Hallo! I’m afraid this is a longshot, but I’m from the United States and I’m trying to research my ancestry. My great-great-grandfather was born 15-Mar-1824. We have conflicting information about if he was born in Sweden or Norway. My great-aunt always said that her father told her that my GG-Grandfather was born in Bausland, Sweden. However, his Civil War discharge paperwork says that he was born in Norway and my DNA results show that I don’t have any Swedish heritage, but 63% Norwegian. Therefore, I’m thinking that my GG-Grandfather was probably born in Norway.

The other thing that makes tracking down my GG-Grandfather’s ancestry difficult is that he changed his name sometime after the Civil War. His discharge papers list his name as Andrew Anderson. But the story goes that he and his neighbor in western Wisconsin had the same name and that their mail kept getting mixed up. Therefore, my GG-Grandfather decided to change his name to Andrew Walberg – his gravestone in Wisconsin says Andrew A. Walberg. Rumor has it that his middle name was Adrian or Andreas. I believe that Andrew might have been an Americanized version of Andreas.

Researching an Andrew (Andreas) Anderson born 15-March-1824 in Norway is difficult. However, I’m wondering if any clues to where he was from in Norway might have come from his picking Walberg as a last name when he changed it. About the only think I can find that might be related is a Valberg Church in Nordland Norway. I think I have found some of the birth/baptism records from Valberg Church from 1824 via the National Archives or Norway. However, I cannot make heads or tails of what is written in the archives and I don’t think there is a record for 15-Mar-1824 for a baby Anderson. Though there are a few pages that have what looks like “Walberg” written down – though that might just be referencing the Church. [https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/16694/51816/17](https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/16694/51816/17)

I was wondering if anyone from this subreddit would be able to review/translate the pages from the National Archives to determine if there is a birth/baptism around the 15-March-1824 timeframe and if so, what the names of the child/parents are.

Or if anyone has any other/better ideas on how I can track down the birthplace/parents of my GG-Grandfather I’d appreciate the guidance.

​

by jdub67a

3 comments

  1. Anderson is a Swedish name. Norway and Denmark use the -sen suffix for patronyms.

    DNA tests are unreliable at best, so I wouldn’t put any faith in them when they claim to distinguish between Scandinavian nationalities.

  2. Also keep in mind that when you are talking about 1800’s surnames were not used as we use surnames today. That his name was Anderson/Andersen only means that his fathers name was Anders (Anders-son) Up until we got navneloven (naming law) in 1923, people did not have fixed surnames. They used the name of their father as a surname, and also Often the name of the place they were living at the time.

    So you could interpret the name Walberg as that was just the name of the place or farm he lived at that time.

  3. Lots of sen became son in the USA. If you’re searching in Norway try Andersen. I agree that Valberg might be birthplace or farm he came from

Leave a Reply