My favorite television show (besides anything on the Food Network) is “Who do you Think You Are.” The show follows celebrities who as they trace their family history. I find their stories fascinating and I learn tips for doing my own family history research.
I think I should be on that show. I have a great story and know most of the details--- but I want to travel to Norway to see where the story began. However, I’m not a celebrity and so nobody would want to watch that episode. But, here is Reader’s Digests version of my story. There are so many miracles that have happened along the way.
When my friend’s father dad died in the summer of 2008, I told him that instead of sending flowers my gift would be a few hours helping him do his family history. A few months later he approached me and said that he knew little about his great-grandfather Adolph Langeland and anything I could find would be appreciated. Thus began my love of Adolph Langeland, his wife Annie Thompson, their descendants, their ancestors, and family history work.
For three years and a half years I have searched for clues to Adolph Langeland’s past. I have looked on ancestry.com, visited the Family History Library in SLC, searched several other on-line databases, and got really good at reading the Norwegian Digital Archives. It was a dead end in trying to find out where Adolph came from.
I knew Adolph was born in Norway in February 1849, immigrated to the United States in 1873, arriving in the port of New York. He married Annie Thompson in either 1879 or 1881. I found Adolph’s naturalization records, but couldn’t find any immigration records. I concluded that he must have jumped on a ship without paying for passage and made his way to America. I learned about this strategy while researching about emigration and immigration patterns.
I knew that his name probably wasn’t really Langeland because it didn’t follow the patronymic naming of Scandinavian countries. His last name should have ended in “sen” or “son.” I also knew that people often changed their name, taking their farm name, or the name of a bird, tree, flower, etc. That’s how my maternal line from Sweden started as Anderson and became Rose.
On night in late December, while waiting for some laundry to finish, I searched within the database—“Wisconsin Marriages 1836-1930.” I typed “Annie Thompson” into the search bar. The result was a record indicating Anna Tomson married February 5, 1881 to Adolf Pedersen. Her parents were Helge Tomson and Sigri. His parents were listed as Abraham Pedersen and Anna. After three years of searching, in less than 35 minutes on a Friday night in late December, I had found my answer. I knew this was Annie because her parents, who both had unique names, matched. And I wasn’t worried about the spelling of the last name because I knew Thompson had gone through several iterations since they left Norway in the 1840s, from Tovsen to Tomson and eventually Thompson.
So Adolph P. Langeland was really Adolph Pedersen Langeland. Now I knew his parents name, I could possibly find a birth record. I did another search on Family Search and found a birth record of Andreas Adolf Abrahamsen on February 23, 1849 in Vest-Agder, Norway with parents listed as Abraham Pedersen and Anniken Leonardsdatter. They were living on the Langeland farm. No wonder I could never find him-- I was looking for Langeland and not Pedersen or Abrahamsen.
I still wondered how and when Adolph arrived in America. Today I found my answer on the New York Passenger lists on ancestry.com. Adolph arrived in America on 18 April 1873 as a passenger on the Ship St. Olaf. He was listed as Andreas A. Abrahamsen, his name given at birth. The record also shows that he came “steerage” which is the least expensive way to travel (usually for the poor) and uncomfortable conditions. From the Norway-Heritage website I read the following “S/S St. Olav, March 30.
In Christiania [Olso, Norway] the steamship Sanct Olaf, Captain Hille, anchored at Fæstningsbryggen to unload a lot of goods from Newcastle, England. In Christiania she loaded some goods and about 60 emigrants for New York. She arrived safely in New York, April 17.”
By the 1880 US Census Adolph was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and going by Adolph Pedersen (his middle name and dad’s last name). This is who he was when he married Annie Tomson also in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in February 1881. At some point, he changes his name to Adolph (his middle name) P. (initial of his father’s last name) Langeland (farm where he lived in Norway). Adolph and Annie’s first daughter is born in January 1882. If I could find a birth certificate for her, it would give me some indication of when, perhaps, the Pedersens became the Langelands.
But for now, my story is complete. I know who Adolph really is and where he came from. Yet I do wonder why he came to America and left all his family in Norway. Was it because he wasn’t the oldest son, so would never inherit the farm? I heard about that on a recent Who do You Think You Are episode. Or did he have a sense of wanderlust. Or did he just want to make a better life for himself? I will never know, but it is fun to imagine the possibilities.
