Peder Pederson: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Nearly Forgotten”

Peder Pederson: 1860-?

My Lost Great-Uncle

            Most of my extended family believed that our grandfather, Paul Peterson, came to America with his parents Peter and Anna and his older brother Jacob. And that’s where their version of the story ends: Paul had one sibling. But that’s far from true. Paul had two older sisters, Marit and Guri or Julia. Both women came to America, married, and had large families. Some of my cousins are aware of at least one of the sisters. But no one but my brother seemed to know that Paul had a mysterious older brother, Peder, who simply disappeared from all records and from the collective family memory.

            Peder was the third child and first son born to Peder Pederson and Anna Gulbrandsdatter in Lesja, Oppland, Norway in 1860. Since he was the oldest son, he was named after his father, Peder. He appears on the 1865 Norway Census with his parents, 12 and 9 year old sisters, and his three-year-old brother Jacob. Peder was listed as being six years old.

            The family emigrated from Norway to the United States in the spring of 1870, when Peder was about 10 and my grandfather Paul was nearly 3 years old. Peder Pederson Senior filed a paper with authorities before they left Norway listing the family members and their birth dates. Peder was listed on this handwritten document as having been born November 10, 1860.

            Once in the United States, the family lived briefly in a couple areas in southern Minnesota before settling in Brown County’s Linden Township. Parents Peder and Anna and the two youngest sons, Jacob and Paul, appear on the 1875 Minnesota Census. The oldest three children were missing, including Peder, who would have been about 15 by that point. My research has shown Peder’s sister Guri/Julia was already married by this point, and had moved to the Dakota Territory. However, I don’t believe Marit was married yet. So where was she? And where was Peder?

            Of course Peder may have already been dead by this point. I have been unable to find any documentation of the family’s arrival in the United States, so I cannot confirm Peder survived the voyage and entered the country with the family. He could also have died during the first few months in the United States, before the family settled in Linden Township.

            However, there are some tantalizing clues that Peder was living in Brown County in the 1870s. His sister Marit married a man named Johan Trosdahl either late in 1872 or early 1873. They had a daughter, Mathia, in 1879 who was baptized at the Lake Hanska Lutheran Church on April 27. The church record shows that Mathia’s godparents were “Peder Jaramo” and “Jacob Jaramo”. The Peterson family often used the geographic name of the agricultural estate they came from in Norway as an alternate surname. This alternate name, still used by half of my extended family to this day, is Joramo, sometimes spelled “Joramoe” or “Jaramo”. Jacob is obviously Marit’s brother, Jacob Peterson/Joramo. Peder could be either Marit’s father Peder or brother Peder. If it was her brother, why are there no further records for him after April 27, 1879? What could have happened to him?

            In addition, I located a burial record from the same church for a “Peder Joramo” born in “Lesja” from 1878. The record states that Peder died on June 14 in either 1877 or 1878, and was being buried on August 28, 1878. That delay between death and burial may seem strange, but I have been told that it took Lake Hanska Church several years to acquire land for a cemetery. Church members who died before the cemetery was built were buried at home. The August 28, 1878 burial record shows that eight people with wildly varying death dates were all buried at once—obviously these were reinterments. This Peder Joramo had been buried at death, and moved to the new cemetery on August 28. The big question relating to this record is whether this burial might be for Peder the father, or Peder the son. I know that Peder the father died sometime between 1875 and 1880 in a farming accident. He was initially buried on a neighbor’s property. His descendants aren’t sure if his body was ever moved to the Lake Hanska Cemetery. There is some indication the record may be for Peder the son: the burial record has a column for the deceased’s age, and this box appears to read “17”. That would have been Peder’s age in June 1878. So perhaps both Peders died within the span of a few years, and Peder the son was reburied in August 1878.

            There is an even more remote possibility that Peder, like his sister Marit, survived to adulthood and moved away, out of the collective memories of future generations. I was only able to prove that Marit had survived when my DNA was matched to several of her descendants; probably the only way I could ever prove Peder had survived would be if he had a family and their descendants tested their DNA.

            Until I can find more evidence to back up any of these possibilities, Peder will remain a nearly- forgotten mystery ancestor. He will never truly be forgotten now, however. His existence is now supported by sufficient evidence to show other researchers that he existed. I also hope that more evidence will come to light to tell me what happened to him after he left Norway bound for America.