[#53158] Lesja/Henrik Hanss. N Slette

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

Henrik Hans. N Slette 1669-1743 (compare Lesja bygdebok Vol One, side 465) is one of my husband's ancestors in Lesja. Usually when we have found the name Henrik it seems to me that there is an ancestor who came from some country in Europe other than Norway. Would anyone happen to know if that may also be true in the case of this man? I wondered with the ironworks there if he or his father may have come from somewhere else and there may be some oral tradition about it?

[Gjest Thor Bøhmer]

First a comment on Henrik often written Henrich. In a period it was a much used name and it does not necessarily means that he was a foreigner. I do not know anything about your Henrik, but there was a Hans on one of the Slette farms mentionet 1610 and father to Erik. I have a sertain feeling that this Hans was a very fit man if he had a son born 1669, but Hans could have several sons and one of them could have a son Henrik. I hope this could be a starter to more information.

[Gjest Arnfinn Kjelland]

I have not investigated the origin of personal names in Lesja in particular, but I can say that the name Henrik is not too common in Lesja before the first part of the 1700-es. I don't have access to the tax lists from Lesja from the 1600-es now, but I have the (male) census of 1664 (containing 273 names), with no one named Henrik.As you may see in the bygdebok vol. 1 page 576, a very prominent owner of the ironworks, Reinholdt Ziegler (in Lesja from 1710), had 'Heinrich' as patronym. His son, Johan Henrik born ca 1714, became the next (part) owner. The name Henrik seems to have occurred mostly in the Verket area. I do not suggest that your Henrik or others are descendants of Ziegler, but it could very well be that he and other newborn boys were named after such a prominent person in this remote mountain society.

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

Thank you for your kindness in replying and your interesting replies, especially noting that the census just 5 years before our Henrik would have been baptised shows no one named Henrik in the Lesja area. If Reinholdt Ziegler came to Lesja in 1710 our Henrik should already have been a man of forty years. I wonder if Ziegler and his predecessor masters at the mill were most often Danes or did they tend to be some Germans also?I really must take this chance to thank you particularly, Arnfinn Kjelland, for the wonderful research you have shared - the careful bygdebooks and your consistent helpful replies to people who have questions in Lesja. Recently I was so happy to find your paper One Tenant Several Landlords on the web - this type of information is so great to find, especially in English. It always astonishes me how little we in North America know about our past. So many of the immigrants were anxious for their children to do well, to assimilate, to speak English and so much fascinating history was lost to the descendants in the process. Even though the web has made things so much easier, still we North Americans usually have the language barrier to being sure we understand correctly. Each one's family story is interesting if they only knew!

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

Lesja Bygdebok Bd 1, s. 624 first column listing arbeidsfolk ved jernverk : Hans Henriks., hammersmith, 'stemna for retten 1680' - that means mentioned because he sued someone, does it?- his name and the date would make him a possible candidate to be father to our Henrik Hanss. f. 1669 but I think it is something we will never know unless there is some direct descendant who has documents or an old family Bible.

[Gjest Kjell Ove Hattrem]

It probably means *he* got sued.

[Gjest Arnfinn Kjelland]

Marilla, you are of course right in mentioning that your Henrik must have been born long before Ziegler came to Lesja. But I still believe that this name came into Lesja with the workers at the ironworks. Some of them came most likely from abroad, e.g. Sweden, which was famous for its ironworks.And you are unfortunately right in assuming that the chance of finding new evidence about this person is very little.