Ed's Day Wednesday
Dear FOLKS,
It has been another productive week for me. Much of it not about genealogy, but getting ready for the holidays. Both are important. As I finished checking my list, I got back on track with this article as I continue with the telling of my late cousin Ed Ostroms' ancestors. In the case of the individual, Ommund, who is the subject of this article, he is an ancestor shared by Ed and me. Norwegian Ommund Ommundsen was one of Ed's 2x great-grandfathers through Ed's granddad Oscar Ostrom. And Ommund was one of my 3x great-grandfathers through my great-grandmother Anna Ostrom Haner. Oscar and Anna were siblings.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article called "Researching Ommund Ommundsen (1820-1895)." It is available here. It told of how I discovered that the wrong birth date was given to Ommund in "Lunds Historie I," a book of the local Lund, Norway genealogy and history, written/compiled by Ingjald Melhus and published in 1961. This is called a bygdebok or a "farm book." The date shown in the book, 29-4-1818 [April 29, 1818] was given for Ommund's birth date. I found in the local church register, the entry of birth on that date was for another Ommund Ommundsen, the son of Ommund Knudsen and Esther Tostensdatter, born on the Haukland farm. Our Ommund Ommundsen son of Ommund Knudsen and Berta Larsdatter was born July 9, 1820, on the Østrem farm. All this confusion was likely caused by names for the sons and fathers being the same.
I also recently wrote an article called "The Three Wives of Ommund Ommundsen (1820-1895)." In this article, I wrote that our Ommund had married three different times and I shared the three records found in the local church register that appeared to support these marriages as shown in the book Melhus book. That article is found here.
I learned there was some confusion amongst other researchers regarding Ommund's first marriage. His first wife was reported to have been Rakel Atlaksdatter, the daughter of Atlak Knudsen and Pernelle Pedersdatter of Håven. In one version, Ommund and Rakel were to have divorced, but I didn't know where to find records of that. In another version, he possibly had two wives at the same time. That suggestion seemed far-fetched to me, but also difficult to prove.
I recently became acquainted with another researcher, for privacy reasons, I'll call this inquiring person...E.S.
Fortunately for me, E.S. was also interested in the mystery of this first marriage event. Through some email exchanges, E.S. told me "If I take a look at page 621, Olaus Omundsen's father [Ommund Ommundsen] was married 3 times. I think 2 is correct. When he married Malena Andreasdatter, the church book tells that he was a "ungkarl," that means unmarried!"
Then E.S. says, "Next marriage to Anna Toresdatter, he was a Gardmand og Enkemand, that means farmer and widow man."
The Norwegian words "ungkarl" and "Enkemand" were initially overlooked by me as I thought they all contained just referred to his occupation. But in truth, both records included his current marital status.
E.S. and I agreed that the first marriage to Rakel Atlaksdatter was questionable and that likely the daughter Else Ommundsdatter was not our Ommund's child. But, how could we prove this?
The 1865 Norway Census -- I have a copy of Ommund Ommundsen's household at the Østrim farm during that enumeration. That household contained Ommund Ommundsen (age 45-head), Anne Thoresdatter (age 46-wife), Olaus Ommundsen (age 16-son), Bærint (age 11-son) and Anne Malene Ommundsdatter (age 4-daughter).
I wondered if I could be lucky enough to find a second Ommund household with wife Rakel. So I began to look on the Norway Digitalarkivet website that contains the digital copies of a number of the Norwegian census reports. I started looking through the 1865 census records once again.
There it was. Eureka! This family was living on the Haukland farm. The household contained Ommund Ommundsen (age 47-head), Rakel Atlagsdatter (age 47-wife), Andreas Ommundsen (age 5-son), Else Ommundsdatter (age 17-daughter).
It was then I remembered that the other Ommund Ommundson that we came across while researching our Ommund's birth date and records. This second and older Ommund was born on the Haukland farm. And lucky for us he was still living there in 1865! This also solved my mystery of where Rakel and Else had gone. They were right here, right where they were supposed to be. The wife and daughter of the other Ommund
Now we can modify the list of marriages on Ommund's marriages. Marriage #1 (G.I) was not our Ommund's
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| IMAGE: Portion of page 621 of "Lunds Historie I" p. 1961 by I. Melhus. Highlighting corrections made to Omund Omundsen's entry as IX. |
I also want to thank my cousin from Norway who put E.S. in touch with me. Thank you S.K. It was so very helpful that you suggested my articles to E.S.
I am not sure yet how best to spread the word about this. I know I need to correct my database, so remove the first marriage is one action and that I'll do. This article is another way to spread the word. But indeed, I want to be sure to let others researching this family know.
As mentioned before this is not a poor reflection on the work done earlier on the Lunds Historie Books. With over 600 pages in Book I alone, there are bound to be a few mistakes. It can easily happen when names are used several times in one generation. It is likely if researched, we would find these two Ommunds related to one another.
I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. I will take a brief break from articles until after the holidays but don't think for a moment that I am not thinking of you. I hope your week is going well. Best wishes.
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The URL for this post is https://homefolktales.blogspot.com/2017/12/one-less-wife-for-ommund-ommundsen-1820.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. I am glad you stopped by today.
Copyright (c) 2017, Darlene M. Steffens
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