{"id":10301,"date":"2026-02-07T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/?p=10301"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:02:01","slug":"when-two-oles-share-a-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/when-two-oles-share-a-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"When Two Oles Share a Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avoiding the wrong ancestor in your family tree can be harder than it looks, even when you feel you have \u201csolid\u201d facts in front of you. A recent conversation with a reader reminded me just how easy it is to latch onto the first promising candidate and build an entire line on someone else\u2019s great-grandfather.<\/p>\n

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We had been working together on his ancestor Ole Johnsen<\/a>, a Norwegian emigrant to South Africa, whose story \u2013 at first glance \u2013 seemed wonderfully straightforward. There was a tombstone with a clear birthdate, a marriage certificate that stated his place of birth as \u201cRomsdal ampt (amt) (now M\u00f8re og Romsdal county)\u201d, and access to the Norwegian digital archives.\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

Quite a lot, as it turned out.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t already, you should read the story about Norwegians in the Boer war: A small nation in a distant conflict.<\/a><\/p>\n

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When the facts seem to line up a little too<\/em> nicely<\/h3>\n

My reader did exactly what we are all encouraged to do:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Start from known information.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Work backwards in time.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Use original records where possible.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    He took the birth date from the tombstone and the county of birth from the marriage certificate and went to the parish registers in the Norwegian archives.<\/p>\n

    There he found what looked like the perfect match:<\/p>\n