Part 2
Having discovered the location of the Frøystad farm in Breim, and discovered the resources available to me in the form of census data and parish records, I was ready to start tracing back my ancestors in Breim. I particularly wanted to know for how long I had ancestors on the Frøystad farm. My last name is Froistad only because that was the farm that Ivar was most closely associated with when he emigrated. But it could be, I suspected, that I have ancestors who were only there for a generation or two – perhaps not going back much farther than Ivar and his father Erik. Maybe my ancestors are more closely tied to another farm where my ancestors lived for many generations. At some point I could look for a birth/baptism record only to find that an ancestor who ended up on the Frøystad farm may not have been born there, but had moved there at some point – looking for work, perhaps. If an ancestor wasn’t born to parents who lived on the Frøystad farm in Breim, or if their birth wasn’t recorded in the parish register at Breim, at some point I would lose the trail. I don’t really understand the farm culture in Norway in general, or Breim in particular, and how it is that households are established, and how common it is for people to move around.
Despite the suspicion that the trail could quickly dry up, I thought the search would at least be fairly straightforward. This was bolstered by the discovery of Ivar’s birth/baptism record, which included the names of both parents, as well as their year of birth. I assumed that to then find the birth records of each of the parents, I would simply need to go to the year indicated as their year of birth in the parish register, and read until I find the baptism record of that ancestor. Presumably, I would then get two more parents names and years of birth. However, I quickly discovered that the more recent baptism entries include information that is not included in earlier entries. In fact, the further back you go in the Gloppen parish registers, the less information is provided. The earliest baptism entries in 1686 include only the identity of the father (first name, patronymic (his father’s name) and farm name), and the first name of the child, as well as the date of the baptism. The 1846 baptism record for Ivar’s father Erik already loses the year of birth for the parents, which makes the search for the baptism entries of the parents considerably more difficult. In this respect, the census records prove helpful, because they usually include either the year of birth of the persons listed, or their ages. Between the parish registers and the census data, I was well equipped to make some discoveries. And at first, the discoveries were pretty easy to come by.
The first time I became concerned that maybe I had reached the end of the Froystad line was when I searched the 1801 census, which is the earliest of the “searchable” censuses available on the Norwegian Digital Archives website. Based on my initial searches in the 1801 census, there was no such farm. It was possible, I concluded, that prior to 1801 that no farm called Frøystad existed in Gloppen/Breim – a possibility that I found disappointing. But as I continued to search, there were later finds that seemed to contradict this. I managed to find a source that documents farm taxes in 1647, and I managed to find a listing for both the Frøystad farm as well as the Bogstad farm (which was the next listing, page 289). So I spent a bit more time with the 1801 census, and finally found an entry for several households located on what was labeled the Trøgstad farm. It occurred to me that Frøystad, when handwritten, can be difficult to distinguish from Trøgstad, if the writer wasn’t careful (or if the person transcribing the record wasn’t careful). A further examination of one of the included households showed it to be a match for all the information I had been able to discover about the Frøystads up to that time, so I concluded that the Trøgstad entry is most certainly a record of the Frøystad farm. All my discoveries to date support this conclusion.
Here is a summary of my ancestry as I was able to determine it, using parish records and census data from 1801 through 1910. These findings are all in the Gloppen and Breim parish registers, and the males I’ll document here are all identified as being born while the family lived on the Frøystad farm (I’ll note the farms that the wives are from).
For quick reference, here are links to the Norwegian Census pages: 1801, 1865, 1900, and 1910. One note about the 1801 census page: while the other census results only show the inhabitants of a single household, the 1801 results show all the inhabitants of all the households located on the farm. To identify the individual households, an asterisk is placed in the column labeled "Nytt hushald" on the left side of the table to mark the beginning of a new household - so it's easy to see that there were 4 Frøystad households at the time of the 1801 census.
The scanned Gloppen parish register images (which include records for Breim) can be found here. For parish register images in Breim after 1870, look here.
Iver Ericssen Frøistad 1879-1960
Birth/Baptism record (original parish register, register copy)
Confirmation record
Emmigration record
Passenger Manifest
US Census records (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, North Dakota 1925)
As already noted, my great grandfather, Ivar Froistad, was born in 1879. I should point out that Ivar’s name is recorded in different records as either Iver (as used in baptism, confirmation, passenger manifest listing, and some US Census listings) or Ivar (used in his emigration record and some US Census listings), so the difference is apparently not significant (and I’m afraid I’m probably not being consistent, either). Ivar emigrated to the US in 1900 died in Miles City, Montana in 1960.
Erik Ingebrigtsen Frøistad 1846-1928
Birth/Baptism record
Marriage record (second marriage)
Death record
Birth/Baptism record for his wife, Ingeborg Akselsdatter Bogstad
Ivar’s father was Erik Ingebrigtsen (take note of both names, Erik and Ingebrigt - they will become familiar), born in 1846, based on the record of Ivar’s baptism, and confirmed by census records. Ivar’s mother was Ingeborg Akselsdatter Bogstad, born in 1843. Ingeborg’s year of birth is listed as 1843 in Ivar’s baptism record, and her own baptism entry is found in 1843 in the parish register. The 1865 census, however, lists her year of birth as 1844 (just one example of how often a “close enough” mentality is evidenced in some records). I found what I initially thought was the record of her death in 1883, but I’m not certain that this is the correct record. The name in the listing is Ingeborg Akselsdatter Froistad, but the date of 1817 is used. What I do know is that Erik remarried in 1889 (the same year his oldest son, Ingebrigt, was first married), to Mari Andersdatter Møkland. So I expect that Ingeborg had died sometime prior to this.
Ingebrigt Eriksen 1816-
Birth/Baptism record
Birth/Baptism record for his wife,
Marte Larsdatter Felde
Erik’s father was Ingebrigt Eriksen, born in 1816. Ingebrigt is another name that is spelled in several ways, depending on the entry, and depending on the generation. It is variously spelled Ingebrect, Ingebrikt, Ingebricht. For that matter, I should also mention that Erik usually appears as either as Erik, Eric, or Erich. Erik’s mother was Marte Larsdatter Felde, born in 1824. Erik is identified in the 1865 census as being the head of the household at 50 and Marte “his wife” at 42 years of age, with their oldest son, Erik still living with them at 20 years old. Also living with them at this time are Ingebrigt’s mother Soffie and stepfather Iver, 80 and 60 years old, respectively.
Eric Ingebrigtsen 1782-
Birth/Baptism record
Birth/Baptism record for his wife, Soffie Jonsdatter Saareim
Ingebrigt’s father was Eric Ingebrigtsen, born in 1782. His mother was Soffie Jonsdatter. As I’m writing this now and looking over my notes, I’m just realizing that I had not found any further information about Soffie. So searching the 1801 census just now, it looks like the best candidate is Sophie Jonsdatter Saareim, born in 1788. If this is the correct person, it’s another example of how census data tends to be “close enough.” Soffie is listed in the 1865 census as being 80 years old – a nice, round number. The listing in the 1801 Census says she is 12 years old. The baptism entry I found for her in the parish register is in August, 1788.
Ingebright Eriksen 1751(?) -
Birth/Baptism record for his wife, Clara Rasmusdatter Wintzryg
The last help I’m going to get from the census records is for Eric’s father - Ingebright Eriksen. The 1801 census lists him as being 50 years old, suggesting he was born around 1751. Eric’s mother is Clara Rasmusdatter Wintzryg. The 1801 census says she is 48 years old, and her baptism record is in 1753.
NEXT - Goto Part 3