Her story
A childhood among the Johnsens
Alfhild Bergljot was born on November 14, 1914, in Kristiania, the city we now know as Oslo. Her parents, Olaus Johnsen and Marie Sofie Anstensen, had married on February 21 that year, almost nine months before her birth. Both were thirty-seven.
Olaus and Marie had each been married before and had children from those earlier relationships. You can read more about their earlier lives in Olaus’s story and Marie’s story.
Alfhild was baptized on December 26, 1914. Among those present were her aunt Cecilia, Marie’s younger sister, and Cecilia’s husband, Paul Nessjø. [Baptism register]
Alfhild is seated, Ruth is standing, and Ragna is on the woman’s lap. The woman may be either their mother, Marie, or Aunt Cecilia.
Over the next few years, three younger children joined the family: Ruth, Alf and Ragna. Alfhild never knew her mother’s two older children, Sigurd Gustavsen and Bergliot Hansen, who had both died before she was born. Through her father’s earlier marriage to Emma Olsen, she also had three older half-siblings: Alf Emanuel, Aslaug and Borgny.
From left to right: Alfhild, Ragna and Ruth.
During Alfhild’s childhood, the family moved from Kristiania to Østre Halsen in Tjølling, and then to Skjønheim in Strømm. By 1920, all four children were living there with Olaus and Marie. Their father worked as a smith. [1920 household]
Auntie Cecilia
The children, from left to right: Alfhild, Ragna, Alf and Ruth, with Aunt Cecilia.
Marie’s younger sister, Gundeste Cesilie Anstensen, was known to the family as Auntie Cecilia. She and her husband Paul were among the sponsors at Alfhild’s baptism on December 26, 1914. Family photographs show Cecilia with Alfhild and the other Johnsen children.
Clockwise from the left: Aunt Cecilia, an unidentified girl, an unidentified little child at the bow, probably Ragna beside the child, Alfhild, and Ruth at the front right.
John Harjo is remembered as saying that Cecilia helped care for Marie’s children. The details and years of that help are not yet known. Her place as their maternal aunt and Alfhild’s baptismal sponsor is documented. [Baptism register]
Marriage and a family in Sandefjord
Alfhild married Hans Kristian Harjo in Sandefjord on June 23, 1932. Hans’s work in the engine rooms of whaling ships took him away for long periods. Their wedding portrait and photographs of their Norwegian home preserve the family life alongside that working history.
Solveig was born in 1937 and Hans Fredrik in 1939. During the war Hans’s service kept him abroad, and his surviving letters were addressed to Alfhild and the children in Sandefjord. He wrote about illness, work, sending money and his longing for home. These letters preserve his side of their separation; Alfhild’s own account of those years has not yet been added to this collection. Read the surviving letters →
Liv was born in October 1943, during the war. Hans returned to Norway in July 1945 and began work at Framnæs later that month. John, Kjell, Knut and Lillian were born in the years that followed, while the family was living in Sandefjord.
Across the Atlantic
In March 1953, Hans traveled to New York aboard Stockholm with Hans Fredrik and Liv. Alfhild followed with Solveig, John, Kjell, Knut and Lillian aboard Stavangerfjord, on the May 7–16 crossing. Her passport and the family passage papers survive, along with a photograph identified as John, Lill and Alfhild on the boat to America.
John recalled the family settling at 44 Quinlan Avenue on Staten Island. For the children, arriving in America meant entering school without knowing English. He remembered attending P.S. 30 and the difficulty of starting a grade ahead of his younger brother Kjell. The family remained on Staten Island for about six years.
A home in Seattle
According to John’s recollections, the family moved to Seattle in the summer of 1959. They initially stayed at Philadelphia Church in Ballard before moving to a house on Jones Avenue. Hans later worked at Isaacson’s, while the children’s school years connected the family to James Monroe and Ballard High School.
Hans died in Seattle on October 5, 1990. The family records give Alfhild’s death year as 2001. Her later years, friendships and everyday life remain to be told through the photographs and memories her family preserves.
