Happy new year!!
On the trail of Christian Falk from Norway!
My brilliant contact in Norway, working on this story for over a year, has been collecting data surrounding my DNA matches and has turned up trumps! A Eureka moment for me after almost 20 years of ancestry research.
So many mistakes I made by following the wrong Christian(without proper varification) in the romantic hope he was the one I was looking for have been disappointing. Leading me to delete from my tree back to Christian marrying his Elizabeth Biggs in1868. Along with the entires made in the front of the bible, I know from 1868 forward I had the right guy and was able to verify this with Census and certifications, along with newspaper articles and help from other members on the tree that gave me valuable snippets to add to my collection. I reached out to many many matches and now I feel confident to share the findings that would never have been discovered had it not been for the DNA matches and to the kindest of others who also took the test. I have also uploaded my DNA to Geni.
Christian Falk was not his real name, it was in fact Iver Einerson. He must have changed his name at the time of becoming a Naturalised British Subject. Quite possibly this was because he had committed a crime or had fathered illegitimate children, also a crime in Norway. He did indeed come from the area of Norway mentioned in later Police service reports and articles.
He was a member of the sea military (Navy) and jumped his ship The Vogt, skipper Selmer and became a deserter 8 aug 1865 in Swansea UK. He then took a new name Christian Falk, it was most likely a schoolfriend or neighbours name. There are lots of documents on the Geni website that can be opened. They are hard to read, but I am getting help to translate them, so will add this to the site. There is an actual Christian Falk from quite a renowned family in the area so that may be why he chose it. They have their own story.
I have much to learn about him and new searches to make prior to 1868 with the name Iver Einersen. The Norwegian system is very difficult to read, but I have help now which has been amazing.
Iver/Christian has family in Norway and there is a particular lady now living in Trondheim who has also taken the test and she has Iver in her tree, along with other DNA matches.
This lady had been researching her ancestry with the help of family members for the last 50years! Always drawing a blank on Iver/Christian at the same time in history that I also drew a blank. She had almost given up on him as had I. Then up pops this DNA idea and thankfully lots of people (if they choose to) all over the world are entering their details. Iver/Christian is the brother to her Great grandmother! She and I have been exchanging out Tree stories and some photos, it has been so satisfying after all these years. What is also remarkable, is that my contact in Norway found out that she lives 10mins from him in Trondheim and he visited her..
The world is not so large after all.
Never give up!
Kindest regards
Caroline