Oleson from Norway and Wisconsin to Iowa
Cbeck	Ester Thompson was born in Norway, I am guessing about 1810-1820. Before she immigrated to the U.S. (between l849-1853), she married Ole Oleson, also b. in Norway. Before she left Norway with her husband, she gave birth to at least one child, a son named Ole H. Oleson, born 27 NOV 1849 in Norway. This is all I have on her!!! Once she reached America, she gave birth to at least one other child: son, Thomas Oleson, born 10 SEP 1853 in Wisconsin. My problem is I can't find any census that holds at least all four of these names: Mother: Esther Oleson b in Norway Father: Thomas Oleson b in Norway son: Ole H. Oleson, b in l849 in Norway son: Thomas Oleson, b 1853 in Norway Can you people give me suggestions on what I might do to locate them? What records are in Norway as far as birth records that might record Ole H. Oleson's parent's names? Do they go as early as l849? How do I find naturalization records? Where are they at? (Besides Ancestry?) I have subscribed to Ancestry and several of its packages, but I really hate to spend another $40. on naturalization records and not find anything. Are there naturalization records on the internet somewhere for free? ANY help is appreciated!!!! Thank you. Connie Beck 2765 130th St. Lenox, IA 50851 641 333 2537
Hopkins	To find US naturalizations you'll really need to know WHERE they lived in the US when they were naturalized. The various US censuses can often help you determine approximately WHEN a naturalization occurred. With the knowledge of WHERE and approximately WHEN you'll need to determine which court might have been the court of record. A county court? a district court? what would have been the closest at the time the event occurred. Start there. Check the LDS library catalog to see if the naturalizations for the county or area have been copied to microfilm. If they have, you can order the microfilm to be sent to the nearest LDS Family History Center to you. Then you can review the records on microfilm readers at that center. To order a roll of microfilm to be sent from the Salt Lake City repository it usually costs about $3.25 for an approximate 5-week lend use at the Center. (This cost is current as of July 2004 at the Family History Center in the southern US that I regularly use.) If the naturalization have not been microfilmed by the LDS library system - then you may have to write to the court of record or whoever now has control of the records. A number of good books on genealogy will help you compose such a request. There is also a book entitled "They Became Americans" that may help you plan a research strategy for naturalizations. Depending on which parish in Norway that Ole H. Oleson was born and baptised in - the record of his baptism should be in the parish church registers. These church books that survived the years have also been copied to LDS microfilm. I've used parish registers as early as 1669 for some areas of Norway - right here at the same Family History Center I mentioned before. Here's a helpful article about the Norwegian church records/church books - you'll find it listed as article 8 in this collection - the article is entitled "Norwegian kirkebøker - parish registers" http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/articles.html
Jo Anne Sadler	Naturalization records before 1906 would only give very limiited information, just name, date and witnesses and varies by the appropriate county or state governmental body that processed them. In the mid 1800's they would most likely be held at the county level. There are two separate documents, the application for naturalization and the final papers. Researching the local historical societies would be your best bet to find some information including the county history books. Newspaper research is another source, rural newspaper would publish social news, obituaries on just about everyone. Since there is so little information to glean from early naturalization records, there has not been alot of interest in entering this information on the Internet - birth, marriage and death records get the high priority. As great as the Internet is, only a small portion of US records are available online for free. If you gave more information on your ancestors, maybe people on this site could help you more. Where did they settle in Wisconsin, where have you found them in the census? Oleson is a very common name.
Hopkins	I have found US naturalizations that were done well before 1906 that contained a great deal of information. The forms were not yet standardized in all 'courts of record' and in some jurisdictions some of the petitions or statements of intention to the court were handwritten stories by the applicant which were quite descriptive - some giving parish of birth, name of port they departed from, what ship they travelled on, which port of entry and dates, etc. Some found in other areas were quite nearly useless - name and previous allegiance to the "King of Norway and Sweden" being nearly the extent of the description. If the information was sketchy when finally found - I at least enjoyed seeing my ancestors signature or 'mark'. Even the name of a witness or attestator on one naturalization actually turned out to be of tremenous help - that name when researched linked to exactly what I'd been looking for - a true stroke of 'luck' in that case.