This week’s prompt
is: Closest to Your Birthday”. So I made a list of all the birthdays in my
Roots Magic database. And the winner is: Johannes Hansen, my paternal
great-grandfather. My birthday is Oct 6 and he was born Oct 11.
Johannes
Adolf Waldemar Hansen was born 11 October 1852 and christened on 26 December
1852 at Garnisonsmenighet, Oslo, Akershus, Norway. The name was a rather
imposing one for the illegitimate son of a soldier and a woman who sold vegetables
on the street for a living. As it’s name implies Garnisonsmenighet was the military
church which served the solders based at the Akershus fortress in Oslo.
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| Birthplace of Adolf Hansen 11 Oct 1852, Oslo, Norway |
Martin
Hansen was a soldier from the village of Nittedal in the county of Akershus,
while Sophie was from Aker in Akershus. Aker is a geographic area within today's Oslo and a former independent
municipality in Akershus, Norway. The name originally belonged to a farm which
was located near the current Old Aker Church. The church in turn became the
source of the name of the parish, the Akershus Fortress, the municipality and the
entire county of Akershus, as well as numerous institutions within this area.
The name remains in use in two districts of Oslo, Vestre Aker and Nordre Aker.[i]
Nittedal lies northeast of Oslo and is named after the river Nitelva.
Martin
Hansen had most likely finished his military service and returned to Nittedal
before the birth of Johannes since the 1865 census records him as a married man
with a son, Johan, born in 1853. By 1865 he had several children and had returned to
life as a farmer. Martin’s name appears as the father of Johannes on his
christening record and both of his marriage so Johannes definitely knew who his
father was.
Johannes’ mother
Sophie Johanesdotter was from rural Aker and about 23 when her only son was
born. In spite of living in poverty, Sophie did her best to raise her son and later one of her grandsons.
The 1865
census for Oslo records Johannes as living with his mother Sophie (now using
the surname Hansen) in a tenement in Oslo and a music student. Johannes, now
calling himself Adolf was accepted into a local band and helped provide music in
the Tivoli Gardens among other venues. As his talent became more recognized, Adolf
was included in other bands and by 1875 had joined the Norwegian Army as a band
member.
In 1876,
Adolf married Dorette Cristensen and they became the parents of five surviving
children before Dorette’s death in 1887.
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| Adolf Hansen and wife Nathalie and family shortly before the immigration of Artur, Adolph andc Dagny in 1894 |
Shortly
after Dorette’s death Adolf realized that he needed to marry again if he was to
continue conducting and composing for his band. In 1889 Adolf married
seventeen-year-old Nathalie Bull Edgberg and by 1890 he moved his family to
Bergen.
In Bergen,
Adolf continued his work in the world of music as his family grew. In 1894
three of Adolf’s older children left Norway for the United States where they
would be welcomed by their deceased mother’s sisters and a brother who had
already made the journey to America.
During their
marriage Adolf and Nathalie would have five children before the music world
claimed Nathalie’s attention.
Adolf made
one trip to New York City in 1909 where he was able to meet his daughter Dagny
and her husband Charlie Tripp and their children Dorette and Gordon along with
his son Adolph and his wife Henriette.
Adolf lived
at Sigurdsgate 4 in Bergen at the time of his death on 24 Jan 1911 and was
buried on 31 Jan 1911 in Bergen.
Adolf left a
rich musical inventory which is appreciated by the military bands in Norway in
addition to the survivors of the ten children he fathered. Five of his children
remained in Norway and five immigrated to the United States.
As a footnote
to Adolf’s story, I recently had a DNA match to a descendant of Adolf’s father
Martin Hansen. This descendant still lives in Norway and is my third connection
to my Norwegian ancestors.
