Tag Archives: Thompson/Thomassen

52 Ancestors – Influencer

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The prompt for Week 5 was ‘Influencer’ and for this prompt I’ve decided to write about my Great-Uncle Ted who was a strong influence on my family history journey. As my mother grew up without a Father, Uncles were very important to her and she was very close with her mother’s family. Although Ted lived in Adelaide, South Australia and my mum grew up in Western Sydney the strong connection was still there and he was the person who gave my mum away at her wedding.

The photo of Ted and Jean (my grandmother) that sparked my interest)

I can remember visiting Ted for the first time as a young teenager, and I was fascinated by all his knowledge of the family. I had seen photos of my grandmother as a young child aged around 3 years old in Penrith, New South Wales (which in the 1920s was still a very country area) as well as a photo of my great grandparents wedding day and they had sparked my interest enough to ask my grandmother about them. So you can imagine I was even more fascinated to see the many other photos that Ted had in his possession, including one of himself and my grandmother, when he was a small boy and she a toddler. This visit was to be the start of years of back and forth correspondence about the family history.

Ted (standing) and Jean

Ted had started doing family history research during the 1980s, when Australia experienced a surge of popularity in family history research in line with the Bicentenary of the landing of the First Fleet in 1788. Unlike the rest of his family, who worked in more traditional ‘working class’ professions, Ted had trained as a journalist and ended up working in Sports Journalism. As a boy, Ted had suffered from polio and as a result spent much more time on academic pursuits. Through the charity organisation The House With No Steps Ted was taught typing which was a great help to him eventually getting a cadetship in journalism and eventually working as a sports journalist. During his career, Ted had opportunities to travel overseas and I have not doubt that the research skills he learnt in his journalism career came in handy for tracing his family history. Once retired, Ted continued to travel with his wife Ruth and he visited many of the areas out ancestors came form including Norway.

Many of the family photos that I have copies of came from Ted’s family album which he was happy to share with me. And not only did he have photos of ancestors, they were all meticulously labelled. Ted had also painstakingly typed up on his typewriter everything he knew about the family from what he had been told by his mother and other relatives as well as what he had gleaned form his research. I remember quite well a conversation about our Norwegian ancestor Charles John Thompson who had come from the Norwegian city of Bergen out to Australia. I can remember him telling me about when he visited Norway and attempted to find some information about Charles to no avail. Everyone they spoke to said that there would be no Norwegian with that kind of name! Ted was very interested years later once I had started my family history journey in earnest to hear that I had found Charles in Norway!! Turns out, he had Anglicized his name to Charles John Thompson from Karl Johan Thomassen.

Ted during his time at Canonbury hospital

 

 

#52ancestors – Week 43 Cause of Death

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So, I’ve been absent for months as life took over but have decided to make an effort to get back into it.

The prompt of ’cause of death’ was a easy one for me as one particular ancestor’s cause of death has given me  a lot of thought recently as to my own lifestyle and health. I was recently looking back over some certificates, looking for any missed clues as I did some more research on my mother’s family. I was looking at the death certificate of my great, great grandmother Elizabeth Hartley nee Brownlow,  not really expecting to see anything different, when the cause of death jumped out at me from the paper. She had died from a coma as a result of Diabetes Mellitus. As she was 72 years of age at her death, I think it’s safe to say that she suffered from Type 2 diabetes, which is a mature onset form of the disease usually caused by diet and lifestyle choices.

Elizabeth Brownlow-Hartley (Death)-1xnb78w

This really shocked me, as Type 2 diabetes is something that is discussed quite a bit in my family. My mother has Type 2 diabetes as did her mother (my maternal grandmother). As a result, I know quite a bit about the disease and know that I fall into a high risk category as both my mother and grandmother ended up with the disease. However, no one in the family realised that the disease went so far back in our family history. My mother never knew this ancestor of ours as she died long before my mother was even thought of, but as a result of finding out that this woman likely had type 2 diabetes as did my grandmother prompted my mother to hypothesise that perhaps her grandmother (my great grandmother) had the disease as well.

With some further digging into my great grandmother, looking at photographs and her death certificate, I have found that she was a very large woman and that at the time of her death she was suffering from sleep apnoea which is common in individuals with type 2 diabetes. My mother lived with her grandmother as a child, and remembers the amount of food that they ate and how much of it was fatty food. Poor diet is a number one risk factor in developing type 2 diabetes, as is being overweight or obese as well as genetic factors such as a parent or other close relative having the disease. Therefore, it is likely that my great grandmother suffered from the disease as well.

My great, great grandmother Elizabeth Hartley nee Brownlow. c.1933, the year she died

This is one instance where my family history research has proved to be of practical use, in providing me with information about diseases which are prevalent in my family. It has also proved of interest to others in my family and set off warning bells in my head to change my diet and lifestyle whilst I am still young enough to prevent developing the disease.

 

My great grandmother Edith Thompson nee Hartley. Unknown date.

 

Week 8 – Heirloom

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Week 8’s topic is ‘Heirloom’ and I have focused on a collection of heirloom’s that I have in my possession. For as long as I can remember, these beautiful pieces of heirloom furniture have resided at either my grandmother’s house of my parent’s house. This matching wardrobe and dressing table along with a ‘glory box’ belonged to my great grandmother Edith Jane Hartley. As a child, these pieces of furniture fascinated me as they were so different from anything ‘modern’.

The story goes that the ‘glory box’ or ‘hope chest’ was the first item to be acquired by Edith, having been made for her by her father to store the many items she made and collected in preparation for marriage and setting up a household. Apparently, it started its life as a wash stand of some sort but to this day I haven’t figured out how that would have worked. Anyway, Edith took it with her in 1919 when she married Oscar Norman Thompson. At that time, it was used to store clothing for her future children.

On the occasion of her marriage, Edith was also given the matching wardrobe and dressing table. Unfortunately, due to a lot of moving around the wardrobe in particular is in disrepair and the mirror on the dresser has clouded over.My mother has recently shared her thoughts with me on getting rid of the wardrobe and dressing table but I have convinced her to keep them as they are a family treasure (of which we have so few). So for now they remain, and if I have any say in it they will remain forever. One day, I hope to have the money to restore them to their former glory.

Week 5 – In the Norwegian Census

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The week 5 prompt for #52ancestors is ‘In the Census’. As soon as this topic came up, I instantly thought of writing about my explorations of the Norwegian Census records. I thought, most people will probably write about individuals in the UK Census records or even the US census records and I too have found ancestors in these records. But, the first ever person I found in a census was my Norwegian ancestor.

Some Background:

My Norwegian ancestor is an intriguing individual by the name of Charles John THOMPSON and he was my great, great grandfather on my maternal line. Growing up, I always knew that we had a Norwegian ancestor in my Mum’s family and we wean knew that his name was Charles THOMPSON.

Charles John Thompson late in his life.

Unfortunately, that was all we knew of him before his years in Australia. An interstate visit to my Great-Uncle, the family historian at the time, gave us some more information. This Great-Uncle was the grandson of Charles and had fond memories of him during his younger years. He told me the story of how Charles came to Australia: that he had been a seaman from Bergen, Norway and upon arriving in Australia he decided to jump ship and stay rather than return to Norway. He even showed me a photos. On holidays in the 1980s, my Great-Uncle had visited Bergen and tried to research Charles’ origins to no avail. However, he was asking for Charles under his anglicised name of Charles John THOMPSON. So how was this man going to be found?

In the Census:

Before I could find Charles in the census, I had to confirm that the family story was true and that he was actually from Norway. So, as a beginning family history researcher I took everything with a grain of salt and ordered the marriage certificate of my maternal grandparents to confirm their parents names. All the names lined up with those I had been given by the family, so I went the next step and ordered the certificates for my grandmothers parents to check the names on those. And I had hit pay dirt: on my great grandfathers birth certificate his father is listed as one Charles John THOMPSON, born in Bergen Norway. I then went a step further and ordered the marriage and death certificates of Charles John THOMPSON. The marriage certificate was an absolute bust: one of those lovely certificates with lots of blank fields that tell you nothing; but the death certificate confirmed Charles’ birth place as Bergen, Norway and even had a Father’s name included. And then I had a new problem: the father’s name was Thomas THOMPSON, talk about a needle in a haystack. This was going to be impossible to find.

For some time, I mulled this new information over in my mind before attempting to figure out how to go any further with the little information I had. Every time I thought about it, I put it back in the too hard basket. I mean, how was I going to find MY Charles John THOMPSON with a father called Thomas THOMPSON in Norway when I didn’t know where to start and had no comprehension of Norwegian. But then when I was messing around on Ancestry one day I discovered the message boards and what do you know there was a message board for the Bergen area in Norway. So, I bit the bullet and wrote a post asking for help to find my Charles John THOMPSON. And wonder of wonders, someone actually replied. This person, from Norway, suggested that Charles had anglicised his name upon or shortly after arriving in Australia. She had done a search for me under the name Karl Johann THOMASSEN and found a hit in a small rural area of Bergen. There it was in black and white: a Karl J. THOMASSEN age 8 living with his parents Thomas THOMASSEN and Kristine OLSDATTER as well as some siblings.

Christening record for Carl Johan Thomassen

But was this MY Karl? He was the right age and was born in the right area and had the right father’s name. This kind hearted fellow researcher did one more digging and followed the Thomas THOMASSEN in question through the census records, in which he continued to live in the same locality until his death in 1901. In the death records, the relatives of Thomas were mentioned: including his son Karl who was living in Australia. This was it, I had finally found my Norwegian ancestor. From there I managed to find Charles/Karl in the christening records and in the 1875 census in which he is listed as a seaman, but he doesn’t appear in the 1885 census.This helped me narrow down when he left Norway for Australia.

A note on Norwegian names:

For those that aren’t familiar with Norwegian family history research, up until the late 19th century patronymic naming was used. This meant that the surname changed every generation, with a child taking the name of their father followed by -sen (son) or -datter (daughter). When marrying, the bride continued to be known by her patronymic name. Therefore on the 1865 census we have my family listed as: Thomas THOMASSEN (head of the house); Katrina OLSDATTER and Karl J. THOMASSEN. The THOMASSEN indicates that Karl’s father is Thomas (i.e. he is the son of Thomas) as is his grandfather (Thomas the son of Thomas). His mother’s surname OLSDATTER indicates that her father’s name was Ole. These names could change every generation based on the father’s first name.

First name’s also contain hints to grandparents names, as traditionally the eldest son and daughter are named after the paternal grandparents and the second son and daughter are named after the maternal grandparents. Later on, great-grandparents names would added to the mix. Farm names could also be tacked onto names as could occupations. It’s also important to note that standardised spelling of names wasn’t introduced until the 1860s and spelling varied widely across regions.