Is anyone an expert on Norway?

[Timbottawa]

Hi Lindsell,

Thanks for your offer.  I now have copies of the two birth certificates in question (actually, I don't have them, because at the time of the original query, I was in the process of moving from Canada to Thailand, and so had "no fixed address" - so I ordered the certificates to be sent to a cousin - he has them, and has reported the details!).

Anyway .... the girl, Mary Jane Noble, was born 16/1/1857, as her age in the 1871 census suggested she might be, but her birthplace is given as Christiania, not Leeds as per the census record.  Her brother, Robert Noble, was born 16/1/1859, also in Christiania.  Strangely, both were registered on the same day, 16/1/1860 (just a coincidence that this was Robert's 1st birthday, I wonder?).  As I understand it, Christiania is a district of Copenhagen, from where the British Consulate covered British affairs in Norway.  But Robert's birth in subsequent censuses is "Norway".  It seems the listed birthplace must have just been some bureaucratically convenient fiction!

Unfortunately, these overseas certificates provide no address for the parents, so I have no way of knowing where the family was actually living, though seemingly, in Norway.

Also strange is the fact that in the 1851 and 1871 censuses, the father, William Noble, was a manager of a mill.  I had gathered from some internet research that in the mid-19th century there were efforts to develop a textile industry in Norway, so I'd assumed that he had been "posted" overseas to help set up a mill.  However, on the birth certificates his occupation is "ropemaker"!! 

So, as far as I can see, I'm at a dead-end, because there seems to be little hope of finding where they were actually living in the late 1850's/early 1860's - unless there was a Norwegian census in which they might appear - but it would need to be indexed by name!

Thanks again for your kind offer, but unless you can discenr something I've overlooked or misinterpreted, I don't think I can take this further.

Cheers
Tim

[Timbottawa]

You've made me ponder some more over the strange entries on the birth certificates.  What I suspect may have happened, is that the parents, living somewhere in Norway, realised that their two young children needed to be registered (perhaps they were "encouraged" by the Norwegian authorities to confirm that the children were not Norwegian citizens).  To avoid having to actually travel to Denmark for what I'm sure they viewed as a troublesome bureaucratic necessity, I hypothesize that they sent what they thought was the necessary information.

That information may have omitted their address, place of birth of the children, and father's occupation, and rather than going to the bother of requesting clarification, the registrar in Christiana may have made up  convenient entries for birthplace and father's occupation.

Just trying to visualize the process in the mid 19th century!

Tim

[loo]

I can vouch for Christiania being a district of Copenhagen, as it's still there, and I was there once. 

[Lindsell]

Christiania was the old term for Oslo and was used until the 1920s.

[Lindsell]

So the children were born in Oslo, then Christiania and there is no question of them being registered in Denmark. They might well have been baptised in the Anglican church in Christiania/Oslo,  St. Edmund's Church - address Møllergate 30, Oslo. Norway
website: www.osloanglicans.net

[Timbottawa]

Well, thanks Lindsell for clearing up a major misunderstanding on my part.  I'll certainly try to pursue the baptism information, as I'm sure they would have used the Anglican church.  I see there is an email address for the church - but would they likely still hold the old parish records, and do you think they would entertain such a query?

Thanks
Tim

[Lindsell]

I should imagine the best thing to do would be to send an e-mail and ask the incumbent  where the registers for the relevant period are. If there is then an offer to search so much the better, if not then let me know and I will see what I can do through the National Archives.

[Timbottawa]

Great - thanks, will do!

Tim

[loo]

Christiania was the old term for Oslo and was used until the 1920s.

Fascinating.  So there are, in effect, 2 Christianias!

If you can't find the records easily, the librarians at the National Library speak English.