Johan Johansen Lie

• 1900 US Census

Notes from Kathleen Krepeau:

The info on John Lee I sent you I pulled from a copy of his death certificate, which gives the 1864 date; his son Alvin provided the information. Funeral cards give the 1864 date. But now that I've gone back and pored through all of my notes and records, I see that the date is problematic. There is a note to the effect that another of his sons, Virgil, thought the date was 1868. From the U.S. census material, it looks like he was born in 1867 or 1868. Another typed page of notes indicates he was born June 9, 1868. I don't know who originally typed this information. It also mentions that "It is believed John Lee was born John Jorgenson." This conflicts with a page of notes written to accompany a photograph of the family that refers to him as "John (Johanson)." I also don't find any backup for my first writing that he came from Laerdal. Only "Sogn" is mentioned.

This same typed page of notes does perhaps contain a clue. It records: "According to his wife in her later years John was born in Sorgn (sic), Norway. However he told his Daughter-in-Law that as a child he rowed across the Lake to the town of Bergen with milk." I see there is a lake Hornindalsvatnet in the area, but you wouldn't be able to get to Bergen crossing it, would you? This may be a mistake of "lake" for "fjord." Or else "Bergen" was a mistake for another place with a "B" in its name. Would you have any suggestions regarding this?

I apologize for being so longwinded here, but to recap for corrected info about John Lee. Definitely born in Sogn, not necessarily Laerdal. Probably in 1868 on June 9, rather than 1864. Could have been Johan Jorgenson rather than Johan Johanson. He is in the U.S. censuses as "John Lee" from 1900 on. In those censuses we get the 1867-1868 date with a year of his arrival in the U.S. as 1890 (in one census it states 1892). A copy of his Certificate of Citizenship gives the date of February 23, 1900 with his name written as "John J. Lee."