Rasmus and Karen Hansen - Ancestors and Descendents

This book revises and adds to the original “Rasmus and Karen Hansen” published in 2004. Errors in the first edition about Karen’s Norway family have been corrected. Research tools now available on the Internet and “Family Search” enabled discovery of Rasmus parents and family dating to the 17th Century. Karen’s family could trace their ancestry to nobility, the first King of Norway, Viking King Harold Fairhair according to information found in the history of Brottum parish. Social and economic conditions in the 18th century motivated immigration. Hans Rasmussen, father of Rasmus worked in near serfdom on one farm his entire life. In Norway Hans Engebretsen, Karen’s father, moved from farm to farm. Lack of opportunity to acquire farm land was true in both Denmark and Norway. Denmark’s rigid social classes prevented upward mobility.