details of the musical career of Adolph Hansen courtesy of Egil Gundersen, author of his biography, conveyed via email  27 Aug, 2002.

[iii] SAO, Grønland prestekontor Kirkebøker, F/Fa/L

005: Parish register (official) no. 5, 186880, p. 311    Quick link: https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb20060921030440 accessed 23 Oct 2017

[iv] SAO, Garnison Church Church Books, F / Fa / L0012: Ministerial Book No. 12, 1880-1893, p. 238

Genealogy Goals - 2017 Reviewing - 2018 Setting

Last year I set some genealogy goals for myself, now it’s time to review them and see how I did.

I am still working on the Do-over and will continue in the coming years.  I want my tree to be as accurate as possible.  As I re-evaluate information I continue to find new information.  I will also continue to maintain my online trees as cousin bait.  Last year they provided contacts in both Norway and Germany. I am still working on the “Do Over” and will continue working on a different family each month. I have made a promise to my self to enter a source citation for each fact or person I add to the tree.

I will once again participate in the Family History Writing group sponsored by Lynn Palermo in February.  Last year I got off to a pretty good start, but found some additional research was needed to continue the story.  I have done the research and, so I will resurrect the story and hope to finish it and publish it here. Tis proved to be an epic fail as I did not participate this past year, but I probably won’t participate this year as I have decided to join the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks meme. I hope spreading the writing over the course of the year will work better for me.

On the DNA front, I am currently the manager of 5 kits and have had some minor success in connecting my brother and a known first cousin to another branch of my grandfather's family.  The most common recent ancestor was my grandfather's grandfather.  He was born in Norway in 1817.  I will be watching and re-watching DNA seminars this year and I now have Blaine Bettinger's book "Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy" so maybe this year I will become more comfortable with DNA analysis. I feel much more comfortable with DNA after concentrating on it this past year. When I went to Jamboree, I concentrated on taking in as many lectures on DNA as I could. I also watched all of the DNA webinars at Legacy Family Tree, and read Blaine Bettinger’s book. As a bonus, I did a cruise to Alaska and was able to hear Blaine present on DNA an additional five times. As a result, I have identified my son-in-law’s birth parents using both traditional genealogy and DNA. I have also found known branches of our family tree which we have lost contact with over time.

I am making tentative plans to go back to the Family History Library in April and the SCGS Jamboree in June.  My trip to Salt Lake was a wonderful adventure and as is typical, I made substantial progress on a brick wall on Saturday afternoon! (my last day) I hope to go to Jamboree for both its educational opportunities and fellowship.  I may also see my cousin while in California. I did return to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library in April. Once again, I was seeking the two mysterious Swedes in among my husbands ancestors. They are still elusive but, I have hopes that new clues and DNA will help to find their birthplaces. At Jamboree I did concentrate on DNA as I mentioned but I was also a wonderful feeling of fellowship and meeting old and new friends. I was lucky to spend an evening with both my cousin and her daughter in addition to another evening with a high school classmate. September brought with it a cruise to Alaska with the group from Heritage Books. We had great weather for late September and the group was very friendly with well planned activities. There were lectures covering many areas of genealogy and I came home re-inspired.

My greatest fail this year was with blogging.  Far from the weekly posts I had hoped to do, I only managed a total of nineteen blog posts.  I don’t know if I need different ideas or just more determination.  I guess I better figure it out. At Jamboree I did attend Michael John Neill’s presentation on blogging and got several great ideas, then Cindy Ingle further inspired me with tips on publishing to correct an error. Last year I posted 20 blog posts this year it will be 21, so while it is an improvement of one more post I want it to still be a bigger improvement. This will be the eighth year of my blog and I hope it is the best.

One last goal is to finally finish my daughter's application to join the DRA.  There is one loose end to connect in the 1810-1830-time period.  That will probably require land and tax records. Unfortunately, the DAR application was left behind In the excitement of DNA testing. I resolve to finish it this year.

So last year there were some successes and some misses. This year I also planned the programs for the monthly meetings of our local genealogy group and volunteered in the genealogy room of the library on most Sunday afternoons. When possible I also volunteer at the local Family History Center.

Bring on 2018!!

SCGS Jamboree 2017 - Sunday

Sunday is the last day of the Jamboree which ends at 3:00 with the Grand Prize Drawing. My Sunday began with a change of topics.  I had planned to listen to Duff Wilson present " Getting the Most Out of Family Tree Maker 2017" because it is a program I will be using often but on the way to pavilion 1, I literally changed my mind at the last minute and made a left turn into pavilion 2. There was Anna Swayne of Ancestry and her presentation "Putting Your DNA Matches to Work".   Anna demonstrated how to interpret the results page from the Ancestry DNA test and highlighted the importance of attaching a family tree to your DNA results. She also explained how to use the hints feature to see cousins with whom you have a shared ancestor. There is a built in notes area and a way to mark the matches that you have already reviewed. AncestryDNA also allows searching by surname/birth location which can help find patterns in addition to the shared matches tool.

From Anna's DNA lecture I went to one by Jim Brewster of Family Tree DNA. Jim's talk was on "The ABCs of Y-DNA . After a short history of the beginning of genetic genealogy, Jim explained STRs and SNPs which are on the Y chromosome and how haplogroups are determined by SNPs found on the Y chromosome. He also discussed the various Y tests and when they might be useful. There are lots of projects which use the Y DNA tests such as Surname, Haplogroup, and Geographic projects.

After lunch on the Quad, there were two more DNA classes on my horizon.

The first was"DNA, Your Research, and Legacy Family Tree" with Geoff Rasmussen of Legacy Family Tree. Legacy Family Tree has come out with a new version which includes helps for managing and recording DNA data. Legacy has DNA charts for male Y-DNA and female mtDNA which will help you determine who the carriers are. Geoff discussed his own DNA experiences with DNA testing and how it helped him topple a brick wall.  He also showed his method of recording who has tested using hashtags (#) another new feature of Legacy Family Tree. Unlimited #s can be created and added to your family file as a way of making and saving lists people etc.

The final session I attended on Sunday and of the Jamboree was once again with Jim Baker and dealt with "Autosomal DNA Test: So Good You Caan Hardly Believe It".  Jim explained the differences between the scoring of FTDNA, Ancestry DNA, and GEDmatch. The major features of each company were shown and the range of scores for expected relationships were discussed. He defined the scoring done by both FTDNA and Ancestry DNA. Jim finished his presentation with two case studies one of which was finding an ancestor in the 6th - 8th generation. Jim's charts helped to clarify the process.

At 3;00 the conference was over except for the Grand Prize drawing. The Exhibit Hall had closed at 2:00 and many attendees had been leaving so it was time to say "Good Bye" until next year.