Thor Knudsen Løftingsbakken



Thor Knudsen Løftingsbakken

 My great great grandfather Thor Knudsen Løftingsbakken was born 23rd August 1823 on the small farm Løftingsbakken (or Lyftingsbakken) in Lesja, Oppland, Norway and was christened in Lesja church on 21st September.  He was 5th in line of the eight children of Knud Olsen Løftingsbakken and Anne Amundsdatter Ommundstad.  Løftingsbakken was a small mountain farm with only enough outcome to feed one family, and the children had to seek work elsewhere soon after confirmation. The oldest son, Ole, died young and the second son, Amund, took over the farm. Thor, the third son, was confirmed 21st October 1838 in Lesja church, and shortly after this, he left Lesja.

The nickel works in Espedalen attracted workers from a large part of the mountain regions of inland Norway, and Thor Knudsen was one of the many men from Lesja to seek work in the quarries. He was also one of the many young men who found a wife in Espedalen. 6th September 1851 he married Ingeborg Pedersdatter Megrund, one of the daughters of Peder Olsen Børde (see my former blog) - they had a son Knut born 10th June 1851, and later a daughter Marith and two sons, Anton and Peder, all born on Megrund farm. The Espedalen quarries were, however, badly hit by the falling price on nickel, and closed officially in September 1855 - although the work went on for a few more years. One of the founders of the quarries, David Forbes, went on to direct new quarries in Bamble, in southern Telemark, and many of the miners followed him to seek work there. Among them were Thor Knudsen. He must have left Espedalen between 1862 and 1865: his son Anton was born in Espedalen in May 1862 while the family was well established on Langøy near Kragerø durng the 1865 census, and the youngest son Ole was born there in June 1865. Officially, however, the family is registered as inhabitants of Langøy 3rd September 1867.

They settled on the farm "Himmyr" (later named "Skogen"), a farm that apparently belonged to the quarries and which Thor Knudsen rented. His neighbours on all sides were miners from Espedalen. He worked in the iron quarries on Langøy for the rest of his life, and died on 4th August 1886. He was buried in the small graveyard on Langøy.

The photograph above is as far as I can ascertain, probably of Thor Knudsen. It must have been taken around 1880, and my guess is that the photo was one given to Marith Thorsdatter when leaving for the US; a copy of the photo was sent to me by one of my US relations, and to my surprise I found the same photo in one of my old photo albums.

Peder Thorsen

It is finally time for the last of the Thorsen children, my great grandfather Peder Thorsen. He was the third of Thor and Ingeborg's children, born on Megrund in Espedalen, Oppland, April 11th, 1858 and christened in Svatsum, Gausdal, on May 30th of the same year. The family moved south to Telemark, to Langøy, in the mid 1860's and Peder was confirmed in Bamble church on October 13th 1872. The following year he went to sea, working as deckshand on the sailing vessel Alia (a barque), sailing on the Baltic and the North Sea. This was the first of a long line of ships which took him all over the world. He returned to Kragerø in January 1878 to sit his sailor's exam. He also got married on August 16th to a girl from the neighbouring town Risør, Ingeborg Torjesdatter. In 1878/79 he completed his education, obtaining official papers as a mate. He then went on to sail as 2nd and 1st mate, and later captain of several ships, handling cargo and trade both on England, Canada, the West Indies and South America.

Peder and Ingeborg had eight children, but only one child survived. The first two children were twin girls born in November 1878. The next six, three girls and three boys, lived only one day, and one of the twin girls, Klara Thorine, died two days before her fifth birthday. Thus the only child to survive childhood was Marie Josephine, my grandmother.

The photo of Peder and his wife Ingeborg is taken in Antwerp, probably in December 1891. At that time Peder was captain of the ship Thorgny and was able to bring Ingeborg along on one of his trips. The child Marie at that time stayed with her grandmother in Risør.

Ingeborg died quite early, probably in 1918, but Peder lived to be an old man. He died in Kragerø on March 21st, 1939.

Anton Thorsen

There are two more "Thorsens" to write about: Anton and Peder. Of one I have very little information, the other a lot - he was my great grandfather. Let me start with Anton.

Anton was the fourth child of the family, and the last of the kids to be born on Megrund May 7th, 1862. He was christened on June 29th that year in Gausdal church. Two years later, the family moved to the south coast of Norway, to Langøy near Kragerø (Telemark), where his father got work as a miner. He confirmation is recorded in the Skåtøy church records for October 22nd, 1876, where his knowledge of religion, his attentiveness and his behaviour is described as excellent.

And that is the last information I have of Anton. I have found him registered as available for military duty as a sailor in the records for the years 1868-1892, but found no more details. No record of any marriage, no record of his death - my guess is that he, like his brothers, went to sea as a sailor shortly after confirmation, and was lost at sea.

His fate remains a mystery and no picture of him has been identified as yet.

Marith Thorsen

Marith Thorsen (or rather Thorsdatter - the daughter of Thor) was the elder of the two Thorsen girls, born on February 1st, 1854 on Megrund farm in Espedalen (a parallel valley to Gudbrandsdalen, Norway). She lived there for the first nine years of her life, while her father, a miner, worked in the Espedalen nickel quarries. In the early 1860s, probably around 1863, the family moved to the south coast of Norway, to the island Langøy outside the town of Kragerø, where large iron quarries provided more work after the Espedalen nickel works closed.

The Kragerø district with its quarries and ship building yards at this time attracted many settlers from other parts of Norway and particularly from Sweden (the two countries at this time had a common king). On November 23rd Marith married one of these, a Swedish carpenter named Johan Mikkelsen. In 1874 they moved from Langøy to Kragerø shortly after their daughter Johanna Mathilde Sophie was born, and while living there, had the two sons Johan Marentius and Anton Victor. Johan Mikkelsen sailed as a ship's carpenter, and on June 16th he left his ship "Grane" in New York to settle in the US. Marith and her three children joined him, leaving from Oslo by the ship Baldur on September 16th, 1880. They settled in Brooklyn (Garnet street). Anton Victor died a month later, but another son with the same name was born in September 1881. Shortly after this, Marith and her children returned to Norway for a visit, and when they left Oslo for New York on February 2nd, 1883, they were accompanied by her siblings Anne-Marie and Ole (see my former blogs). They arrived on the ship "Celtic" on February 20th.

Marith and Johan Mikkelsen stayed in Brooklyn, and went on to have 5 children more: Harry, Charles, Anna Erica, Edward Maximilian and a fifth whose name I have not been able to find. The second Anton Victor also died a year after arrival in New York - apparently the name Anton Victor was unlucky! Johan continued to work as a ship's carpenter, but as happened to so many Norwegian immigrants to the US: the names underwent som drastic changes which made the quest for information of the family's fate very difficult. The transformation of Johan and Marith to John and Mary was no surprise, but the last name Mikkelsen (also spelt Mikkelson or Michaelsen) ended up as McKalsen! It was certainly unexpected, but thanks to a name written by Marith on the back of one of the photographs (and afterwards, to some great help from other geneaologists) I was able to unravel their story in the US.

The photo shows Mary and John McKalsen photographed in Brooklyn probably around 1900.

Ole Thorsen

Having identified my great grandfather's brother Ole Thorsen in the family albums and found him in the emigration protocols, I have been able to "paste together" his history. He was born on the island of Langøy outside Kragerø on the southcoast of Norway on June 25th 1865 (I will write about his parents in a blog later on), number five in a family of six children. His father was a miner and the family means must have been restricted, so all children started work immediately after confirmation. The boys all went to sea, and so did Ole. 16 years old he started his career as deckshand on the sailing vessel Aurora of Kragerø (noted in the English census of King's Lynn, April 3rd, 1881).

Feb. 2nd 1883 he left Norway for New York together with his younger sister Anne Marie, his elder sister Marit Mikkelsen (who had already been once to the US), and her three childre Sofie, Johan and Victor. He apparently did not stay long in New York, but settled in Boston - in October 1891 he left Norway after a visit and is registered as "American" with destination Boston. He was still a sailor.

Shortly after this, however, he settled down, changed his name to Thompson and became a house painter in Cambridge, Mass. In 1895 he married a beautiful Irish immigrant named Julia, and in 1900 they lived in 1112 Washington street, Cambridge. Before 1910, however, he bought a house in 79 Norfolk Street, and ran his house painting business from there. The couple had four children, Theodore Palmer (born May 20th, 1903), Edna C. (born May 16th, 1905), Olive Elisabeth (born July 17th, 1908) and John (born 1914).

I have not been able to find out when he died, but it must have been after 1930 (he is listed in the 1930 Census). Perhaps some of the geneabloggers can help me?