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❧ How We Got Here The Paulson Family

Referenced in the family

Mari Iversdater

b. 1842

Life

30 Jan 1842Born

Records & Research

Mari Iversdater was born 30 January 1842, the daughter of Iver Olsen (b. 1801) and Ragnhild Knutsdater (1801-1875), per the 2006 family report. Despite extensive searching of FindAGrave, FamilySearch, WikiTree, Geni, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Norwegian historical-society publications, and the Norwegian National Archives (Digitalarkivet), no public record could be matched to her on two or more independent anchors. The chief obstacle is that the report records no birthplace, and "Mari Iversdatter," child of an "Iver Olsen" and a "Ragnhild Knutsdatter," is an extremely common Norwegian patronymic combination of the 1840s; every candidate examined failed disambiguation. An independent auditor re-ran a Digitalarkivet person search and likewise could not isolate a matching record (date filter without a place anchor returns only undifferentiated noise). No new confirmed facts were established beyond the report.

No additional public records have been confirmed yet — only what the family report records.

Open questions (9)
  • What was Mari Iversdater's birthplace (parish/municipality and farm)? Without this anchor, she cannot be distinguished from the many other women named Mari Iversdatter born in Norway in 1842. The farm/parish is the single most important missing datum.
  • Did Mari Iversdater die in Norway or emigrate (e.g., to the US Upper Midwest, consistent with the Paulson family archive)? A death place or emigration record would provide a second anchor.
  • Did she marry, and to whom? No spouse or children are recorded, so no marriage/child anchor was available to confirm a candidate.
  • Is the surname/patronymic drift relevant here (Iversdater vs Iversdatter/Iversdotter; family later Paulsen/Paulson)? If Mari later took or married into the Paulson line, a married surname could surface her in US records.
  • Candidate REJECTED: Iver Olsen (b. ca. 1802, d. after 1875), husmann at Rusten nordre / Snerle in Vaaga (Vågå), Oppland, married 1827 to Ragnild SYVERSDOTTER (1801-1878), had 6 children but NO Mari and none born 1842 (children: Ole 1827, Anne 1830, Syver 1834, Ole 1837-1899, Anne 1842, Kari 1847). Mother's patronymic (Syversdotter, not Knutsdatter) and absence of a Mari b.1842 rule this family out. Source: Vågå historielag, 'Holongsøyen og Rusten gard og slekt' PDF.
  • Candidate REJECTED: the Andrews University 'Peder Olsen Wold' family history references an Iver Olsen who married Ragnhild OLSDTR. Øvregard in 1865 (wrong mother patronymic and wrong marriage decade for a daughter born 1842).
  • Candidate REJECTED: 'Randi Iversdotter' b.1842 (Geni) had parents Iver JOHNSEN and Ragnhild ELLINGSDATTER — wrong given name and wrong parents.
  • AUDITOR NOTE: An independent Digitalarkivet person search by the auditor (name Mari Iversdatter, birth 1842-01-30) did not bind the date filter and returned only undifferentiated nationwide hits — none matching. This corroborates the original 'nothing-found' conclusion: a precise Digitalarkivet match cannot be isolated without a birth region.
  • A targeted Digitalarkivet ADVANCED person search filtering by child=Mari, father=Iver Olsen, mother=Ragnhild Knutsdatter, baptism year 1842 (requires the site's JavaScript advanced form, which could not be driven with the available headless fetch within budget) is the most promising next step once a birth region is known.
Sources consulted (8)

Ancestry

Four generations back. Tap any name to recenter the chart, or open the full family tree.

Mari Iversdater b. 1842
father Iver Olsen b. 1801
father Ole Hansen 1762–1850
mother Embjor Olsdater 1765–1837
mother Ragnhild Knutsdater 1801–1875
father Knud Olsen 1756–1812
mother Anne Olsdater 1757–1812