Larsine "Sine" Karine Andersen

Larsine “Sine” Karine Andersen was born on April 15, 1855 to Marthe Knudsdatter Teigland and Peder Andersen Øvrebøe in Bergen, Norway. At the time her father was serving as a musketeer, presumably for the Bergenhusiske Brigade. When Sine was 10-years-old her father was working primarily as a journeyman bricklayer. The Andersen family was a small one as Peder and Marthe’s firstborn daughter of the same name, Larsine, had died at seven months old. Exactly a day after Sine’s third birthday, her one and only sibling was born, Petra Marie. Unfortunately, she died nine years later while Sine was 12-years-old.

By 1870, Sine was working as a seamstress. Within the next five years, she moved out of her parents' residence and started working as a live-in maid for the family of Anthon Johannes Wesfal Lodtz, a ship’s craftsman. Around this time a young painter moved in with her parents. His name was Carl Johan Einarsen and by 1875 she started seeing him intimately. They were married on April 17, 1876, a month before their first child was born. Their newborn daughter was named Petra Kathinka, a name likely chosen in remembrance of Sine’s deceased younger sister.

In the fall of that same year, her husband was hired as a machinist for the newly opened theater – Den Nationale Scene. The theater consumed his life. He frequently worked from seven in the morning until midnight as a machine master, stage decorator, carpenter, plumber, gas master, fire watch, and more. Sine had very little time to share with him. By 1887, she had given birth to five more children Malvin Johan (1877), Sigurd Konstantin (1880), Einar Johan Stephan (1883-83), Inga Marie (1885), and Signe Kathinka (1887).

On August 1, 1881, her 52-year-old father fell off a scaffold while working. He was brought to a hospital where he died. Unfortunately, she passed away less than a decade later. On March 20, 1890, Sine tragically died two hours after giving birth to a stillborn child. Her death must have been very hard on the family as Carl was usually away from home and their five surviving children were still young. Sine and her stillborn child were buried together on March 27, 1890. She had lived to be 34-years-old.