52 Ancestors in 54 Weeks: Week 13: Mette Halvorsdottar (1825-1904), My 3rd Great Grandmother

Mette Halvorsdottar was born on 17 Oct 1825 in Hagen, Sauda, Rogaland, Norway, to Halvor Ingemundsen (b. 1793) and Lisbet Samuelsdotter (b. 1789).  She was christened several weeks later on 6 November 1825 in Sand, Rogaland, Norway.  She had at least one other sister and 3 brothers.

My family information has Lillerod after her last name and I don't know if that is a location where the family farm was?  I see a mention of Lillerød as one of the farms owned by a man in Rogaland in the 1600's, and that might possibly be the area.  Her parents were living in Rød lille, Sauda, Sand, Rogaland, Norway in the 1865 Folketelling, so maybe the name just got transposed?

Mette got her smallpox vaccination a day after her second birthday on 28 Oct 1827.

Shortly before she was 21 she married Od Knudsen (1824-1890) in Sauda, Rogaland, Norway on 10 October 1847.  According to family information the witnesses were Halvor Lillerod (I'm assuming her father) & Orm Risvold, with reading of proclamations September 3, 20, 26.  Their first child, Anna, was born 21 March 1847, only 6 1/2 months after they married, meaning she was either premature or was conceived before marriage.  Two years later their twin girls, Ingeborg and Lisabeth, wereborn 2 years later on 23 May 1849.  I am assuming that Lisabeth died soon after, as my 2nd great grandmother, also Lisabeth, was born a year later, on 20 June 1850.  Next came sons Halvor (1852) and Knut (1855), followed by Ingeborg (1856) (I'm assuming the first Ingeborg died?) and Berte Oline (1859).  Their son Od, was born in 1863, and Tore Martin Odson was their last child, born in 1867, when Mette was about 41.

In the Folketelling 1865 Mette, 40, and her family were in Hinderåa Parish, Nerstrand, Rogaland, Norway.  Husband Od and children Halvor, Knud, Od, Anne, Ingeborg, and Berte Oline were also there.  Lisabeth was working as a servant in Hinderåafor another man named Knud Knudsen, 30 (relation?).

Daughter Lisbeth Odsdatter in later years

In the Folketelling 1875 Mette, 50, and her family were in Askedalen, Nedstrand, Rogaland, Norway.  Husband Od and children Halvor, Od, Tore Martin, and Anne were living with her, as well as son-in-law ("svigers.") Jakob Torgersen (Anne's husband), and their son Torger Olaus Jakobsen (b 1873) (Od's grandson), and Mette's own father, Halvor Ingemundsen.  Her father was referred to as a "Folgemand, which "is a man who has "handed" over his farm to the next generation, and has made an agreement on what his rights are, for instance that he can stay at the farm as long as he lives."

The following year her daughter Lisabeth had her first child, Mette Karine, my great grandmother, out of wedlock.  I am not sure how out-of-wedlock births were viewed in that time and place, but Mette and Od helped raise Mette Karine some time after Lisabeth married Martin Anderson in 1880.

Mette with husband Od and granddaughter Mette Karine

According to family records, Od died on 24 February 1890and was buried 8 days later on 4 March 1890.  Granddaughter Mette Karine immigrated to the United States a few years later, in 1892 or 1893.  Family information has Lisbeth going to America for a brief period of time but I am not sure when that happened.

In the Folketelling 1900 Mette, 75, was living with Siri Olsdatter, about 70 (b. 1830) in Askedalen, Nedstrand, Rogaland, Norway.  Mette is listed as a "Bruger af Husmandsplads m J" which means "uses cotter's place."  Siri was a "Gaards arbeider og uldspinder" but I don't know what that means yet, unfortunately (maybe a spinner or spinster worker?).  I don't know what Siri's relationship to Mette was.

According to family records Mette died on 23 April 1904, aged 78, in Askedalen, Nedstrand, Rogaland, Norway.  She was buried 7 days later on 30 April 1904, under the name Mette Halvorsdtr Klungtvedt (?).

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