The Johnsen family

1916–1974 · Ruth Sissi Sofie

From Skjønheim to a family of her own

Ruth and Ragnvald Nicolaysen were both living at Stub when their marriage banns were recorded in 1934. Her later family notice names children Leif and Eva. Records place Ruth in Kongsvinger municipality in 1974; a probable connection through Leif and Gerd reaches as far as Melbourne.

1918–1983 · Alf

Alf’s life and family

The exact birthday follows Alf from his baptism at Tjølling to his 1941 marriage to Rønnaug Mildred Holm. A workshop worker living in Sandar, he later appears with a large family in his death notice. The familiar portrait now accompanies his own story.

Born 1920 · Ragna Johanne

Following the Jørgensen connection

The youngest child was baptized on Christmas Day. Olaus’s family notice later names Ragna and Arne Jørgensen. That link, her full given names and exact birthday strongly connect her to Ragna Johanne Jørgensen of Oslo, whose death was recorded in 1997. The later identification remains qualified.

Alfhild’s place in the family

A shared childhood, separate journeys

Alfhild was the eldest of Olaus and Marie’s four children. Their story also reaches into the parents’ earlier families: Marie’s children Sigurd and Bergliot, and Olaus’s children Alf Emanuel, Aslaug and Borgny. Alf Emanuel, born in 1899, was a different person from the younger Alf pictured here.

1877–1947 · Marie Sofie

A mother’s life, before and after Olaus

Marie’s story begins in Grønland. At seventeen, she lost her infant son Sigurd. Her first husband, dockworker Gustav Hansen, died in 1907; their daughter Bergliot died in 1911. The civil register records her second marriage, to Olaus, on February 21, 1914. They raised Alfhild, Ruth, Alf and Ragna along the Oslofjord.

Her registered 1907 destination was Wisconsin, but an American home has not been established. A strongly matched death notice places her with Olaus at Stub in Sandar in 1947.

1902–1911 · Bergliot

The sister Alfhild never met

Bergljot Signora Helene Hansen lived only nine years. Her baptism, a shared apartment in the 1910 census, and her death from acute poliomyelitis restore a short life to the family story. She was Marie and Gustav’s daughter, and Alfhild’s maternal half-sister.

Alfhild’s middle name repeats Bergliot’s, a possible remembrance whose intention is not documented. Bergliot’s death also rules out a later New York immigration hint for a woman with the same name.

1842–1926 · Gurine Sophie

Twenty-nine years of cleaning work

Gurine came from Veshovda near Egersund. Her pension record credits twenty-four years at Rikshospitalet and five earlier years at Parliament. At retirement in 1916, she was ill and bedridden. A 400-kroner annual pension followed.

She shared homes with her children and grandchildren, first in Grønland and later at Nordahl Bruns gate 3. Her working life began before widowhood and continued into her seventies.

1845–1897 · Severin

A family shaped by the waterfront

Severin grew up at Damsgård in a family of ship carpenters and pottery workers. Records follow his work as sailor, dockworker and ship rigger. He and Gurine married in Kristiania in 1874 and raised four known children, also caring for foster child Fransiska Olsen.

He died two days before their twenty-third wedding anniversary. His youngest child, Cecilie, was nine.

1881–1911 · Jacob

The sailor lost with Ocean

Marie and Cecilie’s brother Jacob worked at sea and on the docks. Records connect him to Homborsund in 1900 and bottlenose whaling aboard Glimt in 1905. He married Amanda Sofie Andersen in 1908.

His parish death entry names Ocean and November 4, 1911. A contemporary parliamentary record independently confirms the wreck off Islay, Scotland, and four deaths. Jacob was twenty-nine.

1880–1956 · Amanda Sofie

A photograph and a second family

A surviving archival identification card puts a face to Jacob’s wife Amanda. After his death, she married mechanic Thor Otterdahl Møller in 1914. Seven children are documented from that second marriage, including two sons named Yngvar born in different years.

Those children belong to Amanda and Thor’s family; no child of Amanda and Jacob has been confirmed. Records trace Amanda’s later household at Damstrædet 4.

1877–1907 · Gustav Albert

Two men, two distinct connections

Gustav Albert Hansen was Marie’s first husband and Bergliot’s father. An exact birthday connects him to records under Krokol and Krokhol. His death notification names Marie and their minor child and fixes his death on January 31, 1907.

Johan Gustavsen, the father of Marie’s infant son Sigurd, was a different man. His later identity remains unresolved; the reports do not establish a marriage to Marie.

1874–1910 · Anton

A metalworker and the mother he left behind

Marie’s eldest brother worked in a mechanical factory and later as a metal turner. He died at Rikshospitalet in June 1910, aged thirty-five. His mother Sofie reported his death; his siblings signed the family notice.

The probate entry records no estate assets. A separate union record approves a 900-kroner insurance benefit for his mother, bringing another part of this working family’s life into view.