A childhood in Grønland
Marie was born on March 15, 1877, to seaman Severin Anstensen and Gurine Sophie Jacobsdatter. Her baptism on April 2 records the family at Grønlandsleiret 21. Both parents came from the Egersund area. By 1885 they had moved to number 12, where Marie grew up with Anton, Jacob and younger sister Cecilie.
Her confirmation on April 5, 1891, repeats her birthday, parents and address. The census that year describes her father’s ship-rigging work at a shipyard. It also names Fransiska Olsen as a foster child in the household. Fransiska’s baptism connects Severin, Sofie and Anton as sponsors; she should be remembered as a foster child, not added as another biological sister.
Severin died in 1897, when Marie was twenty. Her mother’s paid cleaning work had already begun before widowhood and would continue for many years.
Sigurd and Bergliot
At seventeen, Marie gave birth to Sigurd on August 14, 1894. His father was Johan Gustavsen, a mechanical worker. Both parents were recorded as unmarried. Sigurd was baptized at home two days later and died on October 1, after forty-eight days. No marriage between Marie and Johan has been established, and Johan’s later life remains uncertain.
On January 26, 1902, Marie married Gustav Albert Hansen. The register calls it the first marriage for both. Gustav worked on the docks; the abbreviated occupation Bryggearb. had previously been mistaken for brewery work.
Their daughter Bergljot Signora Helene Hansen was born on March 12, 1902, while the family lived at Urtegata 12. Gustav died in the city hospital on January 31, 1907, leaving Marie and one minor child. The probate record gives Hausmannsgate 30 as their home. Marie was twenty-nine; Bergliot was four.
In 1910, mother and daughter shared an apartment at Nordahl Bruns gate 3 with Gurine, Cecilie, Paul Nessjø and baby Arne. Bergliot died of acute poliomyelitis on July 16, 1911, aged nine. Her death record gives the family’s Oslo address; a marginal note appears to place her death in Gjøvik. Sigurd and Bergliot were Alfhild’s maternal half-siblings, although neither lived to meet her.
Sigurd’s baptism · Gustav’s death notification · Bergliot’s death entry
A registered journey toward Wisconsin
In September 1907, Marie registered to emigrate as a widow and vaskekone, or washerwoman. The entry names Oscar II, an October 4 departure and Wisconsin as her destination. It identifies her by her full birthday and former surname Anstensen.
The record opens a question rather than completing an American chapter. No arrival manifest, Wisconsin home, employer or return sailing has been securely matched. Bergliot does not appear in the displayed travel group, but that does not tell us who cared for her. Marie was back in the Kristiania census in 1910. The map therefore shows her documented Norwegian homes and does not treat Wisconsin as an established residence.
Marie signed the notice for her older brother Anton, who died at Rikshospitalet on June 21, 1910. Their mother Sofie and siblings Jakob and Sicilie also signed. The notice places Marie within the family’s shared loss before Bergliot’s death the following year. The family’s June 1910 notice.
A second family with Olaus
Marie and Olaus Johnsen married in a civil ceremony on February 21, 1914. The original register describes him as a divorced blacksmith and her as a widowed cleaner. Marie signed as “Marie Hansen.” A probate certificate dated January 16, 1914, connects this marriage directly to Gustav’s earlier death record.
The couple stated that they intended to live at Oslogate 4. Their children’s records subsequently place them at Lakkegata 64 in 1914 and 1916, Østre Halsen in Tjølling in 1918, and Skjønheim in Strømm in 1920. These are glimpses of particular years, not exact moving dates.
Their four children were Alfhild Bergljot (November 14, 1914), Ruth Sissi Sofie (January 28, 1916), Alf (January 11, 1918), and Ragna Johanne (May 13, 1920). Together with Sigurd and Bergliot, they are Marie’s six documented children. The family’s working date for Alfhild is retained; the conflicting year in the baptism handwriting is discussed on her profile.
The 1920 census records Marie as a homemaker and Olaus as a blacksmith. It places all four children with them. John Harjo’s recollection that Aunt Cecilia helped care for Alfhild and her siblings remains valuable family testimony; the dates and arrangements of that care have not been established.
The later home at Stub
Gurine’s 1926 death notification lists one surviving child in Sandefjord and one in Oslo. Read with the death notice naming Marie and Cecilie, it strongly places Marie in the Sandefjord area by that year.
A notice in Sandefjords Blad, published May 27, 1947, announces the death of Marie Johnsen on May 23 and names her husband Olaus Johnsen of Stub, Sandar. A death-register index also lists Marie Sofie Johnsen in 1947. This is a strong identification, but the detailed register entry was restricted and has not been checked. Her dates therefore retain that qualification.
The notice remembers a wife, mother and grandmother. It closes a documented life that began in Grønland and continued through the homes of the Oslofjord, while leaving the intervening years—and Marie’s own voice—still to be recovered.
