Even Iversen's Family

Kjersti Madsdatter & Even Iversen, my great-great grandparents

Even Iversen and his wife show up in the 1865 Norwegian census with their family.  Even is listed as a husband and farmer with land, age 41, living in Ringsaker, Norway.  His wife was 49 at the time.  Their oldest daughter, Antonette, was 16 and living away from home as a servant.  Still at home were their children: Johannes (14), Nils (8), Edvard (5) and their daughter Marta (11).

Even and Kirsti were baptized into the LDS (Mormon) church in July of 1872. Persecution against the Mormons in those days was bitter.  They first moved their family to Oslo, then called Christiania, to escape it, but being in the big city didn't help much.  Eventually persecution got so bad, it drove Even, Antonette's husband Karelius Andreasen, and Even's sons to emigrate to the United States, where they worked at the smelter in Salt Lake City for a year in order to earn enough money to send for the women and children.

And so it was that Antonette, now a 34 year-old mother of three, came to America with her young children and her mother Kirsti, now 68.  Records show their destination listed as Salt Lake with the remarks column stating "Mormon".  They arrived in Salt Lake in April, 1885.

I am descended from Even and Kirsti's son Nils Evensen (literally, Even's son).  I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 first cousins.

Nils Evensen and his wife Margrethe

I'd love to see the statistics on how many descendants they have now.  I'm pretty sure all their 5 children had representatives at the reunion.

Even and Kjersti are buried at the Elysian Burial Gardens in Murray, Utah.  A marker was installed on August 21, 1993 on Even's birthday.  The money for the marker was donated by many Evensen descendants.

Even and Kjersti's daughter Antonetta Evensdatter Andreassen (Nettie Anderson), her husband and family are buried in West Jordan, (Salt Lake County, Utah) City Cemetery. Even and Kjersti's son Johannes Evensen with some of his family are also buried there.

Their daughter Martha Evensdatter Kemp is buried with her family at Portage Cemetery, Portage, Box Elder County, Utah where her brother Edvard and some of his family are buried.

My great-grandfather, their son Nils with his wife Margrethe and one of their daughters are buried at Kline Cemetery, Kline, Colorado.

I love hearing stories about these courageous people.  I wonder what it was like for them to be persecuted for their religious faith? What culture shock, too, to come from the verdant rolling countryside of Ringsaker - by the banks of the huge Mjøsa lake, to the bleak desert mountains of Utah.  I also wonder what it was like to sail to America in 1884 and 1885 not knowing the language!