Voyage to America 1861
skbristol	I'm trying to locate passengers Knud Sjursen and Agothe Ingebrigtsdatter and their young sons, Gabriel Elias Gabrielsen and Engel Saeverin Knudsen. A distant relative told me they "left for America on 15 April 1861 but there is no record of the children arriving in America." (We believe the boys died at sea.) Unfortunately, the relative who gave the date has refused to provide the name of the ship or ports of departure/arrival, so I'm not sure whether his information can be trusted. In 1860, I believe the family was living in Sveio, Hordaland. I've found a ship called the Maple Leaf that departed Porsgrunn on April 15, 1861, but I'm not sure why they would have been on this boat since both Stavanger and Bergen are so much closer to their home. Also, I don't know whether they sailed to Canada or America as their first known residence in the USA was Wisconsin. Thanks, Sara
Borge	My guess is that they would have sailed on one of the Bergen departures. I am quite sure they entered via Canada, as almost all ordinary Norwegian emigrants departed on ships sailing for Quebec or Montreal. You should note that the departure dates given in different sources are not always accurate. When emigrants are talking about departure dates they could be referring to the date when they left their home, the date they boarded the ships, the date when the ships was cleared to sail, or the date when the ships actually physically left the port. Sometimes when a ships was cleared to sail on a certain date it would still have to wait for several days in port before the wind was right to bring them out to sea. The passengers would often board the ship a few days before it was cleared to sail. Unfortunately there are no surviving passenger lists for the Norwegian emigrant ships for 1861
ninakarls	People had to register by the minister when they moved from a parish in those days. Church records may be available on microfilm. You need to go through records from all sub-parishes of Sveio/Sveen unless you can come up with a farm name or other additional information. If Aagothe was the mother of Gabriel he would have been from a previous marriage to a man named Gabriel! In the main parish Sveen there are people called Aagotha, Gabriel and Ingebrigt, they names are not as common as Knud's.
Hopkins	The parish records for Sveio that would contain "Innflytte and Utflytte" records for 1861 would be on LDS microfilm # 0278088. The church record cannot contain the name of the ship or the date that emigrants boarded the ship ... it merely records persons leaving the parish and usually a brief notation of their planned destination. Your relative may have used the book "Gards- og ęttesoge for Sveio", three volumes which contain a genealogy of the people and their farms in Sveio and Valestrand in Hordaland county, Norway.
skbristol	Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions. I haven't been able to find Knud in the "Gards- og ęttesoge for Sveio" but I have found Aagothe's father. It may be worth another look. I ordered some church records through the LDS today and hopefully that will help. Thanks, Sara
skbristol	Another question: Did the ships that entered via Canada all go through Grosse Pointe? Does anybody know how I can check entrance records?
Borge	There are no surviving records, they did not bother to archive them when they had no use for them any longer. [:(]