Norwegian connection

[bevshortt]

Hi,
I have recently had the DNA results I sent in for my Mother In Law. We have some distant matches; thats all.
My MIL has very limited information on who her Father was,she was born in UK in 1941, the daughter of an affair between her mother Kathleen Nora Dixon and a man named Anders/Andreas/Andras or something similar; no surname.
He was a harpoonist on a Norwegian ship on the Norwegian Shipping line and probably came over to the UK at this time as it was wartime.
He was born around 1900 in Norway and Kathleen was born 1917 in the UK.
When MIL was born, he wanted to see her but Kathleen was already married and this was not permitted.
He dropped money for her every week to the Norwegian Shipping Office at Southend Essex and Kathleen picked it up from there; although we are unsure how long this went on for.
She does know that her father was married and that his wife and two daughters were killed in Norway in the war.
MIL is nearly 80 and she would love to know a bit more about her family.
I know this is a long shot with very little info but here's hoping!
Kind regards
Beverley

[IgorStrav]

Ah, what a sad story all in all.

Does your mother in law have her birth certificate, and in which case what does it say as to father?

If her mother was married, even if her husband was away and could not possibly be the father of the child, he will be shown as such usually as all children born in a marriage are assumed to be the offspring of the husband.

But do you have a surname for the real father?

[bevshortt]

Hi, thank you for your reply.
The Fathers name on the birth certificate is her Mothers husband (who was aware) and there is no name for her birth father.
I know its going to be very difficult to find a record of him.
Kind regards
Bev

[Craclyn]

Her best chance of tracking down her family would be to take a DNA test.

[Sam Swift]

Seems as if the Norwegian whaling fleet were commandeered to undertake mine sweeping in WW2. From what I have read on various internet sites, some were employed in the English channel (sic canal) and south East of England. There would be records for these, at the National Archives of Norway, with names of sailors and ships and where they sailed, although some sites suggest that they did noy know where many ships of the whaling fleet actually were. If he was regularly leaving money in Southport, then it would seem likely that he was sailing in and out here, so maybe a search of Norwegian whalers / minesweepers arriving and departing from Southport and looking at sailors named "Anders and variations) would be worth cionsidering. Maybe then you could try and trace any you find.

Useful sites -

http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/NorwaySeamenResearch.html

http://warsailors.com/freefleet/index.html
https://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/nortraship.html

Whalers requisitioned one fleet minesweeping south east coast Britain https://www.resdal.org/Archivo/d00000a5.htm 

"The need for this type of naval units is exemplified by the fact that during the year of 1940 German mines destroyed 201 merchant ships in coastal waters. More than half of these ships struck mines on the east coast of U.K. The Norwegian naval authorities wanted more modern and bigger combatant ships transferred to our navy. However, at this critical period of the war (1940-41) the Royal Navy itself suffered from material shortage and naturally had no modern ships to transfer.

On the other hand, British naval authorities requested the Norwegian Navy to help fill the gaps as there was a general shortage of minesweepers, patrol vessels and auxiliaries for different types of naval service. Norway could actually make a contribution from the large Norwegian whaling fleet which was in the Antarctic at the time of Germany's invasion of Norway. These numerous whalers were sturdy and seaworthy ships of 300-500 tons. They were well suited for conversion to minesweepers, patrol vessels, escort vessels and different types of naval auxiliaries. A large number of these ships was requisitioned by the Norwegian government. To begin with, 16 were converted to minesweepers and patrol vessels manned by the Norwegian navy. 49 were transferred to the Royal Navy; some of these were later reinstated in the Norwegian navy. A training camp for the crews to man these ships was established in Lunen-burg, Canada. Later on, whaling vessels were commissioned for R Nor N and served throughout the war in different waters: mine-sweeping in the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal, the inner Mediterranean and along the southern and eastern coast of Great Britain. Whalers converted to patrol and escort vessels could be seen at work from Gibraltar in the south to Iceland in the north and the Irish Sea in the west. These naval ships also carried out missions involving special expeditions to Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen and Greenland as well as a few clandestine operations to Norway."
http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/NorwaySeamenResearch.html

[Sam Swift]

There was an Anders Andersen Sandvik who was a deckhand and who dronwed in the Tyne in Dec 1944 https://www.vg.no/spesial/2015/vaare_falne/index_eng.php?

There is a photo of him here https://www.krigsseilerregisteret.no/en/sjofolk/315965/default

[Sam Swift]

Some info on whaling with some useful maritime links & contacts

https://ra.brage.unit.no/ra-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/176922/Fortellinger_kystNorge_Kyst_og_havlandet_eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Google translate of part of the link in teh previous reply (bio page) says that
Hi Registration number during the war: London 25334, NY 9321.

He was Married in 1929 in Bergen with Maddel Dorthea Kjørland, b.1906 in Strandebarm and had 2 children.
Sailed M / S THALATTA. Killed in an accident in Tyne Dock, England, December 9, 1944. Buried in Strandebarm.

[SelDen]

Hi,
I have recently had the DNA results I sent in for my Mother In Law 

Hello Beverley

If you didn’t test with MyHeritage, then may I suggest you upload your test results to MyHeritage, as they seem to have better coverage of Scandinavia. Uploading will be free, but you may have to pay a small fee (there was a recent free offer but I think this has expired) to be able to contact DNA matches and to use the excellent and easy to use tools on the site such as the chromosome browser.

There should be new matches rolling in on all the sites over the next 6 plus weeks as people get around to sending in their Christmas gift test kits.

Sometimes it just takes a while for that key match to turn up to solve a mystery. When you say you have found only distant matches, how many centimorgans are you talking about? Sometimes the amount of DNA can reduce very quickly over the generations and a potential half great niece of your mother in law  may not always share that much DNA but may still be a key contact. On the other hand, especially on Ancestry, you can end up with tens of thousands of matches based in the US with no trees with less than 10 centimorgans which is not helpful.

Good luck.

[bevshortt]

Thank you so much for all of your replies. I’m gradually going through all the links so hopefully I will be able to find some more information. Once again, thanks so much
Bev