Six Osmundsen family members voyaged to New York in 1893

Six Osmundsen family members voyaged to New York in 1893

• Jul 08, 2021
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A big question we are trying to understand is why some members of the Osmundsen/Eilertsen family chose to resettle in the United States while others did not. 

We know that Jskob and Camilla stayed in close contact with their families back home, and made multiple trips back to visit. Nor were they the only family members living in New York. There were cousins from Spind in New York and in midwestern locales like Milwaukee. 

I earlier mentioned a cousin Bernt Odd Kollevoll who kept the photo album I found with family photos. He lived on Staten Island, across the then-unbridged Narrows from the Eilertsens in Bay Ridge. 

I'll begin posting the documentation that we have relating to the Eilertsen family's adventures at sea, either as crew or passengers, starting with this March 1893 manifest from the SS Venetia inbound to New York from Kristiansand, Norway.

Eilert Osmundsen and six male relatives are among 424 passengers, all listed as sailors by occupation (but not necessarily working as crew) with a last place of residence given as Farsund.

Besides Eilert (Jakob Eilertsen's father), I recognize the names of Osmund A Osmundsen, his brother, and Zakarias Karlsen, his brother-in-law. I have not yet positively identified the other three names listed with them but I expect them to be more distant relatives. 

All six passengers are listed with an intended destination of New York and intended stay of "Protracted Sojourn."

It seems that as early as 1893 this group of Osmundsens was already serving as an advance scouting party for a possible family transatlantic relocation.