Question

Kan du hjelpe til med å finne oldeforeldrene til Henry Larsen? Han ble født i Herføl, Hvaler, Østfold, og dro til sjøs. Til slutt flyttet han til Canada, ble med i Royal Canadian Mounted Police og ble kaptein på en R.C.M.P. skipet kalt St. Roch, som var det første skipet som seilte gjennom nordvestpassasjen fra vest til øst, det første som seilte gjennom nordvestpassasjen i begge retninger, og det første som omga Nord-Amerika. Han er oppført i "Kan du hjelpe med å koble en utforsker?" utfordring, og har blitt koblet gjennom kona, men det ville være hyggelig å vite om hans egen familie. Kan du hjelpe?

Comments

Assuming his mother's full name is correct, this might be her in 1910: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01036355003856

And this one's baptism, as Lava Severine: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/kb20060919070497

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And this one did die in 1938, so that matches: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/view/267/pg00000004090393

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And this then is his father's baptism: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/kb20060329040141

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Thank you very much for these, Bjørnar. I was kind of expecting to learn that his given name at birth was Hendrik or something like that, but if I'm reading his baptismal record correctly, it really was Henry.

According to the articles I've found so far, Henry was raised by his uncle, and Geni gives the same names for his "adopted" parents as the census has, so I think you've got the right record there. (I haven't seen anything in the articles to say that he was officially adopted, so I suspect that Geni's terms might not be quite precise there.)

Since I have never worked with Norwegian records before, I don't know how to cite them in Evidence Explained format. Could you please point me to a couple of examples of how to do that? 

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Looks like someone has asked that same question and gotten an answer here: https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/citing-norway-church-books-digitalarkivet-arkivverketno

Well, multiple answers and a long discussion. I suppose that is not unusual when citing records that have a long history of being referenced in multiple languages through changing spelling norms.

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Thank you for that lead, Bjørnar. The same site gave me a lead on citing census records, too, so I've tried to do a good job on Henry's baptism, Olava's baptism and death, and Olava's entry in the 1910 census. (I couldn't really read the handwriting on her baptism record, so there may be mistakes there.)

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https://www.evidenceexplained.com/node/1650

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I changed the link to the baptism, the one you used works, but if you click on the "chain"-symbol you get a list of "references" which are links that include the permanent image link. They are absolutely guaranteed to stay stable over time. The one labelled "quick link" on the English version of the page links to the full page with controls and is preferred over the image link, at least when sharing with other researchers who might want to go exploring in that source.

I also changed the mother's name, what you read as Anne Lifa is actually "kone Lisa", "wife Lisa". Easy mistake to make with the old style handwriting and unfamiliar material. :)

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Thank you for fixing that, Bjørnar. I will try to get the link right in future. (I don't have as much time for genealogising as I'd like, but as I'm able, I'll try to integrate the rest of the sources you've provided.)

I've tried searching for records for the previous generation, but I keep getting a "no results" notice, even though I should get hits on the census records you found. I don't know if that's because I'm using Safari, or if it's because I'm using ad blockers. (Possibly both.)

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Neither should be a problem. What search terms were you using?

I found his father in the 1865 census here, with his parents: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01037979002966

Answer 1

From what I got out of the Norwegian biography (yeah I had a Norwegian "lesson" at midnight :)), it says that his parents weren't married. But unfortunately there is (at least in that article) nothing more about his ancestors.

Comments

I'm hoping that there are records in Norway that go back farther, but I don't know where they are and wouldn't be able to read them if I did.

Answer 2

Frank sent me a link to Henry Larsen's obituary in a journal named Arctic. The author of the obituary was listed as "A. E. Porsild", whom I suspect was probably Erling Porsild, who was a notable Danish-born Canadian botanist and son of notable Danish botanist Morten Pedersen Porsild. Neither of them have WikiTree profiles yet. 

I. Must. Not. Chase. Rabbits.

(Or at least, not today.)