Ingeborg Rollefsdatter Holtet was born 20 December 1851 to parents Rollef Torstensen Holte and Liv Olsdatter Hagna in Sauherad, Telemark, Norway1. She was baptised on the first of January 1852, the first baby listed as baptised in that parish for the year1.
When she was born, she had two older brothers: Torsten (1846) and Ole (1849). She was joined by more brothers: Rollef (1854), John (1858), Jens (1861), Tollef (1864) and Ole (1866) and a sister Kari (1856). She had two brothers named Ole born 20 years apart. They were known in the family as Big Ole and Little Ole.
When she was 14, during the 1865 census, she was living away from her family on Borgerdas farm in the Sauherad parish3. The other people living at this farm were a young couple (Ole Iversen and Ingeborg Pehrsdatter) with a one year old baby (Gunilla Olsdatter), so it is possible that she was helping out with the baby, or working as a nanny.
She was confirmed on 21 October 18662. The confirmation records indicate two things, one that she had been vaccinated on 19 August 1853, and the other was her grade. While some students received a very good or good +, Ingeborg was one that received a “good”. So perhaps her religious studies were not her focus at that time.
When she was 23, on 24 April 18754, she and her brothers Torsten, Big Ole and Rollef emigrated to America. This was not a usual time for Norwegian emigration as the US was in the midst of the long depression (1873-1879)15. However, perhaps it was the promise of land, women could also own land in the US so long as they worked the acreage, or the abundance of work as Minnesota was prospering and Norwegian jobs were being taken away through industrialization16. Her parents and her other siblings joined them in 1880.
Within just three years of arriving in Minnesota, in 1878, Ingeborg met and married another Norwegian originally from the same county in Norway John Hansen Torgersen10.
John and Ineborg remained living in Lac qui Parle, Minnesota for the next 30 years5-7. After that, John is listed in Clearwater county, first in Greenwood8, then in Leon9, but always as a farmer. On their farm, John and Ingeborg raised seven children, six girls and a boy: Anne Louise (1879), Lena Maria (1881), Emma Janette (1883), Hilda Randine (1885), Tilda Caroline (1887), Henry Rudolf (1890) and Ingeborg Oleana (1892). They remained in Lac qui Parle in the Baxter Township until after 1900.
By 19109, the children had left home and John and Ingeborg were living on their own on a farm in Greenwood Township in Clearwater. However, in 192010, Henry and Hilda were both living with John and Ingeborg on the farm in Leon, Clearwater.
After John died in 1926 Ingeborg lived first with her son Henry and his family in Leon11, and then with her daughter Ingeborg and her husband Solomon “Sam” Thompson in Pine Lake12, Clearwater.
Ingeborg died at the age of 90 from chronic myocardia with auricular fibrillation. On the death certificate it is noted that she had the condition for a duration of only two months13. It sounds like she lived a full and healthy life up until that time. She is buried next to her husband at the Silver Creek Cemetery in Lac qui Parle14.
Link to Ingeborg Rollefsdatter Holte in genealogy.
1Baptisms. Norway. Sauherad, Telemark. HOLTET, Inegborg Rollefsdatter. 01 January 1852. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/5983/7: accessed April 2019.
2Confirmations. Norway. Sauherad, Telemark. HOLTET, Ingeborg Rollefsdatter. 21 October 1866. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/5983/144: accessed April 2019.
3Census. 1865. Norway. Sauherad, Telemark. BORGERDAS, Ingeborg Rollefsdatter. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/38139/95: accessed April 2019.
4Parish records: In and Out Migrated. Norway, Sauherad, Telemark. HOLTE, Ingeborg Rollefsdatter. 24 April 1875. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/view/5984/176: accessed April 2019.
5Census. 1880. USA. Baxter, Lac qui Parle, Minnesota. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBK-8Q?i=4&cc=1417683: accessed April 2019.
6Census. 1885. USA. Baxter, Lac qui Parle, Minnesota. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DBB7-ZYN?cc=1503044: accessed April 2019.
7Census. 1895. USA. Baxter, Lac qui Parle, Minnesota. http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed April 2019.
8Census. 1900. USA. Baxter, Lac qui Parle, Minnesota. http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed April 2019.
9Census. 1910. USA. Greenwood, Clearwater, Minnesota. http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed April 2019.
10Census. 1920. USA. Leon, Clearbrook, Clearwater, Minnesota. http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed April 2019.
11Census. 1930 USA. Leon, Clearwater, Minnesota. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRHJ-TKX?i=11&cc=1810731: accessed April 2019.
12Census. 1940 USA. Pine Lake, Clearwater, Minnesota. http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed April 2019.
13Deaths (CR) USA. Clearwater, Minnesota. 8 May 1942. TORGETSON, Ingeborg. No. 2829
14Monumental inscriptions. USA. Silver Creek, Clearbrook, Clearwater, Minnesota. 27 November 1926. TORGERSON, Ingeborg. https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2010/110/51450907_127190893990.jpg: accessed April 2019.
15http://www.emmigration.info/norwegian-immigration-to-america.htm
