One of the most important books for anyone searching for
their Norwegian roots are the "bygdeboker”, the farm books that have been or
are being written about all the areas of Norway. The following information
about who was running the farm through the years has been translated from such
a book. It is GARD OG ÆTT I SOLA by Sigurd Refheim, published by Utgjevar Sola
Kommune in 1974. With these books we can trace our family history and
then using the information, search the digitized records at the website, digitalarkivet.no.
During the 1600’s there were six
bruk (farms) in Tjora: numbers 1, 8, 14, 19, 22 and 24. The first our family
came to 14 was about 1698, when Einer
Einarson came from Sola and married Guri Ommundsdatter. When Guri died he
married Kirsten Knudsdatter in 1721. Einer died in 1733. Einer and Kirsten had
one daughter, Guri in 1722. After Einer’s death, Kirsten married Helge
Tjerandson in 1934 and he ran the farm until Guri Einarsdatter married Kristoffer Svenson in 1755 and they took
over the running of the farm that same year. They had one daughter named
Kristi.
In 1783, Gabriel Gabrielson married
Kristi Kristoffersdatter, the
daughter of the farm and took over the running of it in 1786. They had five
children. Their son Kristoffer
Gabrielson was born in 1787 and took over the farm in 1811. He married
Ingeborg Olsdatter and they also had five children and their oldest son Gabriel Kristofferson was the one who
took over the farm in 1851.
Gabriel Kristofferson married Maren
Margreta Svensdatter in 1844, they had three children and she died in 1850.
Gabriel was married in 1851 to Ingeborg Torsdatter and they had three children.
The sisters father was their first child, Ole
Gabriel Gabrielson. Ole was born in 1851 and took over the farm in 1881,
when he was thirty years old. He married Guri Kristiansdatter in 1876 and they
had eleven children, our grandmothers among them.
At the time Ole took over the farm,
there were two farms divided off, numbers 15 and 17, with 17 being run at that
time by Ole’s half-brother Kristian.
There were owners and renters of land and I do not know
which they were over the years. But, the lease holders kept the farms within
families over the generations. Nothing
is mentioned on what the farmers raised on this particular farm but from what I
have read it may have been grain and sheep. Maybe some of our cousins in Norway
would know. Also, these farms were smaller than what we here in the states are
familiar with. Most were no more than about 15 to 25 acres. Yet they were
enough to provide a living for the family.
