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Berthe Marie, known in the family as Berthe-Dol, was born Berthe Maria Jensdatter in Tønsberg in 1791 to her father Jens Halvorsen Reistad, a blacksmith, and mother Johanna Tollvesdatter. Berthe was nicknamed "Berthe-Dol" meaning "Valley girl". (It's a name that was passed down in the family to her granddaughter.)
Ole Christensen Rudd was born in late spring/early summer of 1791 at Røråsen Farm on the island of Helgøya in Næs, Hedmark, Norway (now officially in Ringsaker commune).A His parents were Christen Olsen Ruud, a day laborer, and his wife Ingebor Amundsdatter Kjos.
Gullik was born 26 Jan 1794 on Hære Farm in Øvre Eiker, Norway to a crofter father who rented farmland to get by. The family moved to the mining town of Konnerud where Gullik spent his teen years. Here his father gave him ownership of a small parcel of land named Loe [pronounced loo] near his father's properties of Veierud and Knatholt. Gullik married his wife Maren Christensdatter Wear and lived here for at least 7 years. Family stories say his inability to manage money and a pension for drinking and card playing bankrupted the family, forcing them off the Loe property and out of town. It was the shame of his mother-in-law that bailed him out and saved the family. Gullik's own shame of the situation seemed to straighten him out and the carpenter bought Sondre Myhre farm in Svelvik where they spent the next 20 years before Gullik died in 1856.
Anne Marie, the daughter of a sailor and laborer, was born in Svelvik, Norway in 1827. She was raised with 4 brothers and 1 sister. She received her confirmation in 1842 and married sailor and carpenter Andreas Johnsen in 1855. The couple lived in Svelvik, where she gave birth to 3 sons and 3 daughters, the youngest of which, Andreas, cost Anne her life. She died in 1867 while recovering from childbirth.
Andreas was born to a sailor/carpenter father in northern Svelvik in 1830. He was 1 of 8 children, including a half-sister and only the second boy of the house. His younger sister died when he was 9, his father passed away at 11, and an older sister when he was 14. Andreas took to the sea as a sailor and while home married Anne Marie Ruud in 1855. The couple would have 6 children before Anne's untimely death in 1867. Andreas stopped sailing and took up carpentry at the shipyard full time when he remarried Laura Anderson. They had a son in 1873, but Laura also died the following year. Andreas died in Svelvik in 1888 at the age of 58.
Born on the Orhuus farm in 1828 in Sande, Vestfold, Norway to parents Christen Johnsen and Dorthe Olsdatter, Christoffer lost his father by age 5 and spent his childhood on Kvisle farm with his mother and step-father. After confirmation he relocated from Sande to Svelvik and traded a life on the farm for one at sea. Christoffer married Mathea Gulliksdatter Loe and had 3 children. He died at sea of yellow fever aboard the ship Chatham at the age of 50 and was buried at sea on the Atlantic.
Marie and her twin sister Julie were born in 1858 daughters of a sailor in the seafaring town of Svelvik, Norway. Marie was 1 of 6 children and 1 step-brother in the house. She lost her mother at 9, her step-mother at 15 and cared for her siblings and father until he passed away in 1888. Marie married ship's captain Cornelius Christoffersen 3 months later. Together they had 6 children; 1 whom passed in infancy. Marie followed her sister from Norway to Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. Although they made a nice life here, tragedy followed. 1914 saw the death of both her son Oscar and Julie's husband. This was followed by son Rudd in 1926, her husband in 1927, and son Chris in 1929. She outlived all the men in her life but died herself at 74 in 1933. Julie followed 2 months later.
Cornelius was born in Svelvik, Norway in 1860, son of a sailor. He took to the sea like his father by the age of 15. He married the girl he grew up down the street from named Birthe Marie Andreasen. The couple was wed in 1888 and 2 months later Cornelius received his official captain's certification. He captained his own ship for years and even captain a ship to China, but gave it up in 1907 to move his wife and 5 children to America. They settled in Cleveland, Ohio near his wife's twin sister and changed the family last name from Christoffersen to Christopher. Here Cornelius became a sexton for a local church where he worked the rest of his life. He died in 1927 at the age of 67.
