The Lavik Family Ancestry in Norway

For hundreds of years, the Laviks of Eksingedalen inhabited that Norwegian valley – north east of Bergen, south of the Sognfjord, and north west of Voss – and intermarried with families from neighboring farms.  John R. Lavik’s book “The Saga of the Lavik Family of Eksingedalen”, written almost sixty years ago with a few pages shown further in this narrative, is the definitive record up to that time of both the early Laviks and the descendants of Rev. Rasmus Lavik in America – Rasmus being John’s father.  I descend from Rasmus’ oldest sister Agatha Lavik and her husband Anders Simonson Flatekval (Ofstedal). Agathe and Rasmus were two of nine children of Anders Johanneson Lavik and Dordei Knutsdatter Vetlejord.

Rasmus is the focus on other pages on this website - due to the hundreds of photographs left by his family. But this page details the Lavik family ancestry. The following pages include a history of Rasmus and his family, and an additional page about who was in his family - and where they lived - as an aid in identifying photos in the collection, also includes details on the siblings of Agate and Rasmus.

The map below shows Lavik in Eksingedalen – and includes Flatekval, Horvik and a few other of these farms.  But Vetlejord and others are right there, but not significant enough to be shown on the map. The heading photo above is from my 1997 trip, entering Lavik on the road through Eksingadalen.

Rasmus and Agate’s Ancestry

Anders Johanneson Lavik, as well as his wife Dordei Vetlejord, were descendants of many generations of people from Eksingedalen.  The ancestor charts for Agathe and Rasmus’ father – Anders Johanneson Lavik - and for his wife and their mother - Dordei Vetlejord, are shown below.  They were created from my own family records file, created with information from John R. Lavik’s book, the Mo bygdebok, and other church records from the region.

The ancestry charts below can be understood with a rudimentary understanding of the Norwegian naming system, and the fact that their names reflected where they lived and moved. The Norwegian naming system was such that a person’s first name was their given name, the middle name was derivative of that person’s father’s name, and the third name was the name of the farm where that person lived.  So Anders’ mother is shown as Agate Knutsdatter Hermundsdal.  Agathe was her given name, Knut was her father’s name, and she was from the Hermundsdal farm.

When land changed hands, then the name of the owner changed as well.  Agathe Lavik married Anders Simonson Flatekval.  He later purchased the Meland farm and became Anderson Simonson Meland (And I have a deed that shows him with that name).  Anders then purchased the Ovstedal farm – and became Anders Simonson Ofstedal, the name with which he had when he moved to America and was the patriarch of an American Ofstedahl family.  When Anders sold the Ovstedal farm, he sold it to Knut Anderson Lavik – one of two Knuts that were brothers of Rasmus and Agate – and Knut became Knut Anderson Ofstedal.  By the end of his life, Knut had purchased a farm at Dagestad not far from Voss – and became Knut Anderson Dagestad.

Given this naming challenge, having to enter names in a system - such as the family records file that produced the two pedigree charts below - presents a challenge. Some of these challenges are shown in Dordei Vetleford’s pedigree chart below. For example one of her great-grandfather’s names was Rasmur Sjurson - Rasmus, the son of Sjur. He was born in Namdal and originally had that as his surname, but he moved to Ovre Helland and took that surname there. I have listed him in the file below as Rasmus Sjurson Namdal Ovre Helland. That signals to me where he was born, and points a researcher to where he lived as an adult - and is probably the surname by which he is shown in the local bygdebok. Confusing, but after awhile when there are two surnames listed it helps identify the life path for that person.

In the names of other ancestors in those four Lavik generations before Anders – shown below - there were ancestors from the farms of Straume, Nese, Dale, Horvik, Ovre Helland, Namdal, Aldal, Tyssen, and Horvei.  And Anders married Dordei from the adjoining farm of Vetlejord.  One of his children married a Flatekval.  This means that the family was of the valley of Eksingedalen – and the farms that were there.

Anders Simonson Flatekval Ovstedal - who married Agate Lavik - has his own ancestry in this region. Agate’s ancestry is shown in the two charts below - ancestry that is also the same for Rasmus and their siblings. Anders ancestry is shown on the page of Ostedal ancestry on this webiste.

The only early census in Norway - before the 1865 census that Rasmus is shown in on his biographical page on this site - is the 1801 census. I post the entry for Johannes Anderson Lavik and his wife Agate Knutsdatter - shown above as parents of Anders Johanneson Lavik, Anders being Rasmus and Agate Lavik (Ofstedal)’s father. He is shown below at age nine in the 1801 cenus. Anders father Johannes is shown as aige 36 and his mother Agatha is shown as age 43 - matching their birth years in the above ancestral chart.

Below is the ancestral chart for Anders wife Dordei, the mother of Rasmus and Agate Lavik. As with Anders, Dordei was my great-great-great-grandparent. The people in the column at the far right were our seventh great-grandparents. As with the chart for Anders, for Dordei there were ancestors from the surrounding farms. including those of Ovre Helland, Straume, Nygard, Bergstad, Steinsland, Kjenes, Namdal, Romarheim, Bjorgo, Brekke, and Otterstad. Anders and Dordei both had ancestors from the farms of Straume, Ovre Helland, and Namdal, although it does not appear that there are any common ancestors for each from those farms. However, as shown below, Dordei’s paternal grandfather was the brother of her maternal grandmother - so one set of great-grandparents is shown twice in the chart.

One of the other interesting personal notes about this ancestry relates to my third great grandmother Dordei Vetlejord, the mother of Rasmus and Agate. Agate’s named one of her daughters Dorothy, after her mother. This Dorothy, Dorothy Ofstedahl, died relatively young after immigrating to Minnesota, appearing to die in the birth of her sixth child. My mother, Dorothy Ofstedahl (Laird) was named after this Dorothy, her father’s aunt. Now I understand from the Norwegian research shown in the chart below, that Dorothy Vetlejord Lavik’s grandmother was named Dorothy, and her grandmother was named Dorothy. So the my mother’s name Dorothy was held in this branch of the family in every other generation. The earliest Dorothy was born sometime about the 1660’s - and I never understood until doing this research that my mother’s name was rooted in her Norwegian ancestry of over three hundred and fifty years ago.

The 1801 census entry for Dordei and her family in Vetljord is posted below, and matches the pedigree chart above. Knut Rasmusen, Dodei’s father is shown first at age 25, and her mother is shown next at age 26. Dorothy is shown as age 3 and her brother Rasmus is shown at age 1 - all these ages matching them in the chart above.

The entry below for Anders Johannes Lavik and his wife Dordei - whose ancestry is shown in the previous pedigree charts - is from the Lavik section of the Mo Bygdebok. The pedigree charts are looking back, and this entry starts the process of looking forward.

The entry above shows nine children for Anders and Dordei, including Agate and Rasmus. In the family section on another page on this website, I list the American families and locations for each of the children shown here who immigrated. The text above the family indicates the facts around Anders’ acquisition of the farm, and the text below shows that he sold the farm to his son John the year before he died. John was one of the three children of Anders and Dordei who remained in Norway, and descendants of his live on the Lavik farm to this day - and are pictured a little further along in this narrative.

This book that contains the entry above on Anders and Dordei is in Norwegian, so that f. and a date indicates a birth date. d. and a date indicates a death date. g. and a date indicates a marriage year. “Til USA” and a year indicates a year of immigration to the United States. And a farm name plus br., such as above Flatekval br. 1, means the Flatekval Farm bruk one, or one of the different areas on a farm.

As shown above, two of the family died at a relatively young age, and appear to have had no children.  That leaves seven children who lived to adulthood.

Four of these seven of Anders and Dordei’s children – Rasmus and siblings Agate, Knute and Torbjorg – all immigrated to America in the 1870’s and 1880’s.  Torbjorg was childless, Rasmus married first at age thirty-two once in America and had ten children between two wives, all of Agatha’s seven children who survived to adulthood were born in Norway and immigrated before or with her to America – and Knut came last, immigrating in the mid-1880’s, having had eleven children – two dying at a young age, two remaining in Norway and the other seven coming to America.

The remaining three children of Anders and Dordei remained in Norway – Johannes, Maria, and a second Knut.  Of those three siblings of Rasmus and Agate who remained in Norway, it appears that four of their children immigrated to America: Halvord, son of Maria and Johannes Halvardson Flatekval, born in 1861 and according to the Mo Bygdebok was married and had many children; Johannes, born 1856 and died in 1929, son of Johannes Andersson Lavik and Kari Andersdatter Kyte, who appears to have come to America and gone to Augsberg Seminary in Minneapolis; Maria (born in 1865 and died in 1901), also a child of Johannes and Kari, who appears to have married Mens Andreas Klyve and their daughter Kari came to the United States; and the fourth child who immigrated was Marie, born 1879 and the daughter of the Knut Andersson, who lived in Ovstedal, Vaele, and Dagestad.

In the page on the locations of the family, I list the entire family of Agate, Rasmus, and their siblings, because in the scope of trying to identify photographs in the Lavik collection included on this website – knowing which family members were in America and might be the subject of any of these photos will be helpful. Additionally, it’s important to mention the families that are related or intermarried with the Laviks, as there are likely photos from those families. 

As stated previously, one of the families who “intermarried” was the family of Anders Simonson Ofstedal, who married Agate Lavik, Rasmus’ oldest sister. Anders is mentioned previously about how he acquired the Ofstedal farm and thus the name.  Their family is shown in a bygdebok entry as well - posted below. It is the only one of two of Rasmus’ siblings to have their “own” bygebok page.

The Ofstedals above will be shown throughout the Lavik pages here, as the Lavik photo collection contains a few photos of them - and Rasmus immigrated in 1871 with one of the Ofstedal brothers. Tjorborg immigrated in 1878 with her sister Agate and the last of that Ofstedal family.

The other of Rasmus’ siblings to have a bygdebok reference was his brother Knut, who married Ingeborg Flatekval. Knut purchased Ovstedal from Anders and Agate not long before they left for America. He ended up moving to Vele, and spending the last years of his life in Dagestad outside of Voss. The first reference to him was in the Ovstedal section of the Evanger bygdebok, posted just below:

The second reference to Knut was in the Dagestad bygdebok volume 4, page 474, in a listing for Bruk 3: “Knut Andersson Vele, Evanger, kjøpte 1888 garden for 6400 kronor. Han var f. 1838 på Lavik, Eksingdalen, og g. m. Ingebjørg Hallvardsdr. Flatekvål, f. 1840. Ho døydde 1908 og han 1917. Dei hadde borni: Dortea f. 1866, g. m. blekkmakar Karl Ingebriktson, sjå bruk 33 Lekve, Anders f. 1869, g. 1891 m. Anna Nilsdr. Saude, bur på Saude, Maria f. 1873, g. 1904 m. Johannes Knutson Farestveit, sjå bruk 20 Lekve, Hallvard f. 1882, g. 1907 m. Anna Andersdr. Nestås, Anna f. 1877, lærarinne på Voss, og Johan. Hallvard fekk garden i 1905 for 2200 kronor. Han har vore med i heradsstyret.” It should be noted that this Knut appears in the Lavik Photo Collection with a photo in Item #100. The reference to him here is noted there.

There were other families intermarrying with the Laviks as well.  Ingeborg Tuff was the first wife of Rasmus Lavik, and her sister married Simon Ofstedal.  So the Tuffs as well as the Ofstedahls intermarried, and in the photo batch there have already been Ofstedahls identified, and there are possibly Tuffs. 

Antonette Haugen was the second wife of Rasmus, and the Haugens were clearly a family that that were represented in the photo batch.  Her sister Karen married Peter Mattson, and they and their two daughters and families are the subjects of many photographs.

Sophia Bergh married John Lavik.  It’s clear that there was one Bergh photo in the original batch before it was sent to me, which is why the Steinbergs acquired these photos, although I don’t know that there are more Bergh-related photos here.  I suspect the Steinbergs would have kept them if there were.

The Rasmus Lavik family, the families of his siblings, and those families who intermarried – are likely the subjects of many of these photographs, so detailing their lives and locations might help their identification.

Rev. John R. Lavik on Lavik Ancestry From His “The Saga of the Laviks of Eksingadalen” Book

As mentioned in the opening of this page, the Rev. John R. Lavik, son of the Rev. Rasmus Lavik, authored a book sixty years ago titled “The Saga of the Laviks of Eksingadalen”. I am going to post the pages from the beginning of that book about the Lavik ancestry in Norway. While there are limited specifics in this section - he gets into specific biographies later in the book - it is a good story of where the Laviks were and what we might know about the ancestry. I decided to post it after posting the ancestral charts above - because this section will give them some context.

In consulting the Bygdebok entries for the Lavik farm, some of the earliest entries are in the decades after 1600. The first names seem to be Anders and Johannes - I did not find an Ingebrect or Vermund, but there was an Ingrebrecht in one of the first families in Lavik.

Visiting Lavik and the Eksingadalen Valley

In 1997, I visited Norway.  I arrived in Oslo, and after a few days, took the train to Voss.  I had gotten in touch with the head of the Voss Historical Society.  He travelled with me to the Ovstedal farm, and his son’s girlfriend – a graduate student who had studied in the United States – traveled with me to the Eksingadalen Valley, where we stopped in both Flatekval and Lavik and visited with a Lavik family at the Lavik farm.  There was a late season snow (it was in the latter part of April) – and the rental car agency took the car back to put the snow tires back on.  The photos of my visit show snow, but it was already light for roughly eighteen hours a day.

This postcard, which I got when I was in Norway in 1997, reads something like "Greetings from Eksingdalen".  It happens to be a photograph of Flatekval – and you can see the church and the cemetery next to it.  The road is the road that was built through the valley in the late nineteenth century – not all that long after our family members immigrated to America. I have posted a photo from the celebration of completing the road as far as Flatekval ca 1890 - in the Ofstedahl cover page..

This is a photograph of Aage and Brita Lavik seeing us off from their house in Lavik in 1997. Aage is a descendant of John Lavik, the brother of Rasmus and Agate.

When I went into homes in the Eksingadalen Valley, I saw old chests at some of them. This chest, photographed in 1997 at the house of Aage and Brita Lavik in Eksingadalen, shows the date of 1846 and appears to have the name of J. A. "Ladvig". John A. Lavik, an ancestor of Aage, was the brother of Agate and Rasmus Lavik. He told over the Lavik farm from his father in 1847, and his father died in 1848. This chest was dated 1846. I originally thought it was a marriage chest of some sort, but John did not marry until 1851.