Brick Wall People – Part 9 – Ole Larsen



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Name: Ole Larsen
Birth: my records list his birthdate as about 1812.
Death: Sometime after 1900, I believe.
Marriage: 1851 in Slots-Bjergby, Denmark.
Location(s): Slots-Bjergby, Denmark, Minnesota, USA
Relation to me: Ole Larsen was my paternal grandmother's mother's mother's father, which makes him 6th generation before me.
Alias(es): None known at this time.
Parents: unknown
Spouse(s): Birthe Marie Schrøder
Children: Maren Sofie
Other Family: Oscar, brother; Oscar Jr and Tina, nephew and niece.
Details: Ole is a little odd, as I know a lot and at the same time very little about him. I have both his wedding record to his wife and his daughter's birth record, and know that he came here to the states about the time his daughter was born. I know that he had a farm here in Minnesota, and that he had a brother and a niece and nephew here in the states, and that their branch ended with them, at least according to my great-great uncle, Hans.

His isn't a positive story, but it's also very common for the period. Ole came here to America promising that he would send for his wife and their daughter and her children once he settled, but he never did. I'm not sure what happened to keep her from coming aside from the difficulty of a trip with three children, one of whom was quite small, but they never saw each other again. I don't know if he had any further contact via letters, either to his wife or to his daughter, but I do know that his grandson, Hans finally came to the States and met him. Or at least I believe he met him before his death, though I am uncertain when that was.

Other than that, I know nothing about him. I'd love to know more about his story, and where exactly he lived in Minnesota.
Proof:
1)      My initial proof for Lars comes from his wedding record to Birthe in 1851. It gives no parents, unfortunately.
2)      My next is from their daughter's baptism record in 1855. It doesn't prove he was in Denmark at that point, but it at least confirms he is Maren Sofie's father.
3)      The next bit of info is an interview with my great-great uncle Hans, in which he mentions him once or twice, mostly about how he went to his farm after coming to the US.
4)      And the last bit is in a few letters between my grandmother and her sister about the Hansen family, one of which specifically mentions his desertion of his wife and daughter, though it makes no mention of her other two daughters, so I'm not sure if they knew about them.
Needed:
I do have a birth date for Ole, but it's from his wedding record, so it might not be exactly right, and I have no real death information on him, especially since he died well before the Social Security registry was in existence. I keep searching for him in the Censuses, but unfortunately his name was incredibly common, especially in that area. Not to mention that I don't know if he was going by Larsen or Larson here in the states, because it was common for all Scandinavians in the US to take the –son version of the surname, regardless of where they came from at the time. I'd love to know where he lived in Minnesota, and when he came over. I'd also love to know the names of his parents and any other siblings he might have had.

If my family or anyone out there has any more information on his family, I'd love to talk to you about him. I'd love to learn more if at all possible.

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About this blog

This blog is maintained by two sisters who have had a life long interest in geneology.
Mika writes here mostly about our family (Hansen, Hillinger, Bordewick, Park, etc), and her search for more information.
Shannon mostly uses this space as a place to make the many stories written about and by her husband's family (Holly, Walker, Walpole, etc) available to the rest of the family, present and future.

Our blog is named Oh Spusch! mostly because Shannon is bad at naming things. The first post I put up includes a story about the time Walker's great grandfather took his whole family out to see a play and the littlest kept saying "Oh! Spusch!" No one ever figured out what she meant by that.