Anna Olette Anundsen's Emigration and Birth Records at the Norwegian Digital Archives

Anna Olette Anundsen, abt. 1900, in Brooklyn

Anna Olette with her family in Norway, from left:
 Ingeborg, Ingeborg (mother), Gunda, Lovise, Anund (father), Anna Olette, Anna Oline

Three of my four grandparents were immigrants, so as my genealogy research has progressed back into the 19th century, by necessity I've become somewhat acquainted with reviewing records in Norwegian, Swedish and Polish.  

But navigating foreign national archives online can be quite challenging with a steep learning curve.   Even though English translations may be provided, frequently they are not available consistently throughout a foreign web site, so that clicking on a link may land you on a non-English page.  Also, researching ancestors from several different foreign countries means that, even though you may become comfortable navigating a foreign-based web site for one ancestor, it may be months or even years before you return to that web site, necessitating re-education as to how to find the records needed.

Emigration Records

So it was with some reluctance and trepidation that I returned to a post I started six years ago about finding my Norwegian grandmother's emigration and parish records in the Norwegian Digital Archives.  

Much to my surprise, one of the two links saved years ago for the emigration record is still valid.  One click and I'm at the record:

http://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/gen/vis/8/pe00000000512314

  As I already had my grandmother's passenger ship record showing her arrival in the U.S. in 1897 (see image below), the Norwegian Digital Archives record is a very nice complement, showing her departure from Norway.

21-year-old Anna Anundsen arriving in New York with $2.50 to visit her uncle Andreas Roberg

Parish Records

The path I followed years ago to the parish records no longer worked, but it was pretty straightforward to locate Anna Olette's birth record with the information I had saved (county, parish, birth year, page number).  Once I found the record, I was having trouble downloading it without logging in, but a quick post to the Norwegian Genealogy Facebook page resolved that problem (just right-click and 'save image as...').  And even better, another FB user in that group explained how to find the permanent link to the birth record.  Once on the page with the birth record, click on the icon with the three vertical dots on the far right ('References').  The 'Permanent image ID', 'Quick link' and 'Permanent image-link' information will be listed.  Here is the permanent image-link for Anna Olette's birth record:

http://urn.digitalarkivet.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20060629040447.jpg

Entry 71, 2nd from bottom is for Anna Olette

And here is how I navigated to find the image initially:

1.  Go to  https://www.digitalarkivet.no/en/

2.  Go to Explore Digitised Archive Material, then Church Books, then Browse Norwegian Church Books

3.  In the left panel, fill out the fields in 'Search for church books' and press return:

• For County, select Telemark
• For Parish, select Sannidal
• For Church book type, select Parish register (official)
• For From year and To year, enter 1876

4.  Select the first result:   Sannidal kirkebøker and then click on First page

5.  At the top of the image at the front of the book, on the right, you'll see 'Page' followed by 'mangler' which translates to 'missing' as the first two pages of the book are not numbered.  Either page forward to page 34 or simply enter '34' in the box labelled 'mangler'. Anne Olette's entry,  with a birth date of September 17th,  is the second from the bottom of the page.

Anna and Axel Strom

Beyond the Basics - 19th Century Business Trade Cards at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

How odd it seems to me that some amateur genealogists declare that their family's genealogy is 'done'.   While birth, marriage and death certificates as well as records related to military service, land transactions and immigration all document important events and relationships in an individual's life,  there is so much more to the family story.  Collections maintained by historical societies are some of my favorite places to search when looking for unusual documents which add color, details and dimension to an ancestor's life story. 

The special collections library and archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (www.hsp.org) should be high on the list of repositories to visit for genealogists researching Pennsylvania ancestors.

With 21 million manuscripts and graphic items in their collections on Locust Street in Philadelphia, finding items related to your Pennsylvania ancestor can seem like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.  However, there is ample assistance on-site for help in starting the search, as well as online catalogs to explore prior to your arrival.

I visited the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) in April 2018.  Upon entering, I told the reference librarian that my great grandfather, Simon Zweighaft (b. 1845, Gostynin, Poland) and his wife, Sophia Hirschberg (b. 1844, Pilica, Poland) were Jewish immigrants from Poland, arriving in Philadelphia around 1867.  Simon was a real estate speculator (another blog post needed for that), but on this visit to HSP I was primarily interested in learning what I could about his other business venture, his jewelry business.  The evidence of his business dealings I had to date was pretty meager:

1) I knew from an 1875 Philadelphia city directory that Simon identified himself as a jeweler. 

2) The 1880 U.S. federal census adds the detail that the couple had a physical shop, with both Simon and Sophia's occupation listed as 'jewelry store'. 

 3) In 1883, Simon and a collaborator were issued patent #280345 for a "jeweler's show-window". 

The text of the patent states that the patent owners "have invented a certain new and useful improvement to prevent burglars from smashing or breaking show-windows of stores or other places where valuable articles are on exhibition and stealing the contents or part thereof before the occupants of the place can prevent it."

4) The final piece of evidence I had documenting Simon's career in the jewelry business was a mention on page 22 of the August 9, 1891 issue of the New York Herald.  The social column "Crowds in the Catskills" identified Simon as a 'diamond broker'.  

The HSP reference librarian suggested that I start my search looking for the surname, street address and 'jeweler' in the old-school physical index to the manuscript collection, 3x5 index cards in the wooden card catalog files (labelled PC1).  While I came up empty on the first two searches, the 3rd for 'jeweler' yielded an interesting find.  The index card pointed me to the business trade card collection where there were four cards for S. Hirschberg on North 8th Street, the address of the Zweighaft home.  

These cards were fascinating to me for several reasons:  

• this is the first time I've seen any sort of a description of the physical shop plus it confirms that the shop was at the same address as the family home
• Sophia was running the shop (just as she had stated on the 1880 census, although until I saw these cards,  I hadn't really considered her as the principal before) 
• Sophia used her maiden name on the cards.  I have no idea why...more research needed!
• and last but not least, the cards themselves are truly lovely, with beautiful artwork and still-vibrant colors despite being around 140 years old

I hope this discovery of mine will inspire others to seek out unusual collections in archives, libraries and other repositories located in the places where your ancestors conducted business, attended school and joined religious and community organizations.   You too may be richly rewarded!

Sophia Hirschberg Zweighaft

Simon Zweighaft