"Østfold: Parents of Amund Østenby (born 1540)"

[Denise Barnard]

Good day, I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm looking for any information regarding the parentage or birth of  Amund Østenby born about 1540, who married Siri Tordsdatter Tordsdatter Rødenes (Østenby) in Østfold, Norway about 1570. Thank you.

Endret Mai 16, 2018 av Denise Barnard

[Carl-Henry Geschwind]

Hi Denise:

 

As you probably already know, it is extremely difficult to find out anything reliable about Norwegians from the 1500s. For the 1600s, we have scattered tax lists, court documents, and (especially towards the end of the 1600s) probate records that allow us to piece together fairly complete genealogies at least for the more important land-holding families, but such sources are extremely sparse for the 1500s - instead, you might be lucky if someone is mentioned in a court case that reached the king or in a random document that was preserved in some archive somewhere. Thus, it is possible that we know about Amund Østenby only from his son's name (Erik Amundsen of Østenby), or perhaps he was mentioned in a single document somewhere.

 

Probably the place to start would be the "bygdebok" (local history that sets out the genealogy of all known families in a given parish). The bygdebok for Rødenes is Gårder og slekter, by R. Elwin Myhrvold. It has been digitised, but the digitised version (at https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2012102107008) is unfortunately available only to those with Norwegian IP addresses. This book may tell us how we know about Amund Østenby and where we might look for further information on him.

 

Unfortunately, I do not have a Norwegian IP address, and thus cannot help further on this. But perhaps someone on this forum who is in Norway might be so kind as to look up what the bygdebok has to say about Amund Østenby.

[Per S. Nestande]

Hi Denise.

 

You may want to change the title of this entry to something more specific, for instance "Østfold: Parents of Amund Østenby (born 1540)" or something similar. This would increase chances that someone familiar with the area or the specific family would see your question.

 

Kind regards

 

Per

Endret Mai 16, 2018 av Per S. Nestande

[Denise Barnard]

Thank you. I shall do so.

[Denise Barnard]

Can someone with a Norwegian IP address look this up for me please?  https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2012102107008)

[Jon Anders Holtan]

The farm Østenby is described on p 299 ff in the book. It says that Amund is mentioned in a document in 1591 and on some instances later. The book does not mention his wife, so I would double check the source for the Siri you mention.

 

The book states that Amund is the first known user of the farm ("oppsitter"), and that Erik Amundsen was the next. Erik, who was rather rich, was 89 years old and blind in 1666. The book does not say that Erik was the son of the same Amund who had the farm before him. While this looks like a plausible assumption at first glance, it could also be that Amund is Erik's father in law, or not at all related by kin or marriage. Amund was/is not an uncommon name.

 

Best of luck with your Norwegian genealogy - make sure you use only reliable sources.

 

[Denise Barnard]

Thank you, Jon.