Ed's Day Wednesday
Dear FOLKS,
It is time again that we look into the young life of Tosten Andreassen Brekke, my late cousin Edwin J. Ostrom's great-grandfather. Tosten was Ed's mother's paternal grandfather and an immigrant from Norway. Actually from Ed's ancestor's Name List that we are following, Tosten is the third individual who took an adventure of a lifetime, leaving family and friends behind in Norway to cross the Atlantic Ocean and step onto shore in the United States.
Tosten was born on the Brække (Brekke) farm near Flöm (Flaam), Aurland, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway in 1853.
 |
| IMAGE: The arrow highlights the area of southwestern Norway where Flåm is located. Map image courtesy of www.mapcruzin.com. |
The village of Flåm may be familiar to you as today it is a famous tourist destination at the inner end of the Aurlandsfjorden—a branch of Sognefjorden. Flåm is a small village with about 350 inhabitants, but their number increases substantially during the tourist season with visitors arriving on a railway through steep mountains overlooking the fjord or on one of the many cruise ships for a view the fjord at water level. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world visit this beautiful area each year. Visitors need to make their reservations early.
 |
| IMAGE: The Brekke farm is highlighted on this close-up map. The map image is courtesy of the Norwegian Mapping Authority, Statens Kartverk, a portion of the Aurland map of 1997 found in the family files of Edwin J. Ostrom. |
The Brekke Farm is located south southwest of Flåm, across the Flåm River from the village. The river flows through Flåmsdalen (Flåm Valley) and terminates at the fjord. The riverbed provides for the flat terrain that allows for farming and pastures on either side of its course, shown in the above map as the gold color.
 |
| IMAGE: Unidentified person standing on a rock ledge that overlooks the village of Flåm, Norway. The church is just across the river (ca. 1900). From the Brekke family collection of Edwin J. Ostrom. |
I was lucky to find Tosten's records in the church district's records. These include a birth/baptism, confirmation and emigration found in the Aurland pastor's office register books, at the Norway Digital Archives website. The collection of Aurland pastor's office register books supports the events that occurred in three different local churches—Vangen, Flåm and Undredal. Here I bumped into a different spelling of Tosten's first name. I'll try my hand at translating these for you.
The first, in order of his age was his baptism/birth record:
 |
| IMAGE: Page 69, Baptisms for 1852 and 1853, church book #A7 (1842-1853), Aurland district parish office, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.[1] |
IMAGE: Snippet; left-hand page, highlighting
line #5, Torstein Andreassen.
 |
| IMAGE: Snippet; right-hand page, highlighting line #5, Torstein Andreassen. |
Baptisms - on the left:
No. 5
Date of Birth: 4 January [1853] [from top of page]
Date of Baptism: 30 January [1853]
Name of Child: Torstein --------
Name of Parents, Occupation & Residence:
Farmer Andreas Trondsen Brække and Kirstine Adamsdatter
Baptisms - on the right:
Godparent's Names: John Flam??, Ellend ? Fretheim, Ellend O. Brække, Ingeborg Ellingsd. and Kari Tostensd. : Fretheim
Legitimate or Illegitimate birth: Legitimate
If Baptised at home, who performed the baptism: [blank]
If illegitimate child, who reported this status?: [blank]
So here is the first observation of his first name being Torstein and did you notice that the Date of Birth column clearly states 4 January? All of the records outside of Norway that I have found to date show that he went by the spelling of Tosten and that records that contain his date of birth all say 6 January, 1853. He and his family must have thought both Tosten and January 6th to be true.
When Tosten was 15-1/2 he was confirmed at his local church and that event was recorded like his Baptism/Birth record, in a Aurland pastor's office register book. Here is what that looks like:
 |
| IMAGE: Page 30, Confirmations in 1868, church book #A9 (1859-1879), Aurland district parish office, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.[2] |
 |
| IMAGE: Snippet; left-hand page, highlighting line #21, Torstein Andreassen. |
 |
IMAGE: Snippet; right-hand page, highlighting
line #21, Torstein Andreassen. |
Confirmations - on the left:
Entry No: 21
Date of Confirmation: June 21 [1868] [from top of page]
Full Name of Person Confirmed: Torstein Andreassen
Age: 15 1/2
Place of Birth: Brække
Names of Parents: Farmer Andreas Trondsen and Kirstine Adamsdatter
Confirmations - on the right:
Religious knowledge, diligence, etc.: good—good
When did the person have smallpox or get vaccinated:
2nd October 1855
Again, his name is written as Torstein Andreassen.
Then in 1875, we see Tosten is planning to leave home (and Norway) for America. This too is recorded as an event in the Aurland District pastor's office register book. It was the responsibility of each pastor to keep track of individuals who moved in and moved out of the parish. This was a mandate from the government authorities and a decision approved by the King. This helped the tax collectors and statisticians with their work. Here is that entry in the register book:
 |
| IMAGE: Page 43, Departures from Parish in 1875 & 1876, church book #A12 (1858-1879), Aurland district parish office, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.[3] |
 |
IMAGE: Snippet; highlighting
line #40, Thorsten Andreassen. |
Departures from the Parish (including children)
Entry No. 40
Reported Date of Departure: April 16 [1875] [from top of page]
Name: Thorsten Andreassen Brække
Age: 22
To What Place Moving to: America
It is on this record we find Brække being included as his surname. Brække is of course also his residence at the time of his departure. His first name was incorrectly entered as Thorsten, instead of Torstein, as we are used to seeing. But we learn here he is planning to leave the local area for America on 16 April 1875.
Then as a final record we have for Tosten while he is in Norway we have a record from a database of emigrants who are traveling from the port of Bergen. Those fields that are complete and have information are entered this way:
Emigrants from Bergen 1874-1930 Database:
Given Name: Torsten
Last Name: Andreassen Brakke
Gender: m
Year of birth: 1853
Age: 22
Place of birth: Aurland
Residence: Aurland
Position: single
Date of emigration: 20.04.1875
Id: og00000000000656922
Serial number: 277
Year: 1875
Remarks: Son of a Cotter [farmer's son] Travel Authority [4]
We have now learned that Tosten has boarded a ship in Bergen that departed on 20 April 1875. But the name of the ship has yet to be found. I have been searching various websites that hold ship passenger lists for those arriving in Quebec, Canada. So far I have not found the right arrival. But I'll keep looking and will let you know when it is discovered. Newly transcribed lists show up on the internet frequently. I have my fingers crossed that I'll find something soon, are yours?
Sources:
1.) "SAB, Aurland Sokneprestembete*, Parish register (official) no. A 7, 1842-1853," database and image, The National Archives of Norway-Arkivverket (www.digitalarkivet.no : accessed 27 February 2017); Baptisms, 1853, page 69, line #5, Torstein Andeassen. Permanent link: http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20070302610343.jpg.
2.) "SAB, Aurland Sokneprestembete*, Parish register (official) no. A 9, 1859-1879," database and image, The National Archives of Norway-Arkivverket (www.digitalarkivet.no : accessed 27 February 2017); Confirmations, 1868, page 30, line #21, Torstein Andreassen. Permanent link: http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20070109370185.jpg
3.) "SAB, Aurland Sokneprestembete*, Parish register (official) no. A 12, 1858-1879," database and image, The National Archives of Norway-Arkivverket (www.digitalarkivet.no : accessed 27 February 2017); Departures from the Parish, 1875, page 43, line #40, Thorsten Andreassen. Permanent link: http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20070109370355.jpg
4.) "Emigrants from Bergen 1874-1930," database, The National Archives of Norway-Arkivverket (www.digitalarkivet.no : accessed 27 February 2017); ID: og00000000656922,1875, Torsten Andreassen Brakke.
So we have uncovered wonderful records from Norway. A person's records are fun to read, especially those that are very old and have survived the times. Tosten's records leave me in a bit of a quandary, namely, what should the family tree database contain for his name and date of birth? Here I'll employ to my usual practice.
- First his name, I will use the name he used as an adult for the database. There is a preponderance of records after his arrival in America where he declares his name as TOSTEN A. BREKKE. I will include the earlier name variations as "alternate facts" to keep that information known.
- The opposite is true for his birth date. My practice with dates is to use the earliest record that is available. The date that was declared nearest the time the event occurred is more likely the correct date. Considered with caution, of course. Time has a tendency to blur a person's memory. So I will use for Tosten the birthdate of 04 JANUARY 1853. Then I'll place the date declared on documents when he was an older man, as an alternate fact within the database.
- Then I'll spread the word to others. I'll tell others who are researching this family about these original documents that have been found, offering the appropriate web addresses (permanent links) to them. They can then learn of these records too.
Thank you for stopping by today to learn about Tosten Brekke as a youngster in Norway. I am glad you stopped by and hope you are having a good week.
-- -- --
The URL for this post is: http://homefolktales.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-young-tosten-brekke-1853-1940.html.
Please comment regarding this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then use the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Or contact me by email at dsteff4246[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you.
Copyright (c) 2017, Darlene M. Steffens
No comments:
Post a Comment