The Family and Ancestors of Nils Gjermundson Skaar and Christi Olesdatter Melstvedt Compiled and translated by Joanne Murray Seymour 1994 Most of this information was translated from the A.ttarbok for Kvam. Volume I, Vikey Sofai & fotarbok for Kvam. Volume II. Oystese Sokn gathered and written by L.H.Torpe in cooperation with a township committee: Mikjell T. Steine, Simon J. Fonneland &Jon O. Tjosas Ist edition published 1958 2nd edition 1980 Introduction I have tried to get information on the relatives and ancestors of my grandfather, Johannes Qohn) Nilsson Skaar gathered together in one booklet. Because he died while I was very young I have had to ask many people about him and his brothers and sisters. The information about his ancestors I have translated from the yfcttarbok for Kvam, Volumes I &c II. These were written by a committee appointed by the "heradstyre" or community council of Kvam, Norway, which is on the Hardanger fjord. Volume I is for the Vikoy parish and Volume II is for 0ystese parish. These are neighboring parishes in the kommune (community) of Kvam. They shared pastors and many aspects of government. I have used the "ahnetafel" numbering system here. These are shown in the postscript numbers after the names. I have puposely left out #1 because it could be used for any of the children of Nils and Christi Skaar. #2 & 3 are for their parents, Nils and Christi, and #4, 5, 6, & 7 are for grandparents, etc. This way a person's father's number is always twice that of the child, and the mother's number is twice plus 1. In each family group I have underlined the person/s who were direct ancestors of my grandfather Johannes Nilsson Skaar. The farm numbers used with the names designate the number of the entrance in the settarbokas in the following: SKAAR 112 Geirmund Nilsson Skar" 1814 - 1892 (Skir 111a) Married 1838 to Kari Hansdt. Soldal5 1818 - 1855 (Soldal 116 e) Children: a. NUs, b. 1839 d. (Botnen 137) b. Anna, b. 1841 d. 1896 (Botnen 128) "Skaar 112" is the number of this entrance in the ./Ettarbok. On the next line "Skaar 111 a" designates the place in the ./Ettarbok where Geirmund Nilsson Skaar's birth family is given. Then on the 3rd line "Botnen 137" designates the place in the a*ttarbok where you will find the family of Nils G. Skaar. That is where you will find the name of his wife and children. I have used these numbers just as they are in the azttarbok in case someone wants to look up another branch of this family there. Acknowledgements As I have said in the introduction, I couldn't have written the first part of this book without the help of my many relatives. Most of all I need to thank my mom, Ella Murray, and her brothers and sisters, George and Lawrence Skaar, Ada Neece, and Lois Okeson. There are, of course, many others who helped with information on the brothers and sisters of my Grandpa Skaar. Dolores Tveit Krogh and Ida Tveit Sangesand gave me much information about their mother, Bertha, and several of the others in that family. Lois Lillegard Hunt was very helpful in stories about her grandparents, Kari and Hans Lillegard I need to thank all of you mentioned and those others that I haven't mentioned. I also want to thank those people in Norway who kept all the records, then those who gathered them together in the y£ttarboks. Without those books, this project would have been extremely difficult and I wouldn't have been able to get nearly as much information. I have also received much information about the Norwegian people from Ragnvald Sldlheim, and from the books about life on Fyksesund written by Hjordis Bjorke. Finally I want to thank my own family, especially my daughters, Sunnye Van Wormer and Dawn Seymour, for all the help with the computer that I so sorely needed. Again thanks to all of you who helped in this project Table of Contents Chapter I I The Emmigrants and The First Generation Born in America Chapter II 19 2nd Generation, Parents and Siblings of Nils and Christi Chapter III 23 3rd Generation, Grandparents of Nils and Christi Chapter IV 27 4th Generation, Great-grandparents Chapter V 33 5th Generation Chapter VI 43 6th Generation Chapter VII 57 7th Generation Chapter VIII 77 8th Generation Chapter IX 103 9th Generation Chapter X 125 10th Generation. Chapter XI 137 All Other Generations Appendix I (I) Meanings of measurements, place names, etc. Appendix II (3) Translation of the Bible of Nils Gjermundsen Skaar Appendix III (4) Translation of the Skaar section of the old aetterbok. Appendix IV (7) Bishop Johannes Nilsson Skaar Appendix V (II) Articles about Skaaro Today Appendix VI (17) Johannes Ringheim Maps (19) Endnotes (22) List of Descendants (23) Nils & Christi Skaar Chapter I +++++++++ The Emmigrants and The First Generation Born in America Nils Gjermundson SKAAR was born on May 16, 1839 in Norway on the Skaar farm (sometimes called Skaaro) which is located about 1000 feet above sea level near the end of Fyksesund on the Hardanger fjord. He was the oldest child of Gjermund Nilsson Skaar and Kari Hansdatter Soldal. There were 7 children born to this marriage — Nils, Anna, Elseberg, Sella, Hans, Helga, and Olav., The children were named in the tradition that prevailed in Norway at that time. The oldest boy was named after his paternal grandfather, the second boy was named after his maternal grandfather. The first daughter was named after her maternal grandmother, and the second daughter was named after her paternal grandmother. In this way the same names were used generation after generation. Kari died the same year that her seventh child, Olav, was born. The baby died, too. At that time Nils was about 16 years old. A couple of years later Gjermund married Ragna Jansdatter Oystese. They had three more children named Jan, Nils, and Kari. According to custom the oldest girl, in this case the only girl, was named after her father's first wife. The oldest boy was named after his mother's father because, of course, there was already a son named after the paternal grandfather, but they named the second son of this marriage after the paternal grandfather, too, giving our grandfather Nils a younger brother who was also named Nils Gjermundson Skaar. The younger Nils was 25 years younger than our grandfather Nils, so possibly there wasn't too much confusion. In 1856, after Nils' mother died, his father traded the farm on Skaaro for his brother's farm on Botnen, which lies right at the end of Fyksesund. Although there were no roads into Botnen it was much more accessible than Skaaro because it lay right down on the edge of the fjord near the boat dock. That same year Gjermund was chosen as postman and sheriff for the area so he moved out to 0ystese, leaving Nils to run the farm on Botnen. Nils was about 17 years old at the time. Eight years later, in 1864, Nils married Christi Olavsdatter MELSTVEDT. She was born on the farm Melstvedt (now called Melstveit) which lies on the hill between Fyksesund and the bay that fronts 0ystese. Her parents were Olav Olavson Melstvedt and Brita Olavsdt. Froestad. They had six children, but only three girls grew up. They were Sigrid, born in 1843, Christi, born in 1846, and Anna, born in 1848. Another girl, also named Christi, died as an infant, and two boys, Olav, born in 1838, and Johannes, in 1839, died in the same epidemic that took the life of their grandmother in the winter of l847-8.2 1 The following is a translation of the section of the >Ettarbok for Kvam, Volume II, that tells about Nils and Christi before they emigrated from Norway: BOTNEN 137 Nils Geirmundson Skar2 1839 - (Sklr 112 a) M. 1864 to Kristi Olavsdt. Melstveit3 1846 - (Melstveit I24e) Children: a. Geirmund, b. 1865 d. Nils got Botnen with the deed from his father and lived here a little time. In 1865 he moved with his household to America and settled in the Rush Cren Valley*. He sold the farm to his brother-in-law, Jon Olavson Klyve. *This should have been Rush Creek Valley (also called Hardangerdalen). Nils and Christi lived at Botnen only a couple of years before they emigrated to America. Their son Gjermund Nilsson was born at Botnen on January 29, 1865. He was the only one of their ten children to be born in Norway. Before Nils and Christi emigrated from Norway, Nils bought a Bible in Bergen. He kept very precise records of the times and places of the births and deaths in the family. A translation of this record is given in the appendix of this book. They left Norway in the company of several other families from the same area. Among these were Nils' bachelor brother Hans Skaar; Sjur Sjurson Kannikeberg and his family; Ole, Johannes, and Solomon Flatabo and their families; and Brita Flatabo and Blansa Jarane, both single women. These people all took local boats to Bergen where they caught a ship which took them to Canada with a stop-over at Liverpool, England. One small boy, Nils, the son of Ole and Agata Flatabo died on the voyage and had to be buried at sea. The journey took five weeks to reach Quebec, and from there it went on to Montreal where these folks disembarked. Then they still had to take a train to Hardangerdalen, or Rush Creek Valley, as it is also called.