Death of Ole Helleksen

Ole Helleksen was born in Bø, Telemark Norway on the farm Indlæggen, the son of Hellek Olsen 1817-1898 and Helga Hansdatter 1809-1847. He was my great great grandfather. 

This is the parish record of deaths and burials in Eidanger, Telemark, Norway where Ole and his wife Hanna Matea Gunuldsdatter 1848-1902 lived and raised their family. Farm worker and widower Ole died 21 October 1904 on the farm Røra and was buried 30 October 1904. He died of cancer at 62 years of age.

SAKO, Eidanger kirkebøker, F/Fa/L0013: Parish register (official) no. 13, 1900-1913, p. 196

Quick link: https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb20051004050972

my great great grandfather

Ole Helleksen

b: 12 February 1842 Indlæggen, Bø, Telemark, Norway

d: 21 October 1904 Røra, Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

**click on document to enlarge for easier viewing**

My childhood home

My childhood home
I never lived in a single family home until after I was married. My Dad owned our home but it was a two flat or three flat. With the income from the other apartments it was easier to pay the mortgage, maybe we even lived technically rent free. Saving a dollar was always a priority for my Dad, probably from living through the Great Depression.

My parents bought our first home when I was 1 year old.  It was a wood frame two flat with asphalt shingles in a working class, north side, Chicago neighborhood. We lived in the second floor apartment. It was small. There was a living and dining room combination with a small kitchen separated from the living area by a peninsula we used as a kitchen table. There was one bathroom and only one bedroom. After my sister was born my Dad renovated the attic into two bedrooms. You went up these very steep stairs to reach the first bedroom and then you had to go through the first bedroom (my parents room) to get to the front bedroom (my and my sister's room). The bedrooms were so small an adult could only stand up in the middle of the room as both side walls sloped inward at the angle of our steep  roof. It could be cold in the winter but we had down comforters my grandma had brought us from Norway. We had a space heater in the living room that gave some heat from a hole my Dad had cut in the ceiling of the living room/floor of the bedrooms. He liked to turn the heater off though at night to "save money". That was okay but in the summer? Whew, it was hot and I mean hot. I don't think anyone had air conditioning then. Only bowling alleys and movie theaters were "air-cooled" and as fundamentalist Christians we never were allowed to go to any of those "sinful places". On steamy Chicago summer nights we would drag our mattress into the front room and leave the front and back doors open. Dad would put a fan in one door blowing in and another sucking the hot air out of the tiny apartment. Mom always warned us "don't let the fan blow directly on you or you will wake up paralyzed" and Dad insisted "if you put your finger in the fan it will serve you right if it cuts off your fingertip, that's what happened to Cousin Arthur you know." I was always real careful about my fingers but it was often so hot I tried to get as close to the fan as I could. It was totally worth the risk of paralysis.

 1953 Chicago - Grandpa & Grandma, Mom and Me

We had a washing machine on our back porch but no dryer. My Mom hung the laundry on a pulley line that went from our porch to the top of the garage in back. Boy, those sheets and towels did smell good. Our front stairs went directly to the second floor. I remember them well because of my grandfather. He would whistle from the outside when he arrived and I would run to the front door. He would do a little fancy tap dance up the stairs and when he reached the top I would get a kiss and a piece of candy he had hidden in his pocket. We moved to the suburbs when I was entering the fifth grade. We moved to a nicer apartment building which my Dad bought in a nicer area but I always felt that little house on Monticello ave was my real home. Life was good then. Mom and Dad were young, happy, healthy.....and Grandpa could dance.

1865 Norwegian National Census - Three generations of Stubskind family

The Norwegian National Census of 1865 was a lucky one for me in finding ancestors. Census records are the first go-to source for the family researcher. Unfortunately, in Norway, the earlier countrywide census was taken in 1801. From 1801 to 1865 is a long time and people could die fairly young back in the day. Often a whole generation was lost and the gap could be hard to jump.

Værdalen (an older spelling of Verdal), Nord-Trøndelag, Norway.
This is the family farm, Stubskind østre, of my maternal grandfather's family. Three generations of the family!

my great grandfather

Anders Sevaldsen 

1863-aft 1915

my great great grandparents

Sevald Andersen

1818-1900

Karen Maria Oldsdatter

1828-1896

my great great great grandparents

Anders Jakobsen

1787-1875

Anne Martha Sevaldsdatter

1795-1870

A great find in just one census record. Another reason to love the Norwegians? (and there are plenty) Norway digitizes, transcribes and posts their archival information on the internet, available to all and for free, Much is available in an English translation. ↓ 

THE DIGITALARKIVET - NORWEGIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES (English version)

Thank you Norway!