A few years later, great-grandfather Edward Thorson came to the same area and settled. Edward was from Pundnes and his wife Serena was born at Hjelmeland.
These four people, along with my three grandparents, are who we will be traveling with into the past. If you are researching your Norwegian ancestors, you are in luck. The website Digitalarkivet and the published Bygdeboker are fantastic resources. Your search will be easier if you have a farm name because this can lead you directly to the area you need to look.
Your ancestor may have used his father's name or his farm name or both: Theodore Olson used this name both on his ship record and when he arrived in the area. But, the family story was that their name was Heggem and that they changed it when they came to this country. In Norway, both names were used, Olson - because he was Ole's son and Heggheim for identification of the farm where he lived. There may have been more than one Theodore Olson in the area. So we are looking for Theodore Olson Heggheim or Theodore Olson fra Heggheim.
By knowing this farm name, I searched for it in the bygdebok (see clip above) and the information I found there led me to the correct year in the digital records (see below). Even though I find a lot of information on the family in the bygdebok, I like to find the original record to prove the details. All the records are in Norwegian, of course, and there are no indexes. This means you will spend some time going line by line to find your person, the right person!
Here is the link to Digitalarkivet - http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read Go ahead and try it out. When it comes up, select Rogaland in the county pull down list; next selection is Parish, Strand 1855 -1881; then on the Contents Page select Marriage 1866-1868; you will find Theodore Olson and Berthe Thorson's wedding record.
Now try it with your own relative!
