Christine Hansen Part Two...

After coming to Utah Christine worked hard.  She never married again.  She supported herself and her children by doing laundry and sewing for others.

My Mother -in -Laws memories of her Grandmother are good ones.  She loved visiting her home on Thanksgiving and Christmas which she described as being a very clean and inviting place.

Her eldest son Alfred returned to Norway on a Mission when he was a young man and was welcomed by family members when he visited them.

Later he married Margaret Aamodt.   In 1918 Alfred died during the great Flu Epidemic.


Daughter  Signe (or Zina)  never married .  I met her when she was still living in the small house she had shared with her Mother before she passed away.

Pauli (or Parley) Lorang Larsen my children's Great Grand Father married Jane Bee .  I wish they could have known him.  He was a very fine person.  I enjoyed to sit and talk with him and he would tell me many things about his childhood.
 

He was very successful in life and earned a good living as a plumbing contractor.   He always remembered the times when he was a child and would take his wagon and collect the laundry for his Mother to do.

  One of his jobs was to take a cloth bag to the Mill where they would give him a cup of flour.  They would have to sift it seven times to get the weevil out of it.
He would follow the railroad tracks to pick up coal dropped by passing trains.  He never forgot being poor and was always ready to help others in need.

Parley and Jane Larsen with their five children. my Mother-in- Law Virginia sitting next to her Mother on the front row.

I remarked to Parley one time about how blue his eyes were and he replied with a laugh "that's what you get when you are born on an iceberg".

I think my eldest Grand Son, has inherited those blue eyes.

It was written that Christine never complained or said she wanted to go back to Norway.

Christine Hansen 1861-1940...

Christine Hansen the only daughter of  Christian Hansen and Ane Karine Jensen.  My husband's Great Grandmother was born in Oslo, Norway and died in Provo, Utah.
I wanted to share her story of  faith and sacrifice so my children can appreciate  what this Great Great Grandmother of theirs did. 
Christine married Pauli Lorang Larsen in Oslo, Norway and they were the parents of three children Alfred, Signe and Pauli Lorang  Larsen my husbands Grand Father. Along the way Pauli became Parley and his sister Signe became Zina.
Pauli Lorang Larsen   1858-1894
Pauli died in Oslo after joining the LDS Church.  Christine had become a member of the Church a year later.   The news of their conversion to their parents was not well received and they were planning on coming to America.   Pauli got sick and  died in 1894.   Christine's parents told her if she would stay in Norway and leave the Church they would take care of her and her children.  She refused and they told her that their relationship would be cut off for ever.

In1895 Christine left Norway alone with her three children.  She had a small amount of money and few possessions  and did not speak English.  When she got to Ellis Island she was afraid they would not let her through.  As she was standing in line waiting  her turn the baby (Pauli) started to cry and fuss and  the officials hurried her little family through without asking her the usual questions.
Passenger List.
The ship Furnessia was the one the family traveled on from Glasgow to New York.
No records have been found about her trip from Norway to Glasgow, Scotland.  I was told she may have lived in New York for a few months before taking the train to Utah.  She did have sponsors living in Provo they had been missionaries in Norway.

I can only imagine how difficult that trip from  Oslo, Norway to Utah would have been for a young widow with  three children.

More on this brave lady and her family later...