Another cousin has emerged …

 

Early December 2015 this message popped up on this website:

‘Hi, I’m hoping this website is still active, as I’ve been trying to locate my dad’s family. I am a descendent of Lorense Marie Larsen; I’m her great-great-granddaughter. I know that Lorense Marie Larsen was born April 17, 1874. Her sister was Hanna Kleven (Larsen) born April 10, 1878. Additional family were Hans Larsen, Anna Bonner (Larsen), Olaf Larsen, Tina Walker (Larsen), Bertha Solie (Larsen) and Krist Larsen. Lorense Marie was born in Boda, Tranjen, Norway. She married Hans Magnusen who passed away in 1908 before Lorense came to Canada. Dates may be a little off as some of the info I have is a bit hard to read.

I do have some additional family information which I would love to share but it’s too much to type out here. If any of this seems familiar, please do contact me, as my father, David Anderson, has been sick and looking for his dad’s family for many years. Based on what I see on your website I do believe we’ve finally found our family. Thank you.’

We saw immediately that the writer had come to the right place, and we confirmed her hope – both the status of the website and that she finally had found her dad’s family.

Our happy cousin was Kristie Lynne Anderson from Edmonton, Canada. She tells us that her grandfather Henry, Lorense’s son, lost touch with most of his family.  ‘And we’ve grown up with this ‘void’ and mystery surrounding where our family came from and where they are now.  It’s absolutely wonderful to have found (…) the family. Truly, this has filled in a big missing piece in many hearts.’

Ann Emmond (Henry’s wife), Kristie and her daughter Kyrie-Lynn in 2001 (photo: Kristie L Anderson)

Lorense Marie Larsen was the eldest daughter of Lars Stabel Lillejord and wife Maren Olsdatter. Lars was meant to follow the family to America in 1866, however, according to local tradition; he changed his mind and stayed with his sister Hanna Pauline at Os in Beiarn, in the county of Nordland. Lars and Maren had their own homestead in Beiarn, called Einan, from which some of Lorense’s children later chose their surname.

Lorense married Hans Magnussen and they lived different places in the district until Hans died in 1910. Then Lorense and her children moved to her father’s farm, Einan, in Beiarn. Her parents and all her siblings had, at that time, emigrated from Norway and homesteaded in Canada. Life was hard for Lorense. She lost her youngest daughter, one-year-old Anna Hansine, the same year, and she had no income. The municipality had to support her and her children.

July 26, 1911 Lorense and her six children left Norway to join the rest of the family in Canada. A comment in the emigrant record says, ‘Tickets paid in America’.

In the new homeland Lorense met her new husband. His name was Holm Andreassen, born in Norway in 1878, and immigrated through the US to Canada in 1914. They settled north of Buffalo Gap in southern Saskatchewan and had three children, Norman (1913), Henry (1916) and Mary (1918). Holm Andreassen changed his name to Holm Peter Anderson in Canada, often just called ‘Pete’. He came from Skredderstad, a little farm in Enebakk, a neighbouring municipality of Oslo, the capital of Norway.

More information on the family will be published in Lillejord Family Report on this website.

Kristie’s family in 2015. From left: Desmond Anderson (Kristie’s brother) with his son Zethan, Kristie, Kyrie-Lynn, Carrie Anderson (Desmond’s wife) and their son, Jada. (Photo: Kristie L Anderson)