Sigvart "Samuel" Olsen

Sigvart Ole Olsen was born on Amdal farm in He was born in Tysvær, Rogaland Norway. He immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1894. Arriving in New York at Ellis Island, he shorten his name to Olsen. Sigvart Olsen worked in construction on bridges and was also a superintendent for the apartments in which he lived. He was not naturalized into the United States until 1912. His wife, Gerda was an immigrate from Sweden. They probably met on the ship to Ellis Island. They had children when they were much older, which was rare at the time. Sigvart lived at the following addresses:

• In 1920, his address was 611 West 112th Street, Manhattan, New York, New York.
• In 1930, his address was 605 West 112th Street, Manhattan, New York, New York.

Sigvart was born in Tysvær, Rogaland Norway. Tysvær is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the Haugalandet region. The municipality is located on the Haugalandet peninsula on the northern side of the Boknafjorden, just east of the towns of Kopervik and Haugesund. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Aksdal. Other villages in the municipality include Dueland, Førre, Grinde, Hervik, Hindaråvåg, Nedstrand, Skjoldastraumen, Susort, Tysvær, and Yrke.

The Surname of Olsen:

Danish and Norwegian: patronymic from the personal name Olaf, Olav (Old Norse Óláfr, Ólafr, variant Óleifr, earlier Anleifr, from proto-Scandinavian elements meaning ‘ancestor’ + ‘heir’, ‘descendant’). Olaf has always been one of the most common Scandinavian names; it continued to be popular in the Middle Ages, in part as a result of the fame of St. Olaf, King of Norway, who brought Christianity to his country c.1030. This surname, the second most common in Norway, is also established in England, notably in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. German (Ölsen): habitational name from any of several places so named, in Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Rhineland.

History of Norwegians Immigrating to the United States

By 1840 only about 400 Norwegians had emigrated to the United States. By 1850 the number soared to about 15,000. The number declined sharply during the civil war and picked up again immediately after the end of that war in 1866. From then until the outbreak of World War I about 750,000 immigrants from Norway arrived in the United States. 1815 to 1865 the population in Norway almost doubled in 50 years.