Family from Aal, Buskerud, Norway
John Paulson	I'm looking for my family who are from the Hallingdal valley in Buskerud Fylke, Norway. My Great Great Grandpa, Knut Paulson, immigrated to America from Hallingdal, Norway in 1858. His parents were Paul & Magnel (Knutsdatter) Peterson. He was born 6 May 1835 and died 17 May 1927. I'm just wondering if my Great Great Grandpa had any brothers/sisters?? So if I could find out some info from Norway...then I could find out the info I'm looking for. That's all the info I know about my Great Great Grandpa when he lived in Norway. Thanks, John
Jo Anne Sadler	Do you know their farm name? The names you have are very common. There is alot of information on Hallingdal but without a farm name[?]. This is an organization for hallingdal research: http://www.fellesraad.com/hallinglag.htm Lookup volunteers: www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/norway.html Posting on Hallingdal message boards may yield results. This may be a real stretch in the 1865 census but it is a clue: [url="http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=f60619&gardpostnr=916&personpostnr=5585&merk=5585#ovre"]click here[/url] Magnild Knutsdatter is obviously on a second marriage, if son Erik was Niels' son, then he would not be Erik Pauls. I am not an expert on rural inheritance laws, but in order to keep the farm ownership/lease, a widow would have to remarry in a certain period of time and these differences in ages was not uncommon. She would have been 21 in 1835.
John Paulson	Thanks for finding some info for me. Unfortunately, all I know is that my Great Great Grandpa's father's name was Peterson. So I have no idea what their farm name was?? I wish I knew these things...it would make this all alot easier. Unfortunately, I have no one in my family who would know either...which really sucks?? Once again thanks.
Hopkins	You seen to have a fairly solid birthday - and the location of Ål in Buskerud. You could order the microfilm(s) of births/baptisms from the Ål prestegjeld (clerical district) and scan through those. Check at your nearest LDS Family History Center for how you can order and use the films. I've been using their resources to go back through earlier family history work - going through the church records one film at a time and also adding siblings to my family tree. My work is no where near Ål or Buskerud but the careful work through the church records has been very interesting - I've gathered much additional information for my research files. I recommend it to you. If you haven't used Norwegian church records before - I also recommend the following article for 'how-to' advice. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/na20.html Actually the entire collection is worth your time - http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/articles.html