Sometimes Vee, Sometime Oleson, Sometimes Wood: A Confusing Surname Switch
Thore Oleson Vee: 1852-1883 (Paternal First Cousin 2x
Removed)
Gro Pedersdatter Hovland Vee: 1865-1932 (Wife of Paternal
First Cousin 2x Removed)
Julia Oline Vee: 1882-1980 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x
Removed)
Norwegian names can be confusing at the best of times, but
as I researched my first cousin twice removed, Thore Oleson Vee, I found more
than the average amount of confusion. Thore seems to have occasionally used the
surname Wood along with Oleson and Vee, and following his death, Thore’s widow uses Wood for her own and her
daughter’s surname.
So what do we know about Thore Oleson Vee? He was born in Laerdal,
Sogn al Fjordane, Norway on January 6, 1852 to parents Ole Torresson
Haavardshaugen and Gjorand Olsdatter Ve. He was the third of their eleven children. At
some point in the 1870s, he emigrated to Minnesota. Some of his siblings also
arrived in Minnesota and Wisconsin; it is unclear whether they traveled
together, or separately.
Thore settled in Freeborn County, Minnesota. He appears on
the 1880 census as a 27-year old working as a farm laborer, living with Anders
Erickson and family. I assume he was working for Anders, who interestingly was
Swedish, but married to a Norwegian woman. Two other farm laborers, Ole Olsen
and John Olsen, were also living with the Ericksons. How did Thore find this
position? Did he have family or friend connections to the Olsens, despite their
being born in Wisconsin? Was there a connection to Erickson’s wife? Or did he
just happen to find the job once he arrived in Minnesota?
 |
| 1880 Census entry for Thore Vee |
Just a year later, Thore married a teenager who had
immigrated to Freeborn County with her family a decade earlier. Gro
Pedersdatter Hovland was born in 1865 in Norway to parents Peder Thoreson
Hovland and Britta Kristoffersdatter Hovland. The family appears on the 1865
Norway census. They must have emigrated just a few years later, as they appear
on the 1870 US Census, where they are living with Peder’s brother Haaver
Thoreson on his farm in Bancroft Township in Freeborn County. By 1880, Gro’s
parents have their own farm in the same township.
Bancroft Township borders the town of Albert Lea, where
Thore was living with the Ericksons. That gave Thore and Gro opportunities to
meet and to eventually marry on December 26, 1881. Thore was 29 years old,
while Gro was just 16. The newspaper notice of their marriage lists Thore’s
surname as Ve.
I don’t know where the young couple lived after their
marriage. Did Thore acquire his own farm by then? As yet, I have found no
records.
Thore and Gro’s first child, daughter Julia, was born
February 4, 1882. By this time, Thore was using the surname Wood. The birth
record lists the baby as Julia Oline Wood. Their second child, daughter Betsey
Petrine, was born April 11, 1883. Her birth record also lists her surname as
Wood and her father as Thore Wood.. However, both babies’ baptism records list
their surname as Olsen, Thore’s patronymic surname. This shows that amongst the
Norwegian community in the area, Thore was still identified by his patronymic
(Ole’s son, Oleson) and place name, Vee, even though he was using Wood when
interacting with some government entities, like county clerks.
It appears that Thore and Gro were using three surnames
during the same time period of 1881-1883: Ve or Vee, Olsen and Wood. Why did
they choose Wood as their English-language surname? Some Norwegians simply
translated their Norwegian surname into English, but neithter the name Olsen or
Vee have meanings in English that are even remotely related to Wood
Tragically, Thore died November 13, 1883. He was only 31
years old. Gro was left a widow at age eighteen. I had difficulty locating his
death record until I started searching for him under the name “Thore Wood”.
That pulled up the index to his death record in Bancroft Township, Freeborn
County. I located the actual entry in the Bancroft Township death records on
FamilySearch. It reports that Thore died of consumption (tuberculosis).
 |
| Thore's death record |
Thore was buried in the Central Freeborn Lutheran Cemetery.
His headstone lists his surname as Vee.
To compound Gro’s grief, her baby Betsey died just weeks before
her first birthday, on February 20, 1884. Confusingly, Betsey’s death record, entered
just four lines below her father’s in the Bancroft Township death ledger, lists
her name as Betsy P. Vee. She also died of consumption. I cannot locate her
burial place.
 |
| Betsey's death record showing a different surname than her father's, just four lines above hers. |
So what happened to Gro and young Julia after Thore’s death?
A check of the 1885 Minnesota census showed that they were living with Gro’s
parents and her uncle Haver, who also lived in Bancroft township. Her parents
had ten children still living with them, so the house must have been crammed
with people. The census taker just listed Gro and Julia under the surname of
Toreson, which the rest of the household was using.
By the 1895 Minnesota State Census, Gro and Julia are living
in her uncle Haver Thoreson’s house. She is acting as his housekeeper. She is
listed as Mrs. Groe Wood, and Julia is also using the surname Wood.
 |
| 1895 state census, with Gro and Julia using the Wood surname |
In 1900, Gro appears on the census still living with her
uncle Hovar Toreson. But now she is using her “location” surname, Hovland,
which is the farm her family lived on in Norway. Daughter Julia is also using
the surname Hovland on this census.
Gro remarries on June 6, 1908 at age forty-three. She lists
her name on the marriage records as Gro Wood. Curiously, her new husband has
the surname Wee, which is a different spelling of Thore’s surname Vee. I find
no evidence the two men were related, however, which is not surprising as
Wee/Vee is a location surname. They were likely from the same area of Norway.
On the 1910 census, Ole and Gro are listed with the surname
Wee, while Julia, who is still living with them at age 27, is listed as Julia
Wood. However, on the 1920 census, they are all listed with the surname Wee.
 |
| News item from the Albert Lea Tribune newspaper on Aug 30, 1910 showing Julia using Wood surname |
Daughter Julia preferred the surname Wood on most records,
and continued to use it for the remainder of her life until her marriage in
1923 to Herman Shelton. Her marriage record lists Wood as her surname, and her
Findagrave entry also shows Wood as her maiden name.
So what can we conclude about Thore Oleson Vee and his many
surnames? Like many Norwegian immigrants, Thore saw surnames as flexible. When
you moved in Norway, after all, your location surname changed to your new residence’s
name. So using different names for different purposes seemed normal to him. But
why did he choose to go by the English surname of Wood on occasion? I think he
may have been trying to show that he was now an American with an
American-sounding name. In this case, Wood was more than a name. It represented
his desire to fit in among his new countrymen. His wife seems to have shared
that desire.
Sources:
1880 Federal Census. Year: 1880; Census Place: Albert Lea,
Freeborn, Minnesota; Roll: 620; Page: 83c; Enumeration District: 096Freeborn.
Albert Lea. 096.
Thore Wood Death Record. Index to deaths, 1870-1959; birth
index, 1870-1921; index to delayed birth records, 1874-1981; birth and death
records 1872-1949. Freeborn County, Minnesota. Births, deaths, 1872-1907,
Bancroft Township. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95QP-39Q5?wc=36TN-DPX%3A1583719002%2C1583719408%26cc%3D2185953&cc=2185953&lang=en&i=50&groupId=2185953
Freeborn. Death Record Indexes 1870–1959. #004539639. Item
2. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-YGWF-K?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQPZB-J3CT&action=view&cc=1803974&lang=en&groupId=M9S4-NL6
State Census data: Ancestry.com.
Findagrave Entry for Thore Olsen Vee: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150001606/theodore-olsen-vee?_gl=1*14ilkyj*_gcl_au*MjQ3MjQ2NzQ0LjE3ODU1OTUzOTc.*_ga*MTcwOTEwOTIzLjE3ODU1OTUzOTg.*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*czIwZTUyM2YwLTRhZmEtNDBhMC1hYzc3LWQwOTY5N2I3MGJkMCRvNSRnMSR0MTc4NTY4MDg3NyRqNDYkbDAkaDA
