Mistaken Identity?

As the family tree has been taking shape recently, I've been trying to fill in some of the gaps working with little information available. Much of what I had to work with was word of mouth information that my dad, my aunt, and my uncle remember their grandparents telling them as they were growing up. I've found that something as simple as a person's name and the place they came from can be very helpful.

As I began, I knew very little about my great grandmother Inga Monrad, who was married to Carl Monrad. I knew her maiden name was Anderson and that she came from Norway, but that's about as far as it went.

From Monrad Family Photos

A few months back, I ended up with some great old family artifacts. One was a scrapbook about Carl Monrad that my aunt put together as a school project in the 1960's. The other was my Dad's baby book. Both were full of old photographs, letters, and other memorabelia. In dad's baby book was a hand-written family tree showing three generations of his ancestors. I had already found information the "Monrad" side of the family, but the "Anderson" side was another story. The family tree showed Inga's parents as "Anders Sundvoll" and "Bergette" with no surname.

My dad and aunt mentioned brothers and a sister of Inga that they had known of. An older brother Eilert, a younger sister Jenny, and another brother were mentioned. I began searching, and in the process made some assumptions. Right away I found a census record for an Anderson family in Ballard with a head of household named Andrew Anderson, a son named Eilert, a son named Arthur, and a daughter named "Clara", which I assumed must have been a misprint. The birthdates were reasonably close for me to surmise that this was the family I was looking for. I had heard that census records were only as reliable as the person that recorded the information, and often names were misspelled and birthdates estimated. I began to attempt to trace the family back to Norway, but didn't have much luck.

A few weeks ago at a family birthday, I had the chance to "show off" what I had found so far and to ask some questions. My aunt relayed the story of Inga travelling to America with her sister, Jenny from Bergen, Norway where she was born. This did not fit with the family I had been researching...

I figured I would once again try my luck with the DIS chat. Just as I did the first time, I entered the chat and saw a whole lot of Norwegian words flying across the screen. I asserted myself with a "hello" and was quickly greeted by the kind folks on the other side of the globe and a nine hour time difference. I asked a few questions, and furnished the few facts that I had. In no time at all I had some answers and some information to help me move forward. One of my helpers "Iris", came up with the 1900 Norwegian census showing Inga's family. From there, we were able to track down emigration records for Inga and her sister Jenny departing from Bergen, Norway on March 31, 1913

So, as it turns out, the family I thought was mine isn't. Inga's father's name was Anders Engelsen Kumle, and as often the case with Scandanavian names, used the place he came from as a surname. In his case it appears he went by Sundvoll for the villiage of Sundvollen. Inga's mother was Bergitte Berntsdatter. The rest of the family included: Adine Andersdatter, Eilert Andersen, Olav Andersen, Peder Andersen, Inga Andersdatter, Johanne Andersdatter, and Jenny Andersdatter. A bit of light reading on the subject of Norwegian names can be found here.

Just a case of mistaken identity, cleared up for now...