Karoline Johanna Oline Knudsen (1865)

Born 9 Feb 1865 in Kristiansund

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Karoline Knudsen was born in Christiansund in 1865, and worked as a 'trise' (cook) on a boat when she met my great-great grandfather, Gerhard Rasch Olsen who was a postal officer working on the steamboats that trafficed the coast between Christiansund and Lofoten in 1888. Together they had a daughter, Inga Elise, who became my great grandmother. Inga returned to Lofoten with Gerhard, while Karoline vanished from our knowledge.

What I have been able to gather about the rest of her life comes from church records and census registrations. Karoline is based in Bergen from around 1890, but works on boats throughout her life and her given address in Bergen changes with every record. It appears that she never married, and she consistently gives her occupation as 'dampskibspige' or 'dampskibstrise' indicating that she kept cooking or serving on the steamboats for the period that the records cover.

She gave birth to several other children, all with different sailors, and all were probably adopted away. In 1892 she gave birth to Konrad at Fødselsstiftelsen, Bergen, and gave her address as Munkebergsmuget 6. In 1894 she gave birth to Einar Christian Emil, also at Fødselsstiftelsen, and then her address was Lyder Sagens gade 13. According to the census of 1900 she lived at Geble Pedersensgade 29. She appears in the church records of Maria parish in Bergen in 1902 at the birth of Edel Makalie. With her last recorded birth, at the baptism of her son Arne Valdemar in 1904, she lives in Lyder Sagensgt. 8. At the time of the census of 1910 she is recorded as living alone in the attic of Stølesmuget 4, but she is not present at the time. Her 'assumed location' is given as being 'On a journey to Hamburg', presumably on the steamboat she works on. I have not found any record stating any names of the boats she sailed with.

It is not known when she died. Searching the register of deaths in Bergen is inconclusive (see query below). The first one, in 1923 can be ruled out from the corresponding church record. The full records for the more likely dates (24.12.1955 and 02.03.1958), cannot be viewed on-line and must be checked at the archives.

^[1]

Sources

• Kirkebok for Christiansund N, 1865 (baptism) and 1880 (confirmation).
• Kirkebok for Fødselsstiftelsen i Bergen, and Maria parish.
• Census of 1865, Christiansund.
• Census of 1900
• Klokkerbok for Sandviken i Bergen

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Roy Østensen, Tuesday, December 17, 2013.