Hi Lori, You need to find a mailing list in Norway for Ostfold or Vestfold at Rootsweb or join the Norway one and post all your known information to see if anyone can help you. You have five names. I started with three and now number over 10,000 but perhaps more like 20,000. Very few people had surnames so people were known by their first name, who their father was and where they lived. You need to look at the Mormon site, the Norwegian Census and other sites you can find on the Internet. Surnames came in about 1925. Ole Krog's father was Johan and Elen's father was Soren. As you are in the USA, there might be books available for Vestfold in a library near you and the same for the area Forstraden was in. My ancestors lived on farms so it was easy for me. How things worked in towns and cities might be harder. Regards John Reed On 13/06/2014 4:17 p.m., Lori Adkins wrote: > Norwegian family history, > > I was wondering if anyone has done any family research in Norway as it can get very confusing. > > One of my ancestors Otto Frederick OLSEN immigrated to NZ from Norway in the 1800's settled in Timaru and died in Auckland. I was trying to trace his family back in Norway. > > Otto was born in Forstraden, which I believe is now Fredrikstad, his father was Ole Krog Johansen born 1799 in Borre, Vestfold, Norway and Otto's mother was Elen Sorensdatter born in Skjeberg Parish, Ostfold County, Norway. >