Seeking reassurances about my Norwegian ancestors

[74916]

Greetings. My name is Michael Pomerantz, an American, retired, educational psychologist currently living in Derbyshire, England and researching my Norwegian family.

Thank you for my DIS-Norge membership. As I recall one of the conditions of membership is being able to access some introductory consultation support for new members. This is where I would really appreciate some assistance. I am seeking someone fluent in both Norwegian and English who would be willing either offer us some reassurances about the ancestry data we are acquiring or else advise that we abandon what we are doing.

I have already looked at some of what your website offers for amateur genealogists like myself and want now to ask where best to position or direct my questions to anyone in your organisation who might be able to assist with our family research. We are not asking for someone to do the research work but merely to advise on the best methodology with which to proceed.

I have been working on constructing a paper family tree since the 1960s focusing primarily on our Norwegian ancestors. I have been to Trondheim and have worked with archivists there. Back at home in England I have memberships in these online family history organisations: MyHeritage, GENi, Ancestry and 23andMe which works closely with DNA data. As of last summer we were very confident of our Norwegian history going back three generations to Ole Martinus Jakobsen of Trondheim based upon photographs, census data, letters, site visits, etc. Attached is a 1900 photograph of Ole surrounded by six of his children. One is my maternal grandfather. This, I hope, sets the context for what follows.

Membership of the MyHeritage organisation has helped us to build up a family tree that now has 900 family members in it. If you have a membership with MyHeritage you may be able to see our tree at:
https://www.myheritage.com/site-2776335 ... lheim-tree

MyHeritage have identified over 5000 SmartMatches where someone in our family tree appears to have a position in the family tree of another MyHeritage member. Many of these are mutually confirmed which means that the other member is also acknowledging the accuracy of the match. These involve records dating back to the 1500s.

GENi is another organisation (owned by MyHeritage) which is now claiming that it can trace our Norwegian, Danish and Swedish ancestry back much further. If you look at this website you can see what is being evidenced and linked back 28 generations to Elizaveta - Elisif Yaroslavna (born around 1032) in Kiev.

http://www.geni.com/people/Elizaveta-El ... 3350115352

If you cannot access this data here is a summary:

Elizaveta - Elisif av Ryssland of Kiev (Yaroslavna), of Kiev Queen of Norway MP
Russian: Єлисавета Ярославна of Kiev (Yaroslavna), of Kiev Queen of Norway
Birth: circa 1032
Kiev, Kiev Rus (present Ukraine)
Death: 1070 (34-42)
Østlandet (East-Norway), Norway
Immediate Family:
Daughter of Yaroslav l "The Wise", Grand Prince of Kiev & Novgorod and Ingegerd Olofsdotter
Wife of Harald III "Hard ruler", king of Norway
Partner of Sweyn II Estridsen Ulfsen of Denmark
Mother of Maria Haraldsdotter; Ingegerd Haraldsdotter Princess of Denmark and Elizabeth Haraldsdotter
Sister of Vladimir Grand Prince of Novgorod; Anastasia of Kiev / Queen of Hungary; Iziaslav Dmitri Yaroslavich Rurikids, Grand Duke of Kiev; Svyatoslav II Yaroslavich; Vsevolod I Yaroslavich prince of Kiev and 3 others
Half sister of Ilja* Yaroslavich of Kiev, Prince of Novgorod

Elizaveta - Elisif Yaroslavna is your 28th great grandfather's partner.

Michael Pomerantz (me)

→ Elizabeth Pomerantz

your mother → Jakob Isak Solheim

her father → Ole Martinus Jacobsen, Misvær

his father → Jacob Andreas Hansen Blix, Misvær

his father → Hans Monsen Blix, D.Y.

his father → Mons Hansen Blix

his father → Hans Monsen Blix, D.E.

his father → Mons Larsen Blix

his father → Lauritz Hanssøn Blix

his father → Hans Lauritzen Blix

his father → Lauritz Mogensson Blix

his father → Mogens Olofsson Blix

his father → Olof Jönsson Blix

his father → Jens Kettilsen Bjerme

his father → Kettil Joensson Blix, i Bjärme

his father → Jon i Bjärme

his father → Birgitta Gunnbjørnsdatter Tengs

his mother → Gunnbjørn Tordson Tengs

her father → Tore Gardson

his father → Ramborg Knutsdotter "Frilledatter" Hafridssonætt

his mother → Knut Algotsson (Bengt Hafridssons ätt)

her father → Kristina Tolvesdatter

his mother → Tolve Petersson

her father → Hafrid Sigtryggsdotter (Boberg)

his mother → Kristina Magnusdotter

her mother → Magnus Bengtsson Minnesköld

her father → Bengt Folkesson Snivel

his father → Ingegerd Knudsdatter af Danmark

his mother → Knud IV "den hellige", konge af Danmark

her father → Sweyn II Estridsen Ulfsen of Denmark

his father → Elizaveta - Elisif Yaroslavna

his partner


Can any members of DIS-Norge put us into contact with anyone who would be able to advise as to how much confidence we should place upon these findings. When we started this research we had no idea that we might travel so far back in time. If your own research led you to similar findings what would your reaction be???? If you cannot access the above GENi data I can you an EXCEL summary spreadsheet (going back to the year 1032) as an attachment to an email enquiry.

In advance thanks for any assistance you can offer.

If I have posted this message to the wrong section of Slektsforum please advise.

If email communication is preferable here is my address:

[email protected]


Michael Pomerantz

[Ivar Ståle Ertesvåg]

Can any members of DIS-Norge put us into contact with anyone who would be able to advise as to how much confidence we should place upon these findings. When we started this research we had no idea that we might travel so far back in time. If your own research led you to similar findings what would your reaction be???? If you cannot access the above GENi data I can you an EXCEL summary spreadsheet (going back to the year 1032) as an attachment to an email enquiry.

Welcome to the forum!

I do not know this line (that is, I have read Snorre Sturlason's "Heimskringla" and some other literature on which the elder links might be based on).
However, the trial question is: - what are the sources? - are there any sources?

If a link is presented/claimed with no (or weak) sources, the link is not trustworthy.
Most likely, you will have several problems along this line.
In general, neither Geni or MyHeritage are regarded as reliable, simply because a lot of "eager" family collectors post information without reliable sources. By doing that, they also spoil the potential trustworthiness of careful participants (if any).

[dn07176]

Welcome to the forum.

I will second Ivar's comments regarding the trustworthyness of sites like Geni or MyHeritage. In my experience, the reliability drops fast as soon as you move back in time a few centuries.

I took a quick look at some of it and it's riddled with problems:

First check I did was on Birgitta Gunnbjørnsdatter Tengs - on Geni listed as born 1424 and mother of Jon i Bjärme, born about 1410! Not to mention that Tengs is in Rogaland in SW Norway, and Bjärme is in Jämtland, 700 kilometers away. Litterature lists Birgitte as married on Hjelmeland in Rogaland, something that seems more likely to me, and this appears to be backed by source studies by reliable genealogists. Add to this the fact that, as far as I've found, no ancestry of Jon in Bjärme is known and he himself is only known through the patronyms of his children...

The second check I did was the Blix line. There seems to be uncertainity about the parents of Lauritz Mogensson Blix, and I have found no sources confirming his parents.

Lastly, the last generations listed as Blix (Jacob Andreas Hansen) do not seem to use the Blix name. Counting backward, the first person I encounter that uses the Blix name is "Hans Monsen Blix, D.E." from your list.

If I were you, I'd start here, by confirming Jacob's origin, and then work back doing "proper genealogy". For that I'd suggest starting off in the Skjerstad subforum.