Part 3
From this point on, the search becomes considerably more difficult, and takes some interesting turns. So before I comment on finding the baptism record for Ingebrigt, let me take a moment to remark on a few points of interest. With regard to the Frøystad wives so far, the farms represented in every case up to now – Bogstad, Møkland (even though a second wife, and not an ancestor), Felde, Saareim, and Wintzryg – are all farms located in Breim, so there has been little difficulty finding ancestors using only the Gloppen parish registers – Breim has been, for much of its history, a sub-parish of Gloppen, and so all records for Breim are located in the Gloppen register. Bogstad and Wintzryg are two farms that are particularly nearby. I had previously noted that Frøystad is clustered with two other farms in a somewhat remote location. Bogstad is one of the farms in the cluster – but the other farm, Aardal, has also been known previously as Wintzryg. In fact, in earlier searches in the parish registers, Aardal is not a name I came across very often – Wintzryg is much more common.
The naming convention at work from generation to generation easily draws attention to itself – and to some extent helps to make discoveries somewhat easier, since I tend to be looking for only two names – Eric or Ingebrigt – while scanning pages sometimes packed with hard-to-read handwritten names. We will see the Eric – Ingebrigt pairing extend from the early 1700s through the late 1800s. Ivar’s father, Eric, did name one of his sons Ingebrigt (born in 1870). However, in the 1900 and 1910 census records, there is no suggestion that Ingebrigt continued the tradition – there is no son named Eric in the household. Ivar’s brother Ingebrigt seems to have named his first son Einar. I wondered if there had been an Eric born who had died at a young age, but I have not found any such record. Perhaps the convention had simply fallen out of favor.
Here's an online article about the construction of electric generating facilities in Gloppen, that includes a photo with Ivar's brother Ingebrikt in the photo.
As best as I can tell, the tradition is that a father, when naming his firstborn son, will give his son the name of the newborn son’s grandfather. It appears that names of children are commonly derived from close relatives, starting with the names of the parents of the mother and father. The firstborn son, however, is usually the one who inherits the family farm – or at least the household, to be perhaps more accurate. There may be several other sons born, but those boys, upon reaching manhood, will ultimately need to go out and find a place for themselves in the world. Aside from Ivar’s brother appearing to abandon the naming tradition, there are some other notable exceptions. In the 1801 census for example, the oldest son of Ingebrigt Ericssen is Rasmus, and Eric is the second son. Assuming this is as it appears, the explanation for this anomaly may be found in a one-word remark found in the census assigned to Rasmus – “vanfor.” One translation of vanfor is “cripple.” Could it be that for a boy to be given the name of his grandfather was not only a way of identifying a boy as the first born, but more specifically a way of identifying him as the inheritor of the farm? If this is the case, one could imagine a situation in which the first born son is obviously crippled from birth, and so the parents deem him to be unlikely to be capable of fulfilling the responsibilities that would be required of the head of house, and choose therefore to withhold the grandfather’s name until a more qualified son is born. There are other examples, also, of a first son being born and given the grandfather’s name, but the boy dies very young, and the next son to be born is given the same grandfather’s name.
There are two other interesting notes in the 1865 census. In addition to Rasmus being identified as vanfor, there is another occupant of the household who is unfamiliar, and does not appear to be related. She is identified as Anne Nilsdatter, 30 years old. We do not know what farm she is originally from. Her place, or role, in the household is listed as “almisselem,” and the remark for her is “vanvittig underholdes af lægdet og fattig cassen.” I cannot get a clear translation of either entry. Included among the words in the latter entry are those that can be translated “insane,” “sustained,” and “poor.” I wonder if the the earlier entry could be derived from “alms.” Trying to put these together, it could be that the family had agreed, as a kind of charity, to board up a person in need of assistance due to a kind of disability, possibly even mental illness. Since they already had a disabled person in the house, they may have been well suited to assist in the care of another. This is just speculation on my part. Or, perhaps this person is not disabled, but lives with the family for the purpose of providing assistance for Rasmus. One other occupant in the house that never really made sense to me is Brithe Ericsdatter, who is 62 years old. The head of the household is Ingebrigt Ericssen, who is 50 at the time. It would be some time before I could find any information on her.
Three last quick finds before looking for the birth record of Ingebrigt Ericssen around 1750. The first is about the death of Ivar’s brother, Ingebrigt. The record of his death in 1922 says the following about the cause of death: “faldt utfor en fjeldhammer.” I had difficulty obtaining a good translation of this, but eventually concluded that it refers to a fall off of a mountain or rock outcropping. Not surprising, when observing the topography of the area. Ivar’s father Erik died in 1928, the cause of death listed as “alderdom,” which simply means “old age.” On a side note to this, I have observed that the record of burials in the parish registers usually include the very young or the very old. It was not uncommon for persons to live into their 80s or 90s, even in the 1700s. The chances of survival into old age was pretty good, it would seem – if they could survive their first few years. The number of deaths of the very young is notable.
Finally, while doing online searches, I occasionally came across a man named “Olav Frøystad,” but didn’t assume he was related. I eventually discovered that he is the son of Iver’s brother Ingebrigt. His name appears because he is considered somewhat famous. In the church yard in Breim is a pair of memorial stones honoring four boys from Breim who died while serving in the Norwegian military in WWII, and Olav is one of these. Here's a link to an article on the memorial. He was in the Norwegian Air Force, and his plane was probably shot down during a reconnaissance mission in Scotland in 1944. The Norwegian version of Wikipedia includes Olav among their list of “Famous people from Gloppen.”
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