Tracing a Connection to a Distant Cousin Leads to Norway Discoveries
Marit Johannesdatter
Rolstad: 1731-1788 (Paternal Third Great-Grandmother)
Anne Ohlsdatter
Bottom: 1700-? (Paternal Fourth Great-Grandmother)
Marit
Arnesdatter: 1663-1718 (Paternal Fifth-Great-Grandmother)
JB: Paternal
Sixth Cousin
Much of my
research on the Norwegian side of my family tree ends one generation before the
ancestor who immigrated to America. I feel confident that I can correctly
identify the immigrants’ parents and siblings who remained in Norway. But I am nervous
about moving back any additional generations. The old Norwegian surname system,
where each generation had a different “surname” (which were a combination of
patronymics and residence names), makes it hard for me to feel I am correctly
identifying distant ancestors. I need to start learning about how to use the Bygdeboks,
research records that trace the family ancestry of Norwegian farm families. They
could help me add more generations with some confidence. But until then, I make
the occasional discovery with the help of DNA matches. A recent match was
especially serendipitous, extending my tree an additional three generations,
back to a Norwegian ancestor born in 1663!
I originally
was looking at a different potential fourth cousin when I ran across “JB”, the
DNA match that helped me so much. I was trying to determine what part of the
family line this other cousin came from, so pulled up our shared DNA matches on
Ancestry DNA. JB was one of those shared matches. Ancestry had helpfully flagged
JB as having a shared ancestor with me. I immediately pulled up the chart
showing how we might be related. I was stunned to see the chart added three
generations to my family tree: my great-grandmother Anne Gulbrandsdatter
Peterson’s own grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother (my 3rd,
4th and 5th great-grandmothers).
According
to Ancestry’s DNA algorithm, JB and I shared my fifth-great-grandmother, Marit
Arnesdatter, as a common ancestor. She was born in 1663! A tiny piece of her
DNA travelled down through nearly four centuries of her descendants to me, to
my son, and to our very distant cousin JB.
 |
| Lesja Bygdebok bind III pg 613 |
I am still
in the process of verifying these new tree generations, but one of my distant
relatives kindly posted on Ancestry copies of the Lesja, Norway Bygdebok that shows the family
and descendants of Marit Arnesdatter’s daughter Anne Olsdatter Bottem, so it
appears that I can verify at least two of these new generations on my tree. The
research will continue!
 |
| Photo labelled in Norwegian as 'LagenLesjaBottem', and in English as 'Gudbrandsdalslågen river at Lesja, previously outflow of Lesja lake'. Note that both Gulbrands and Bottem were parts of my ancestors' surnames. Were they from this area of Lesja? |
In one
final note on the interesting little quirks of DNA: my son has a DNA link to
JB, but my daughter does not. So the tiny DNA fragment I inherited from Marit Arnesdatter
and passed down to my son didn’t get passed down to my daughter. Perhaps she
has inherited a different fragment that will connect us to a new ancestor.
Sources:
Ancestry.com
Kjelland,
Arnfinn. Bygdebok for Lesja Lesja kommune, 19872008.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%A5genLesjaBottem.jpg
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