Compiled by Kirsten Kingdon, June 2026, tracing the ancestors of Ebbe Berg and Dorothy Halverson — most of whom rest in Gjerpen Cemetery near Manitowoc, Wisconsin, named for the parish in Telemark, Norway that so many of them left behind. Names in italics are collateral relatives, not direct ancestors.
The 4th of 4 children. His mother Ingeborg was 29 and his father Ebbe would have been 41, but died January 27, 1908, after an accident on a merchant marine ship. Dad emigrated to New York City in November 1927 and married Mom on March 31, 1940, in Milwaukee.
Uncle Chet says Mom was named for her two grandmothers — Dorothy for Dora Halverson and Caroline for Caroline Hanson. She was the 2nd of 7 siblings; Grandma was 30 and Grampa 28 when she was born. Mom was the first in her family raised speaking English. She married Dad on March 31, 1940, in Milwaukee.
Mom's brother. Died at age 4, three days before Mom's 11th birthday.
The youngest of 7 siblings; Grandma was 42 when she was born. She married Lyle Gorder and had two children — Barb (b. 1949) and Greg (1952–2025) — who were close to us in childhood. They lived in Manitowoc from 1954 to 1975, then built a geodesic dome she lived in until 2004. They divorced in 1978, after which she and Don Taylor became a couple. In 2004 she moved to Davis, CA to live with Greg, and died there of a stroke complicated by Alzheimer's.
Maternal grandfather. The 3rd of 9 children. He married Grandma June 25, 1908, in Cato. In 1908 he bought the farm his father had once owned for $4,000, paid off the mortgage in June 1926, and sold it in 1943 for $8,000. (It later passed into the family of Barb Gorder's husband Phil Stecker.) Sophie and Monroe lived for a while with Chet and Bernice before buying a house on Lincoln Street in Menasha. By September 1947 Monroe's illness — described as 'hardening of the arteries,' but probably early-onset Alzheimer's — made living there impossible. They moved to a fixed-up chicken coop on Chet's farm until he went to a county home in Oshkosh.
Maternal grandmother. The 4th of 12 children. She married Grandpa on June 25, 1908. They had 7 children in 13 years, 6 of whom survived to adulthood. When Norwegian became a liability due to antipathy toward Germans at the start of WWI, she switched the whole family to English. A wonderful, fun-loving grandmother who taught us card games, played a mean game of croquet, and danced with us. She lived with us for a while when ill with metastatic breast cancer.
Great-aunt. The oldest, and a milliner in Chicago for 4 years in her early 20s. Married Pete Mason in 1901; they had 5 children, 2 of whom died as infants. Pete died in 1948. I remember visiting Nelia on her son Ray's farm, where she was still baking bread for hired hands well into her 90s — terribly embarrassed she couldn't remember all our names.
Great-aunt. Married Albert Larson in 1910; they never had children. After Albert died in 1952 she lived with Mabel in a house I still recognized when I visited Manitowoc for Shirley's memorial. I used to love looking at pictures through their stereopticon and remember a lovely rose-covered arch in their yard.
Great-aunt. Mabel and twin sister Olga Nicoline were born in Cato. In 1910 she was working as a servant in a private home in Chicago. She married Albert Palmer Hanson in 1915 in Cato; they had 4 children, all of whom outlived her. Olga died in 1942. Mabel died 6 weeks before Christine. Albert didn't die until 1968, but I have no memory of him.
Monroe's father. The youngest of 10 (of whom 2 died as infants) when his father was 41 and his mother 44. When Chet visited the farm he found blacksmith tools with the same distinctive markings he had seen on his grandfather Christopher's tools in Wisconsin. In 1981 we visited and learned that while we are not related to the husband on that farm, the wife shared a book — sent on to Chet — showing we are related to her. He emigrated with his family to Cato in 1856, married Theodora on December 6, 1876, and farmed. Died of pneumonia.
Monroe's mother. Her father was 42 and mother 32 when she was born — the 6th child, and only the 2nd to survive infancy. Dora worked as a milliner before marrying Christopher on December 6, 1876. They had 9 children in 26 years, one of whom died in infancy.
Sophie's father. His father was 26 and mother 28 when he was born. Listed as a sailor living in Laurvig, he appears to have been traveling with another young man and a 13-year-old boy from Larvik. He married Caroline on January 8, 1875. The 1905 census lists him as a farmer — Chet says on the farm his father-in-law Isaac Findall pioneered. Still healthy and active when he accidentally fell from the roof of his high barn while repairing it; the many internal injuries considerably shortened his life.
Sophie's mother. The 4th of her mother's children and the second of her father's. She married Ole in 1875; they had 12 children in 19 years, 2 of whom died as teenagers. An active member of the Gjerpen Evangelical Lutheran Church, to which the cemetery was attached and where I attended my grandmother's funeral.
Christopher's father. Married Maren on September 13, 1832; they had 9 children in 18 years. In 1845 he was living on the Aas farm with his parents, an aunt, and his family — including his pregnant wife, 5 children, and 2 servants.
Christopher's mother. Her father was 24 and mother 32 when she was born — the oldest of 8, of whom 3 died as children. She married Halvor in 1832 in Gjerpen, Norway.
Theodora's father. Captain and ship owner of the Great Lakes schooners Eva M. Cone, Mariner, L. J. Convay, and Tallahassee from 1865 to 1881.
Theodora's mother. She and twin brother Gunder Christian were born in Lyngdal. She emigrated to Milwaukee after her mother died, probably with others from her parish, and married Lars in 1850. They had 10 children in 14 years, only 3 of whom survived infancy.
Ole's father.
Ole's mother.
Caroline's father. His own father died when he was 12. Church records show him leaving with his mother (who may have died en route) and his sister on May 19, 1848. Married Oline on June 2, 1852, in Manitowoc Rapids.
Caroline's mother. The oldest of 5, born when her father was 22 and mother 27 — known as 'the beautiful Oline Marie.' She first married Knud 'Bertel' Pederson and they had 2 children; their son died in 1856. Her first husband disappeared in 1850 after going to buy a team of horses. One theory: he was robbed and murdered — no body was found. Another: he went back to Norway. See 'The Vanished Pioneer' by Chet Halverson. She married Isaac in 1852 and they had 6 children together, one of whom died as a child.
Maren's father. Has many other descendants buried in Gjerpen Cemetery.
Oline Marie's mother. She married Gullik Nelson on August 12, 1826, in Sannidal, Telemark, Norway — two months after Oline Marie was born. They had 5 children. Church records show them and 4 children — plus their married daughter Oline, her husband Bertel, daughter Helena, and son Peder (½ year) — leaving for America on the Alert in 1848. Her husband Gullick Nelson was born in Kragerø in 1803, became a farmer or a miner, and died in 1863 at 59 in Manitowoc Rapids; his burial place is unknown.
Cemetery plots for direct ancestors and the collateral relatives Kirsten remembers visiting.
Named for Gjerpen parish in Telemark, Norway — the home place of many on the Halverson and Findall sides.
| Name | Relation | Born | Imm. | Died | Age | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John W. Kingdon | Husband | 1940, Wisconsin Rapids, WI | — | — | — | E-2A-7 |
| Kirsten Berg (Kingdon) | Self | 1941, Milwaukee, WI | — | — | — | E-2A-7 |
| Ebbe Berg | Father | 1908; Trondheim, NO | 1926-C | 1984 | 75 | E-2B-2 |
| Dorothy Caroline Halverson (Berg) | Mother | 1912; Cato, WI | — | 1996 | 84 | E-2B-2 |
| Shirley Jeanette Halverson (Gorder) | Aunt | 1923; Cato, WI | — | 2011 | 88 | ? |
| Lawrence "Monroe" Halverson | Grandfather | 1883; Manitowoc Rapids, WI | — | 1949 | 65 | E-2B-3 |
| Sophie Olea Hanson (Halverson) | Grandmother | 1881; Cato, WI | — | 1956 | 75 | E-2B-4 |
| Nelia Marie Hanson (Mason) | Great-aunt | 1875; Cato, WI | — | 1972 | 97 | N-6B-4 |
| Hannah "Christine" Hanson (Larson) | Great-aunt | 1878; Cato, WI | — | 1963 | 84 | E-1B-1 |
| Mabel Caroline Hanson (Hanson) | Great-aunt | 1885; Cato, WI | — | 1963 | 78 | E-6A-5 |
| Ole Hanson | G.G.father | 1847; Larvik, Telemark, NO | 1869 | 1925 | 77 | W-8A-1 |
| Caroline "Carrie" Findall (Hanson) | G.G.mother | 1854; Cato, WI | — | 1929 | 75 | W-8A-2 |
| Christopher "Christ" Halverson | G.G.father | 1851; Skien, Telemark, NO | 1856 | 1928 | 76 | N-25B-1 |
| Theodora "Dora" Mathilde Larsen (Halverson) | G.G.mother | 1859; Manitowoc, WI | — | 1926 | 67 | N-25B-2 |
| Isaac Hanson Findall | 2×G.G.father | 1821; Solum, Telemark, NO | 1848 | 1908 | 87 | S-31B-1 |
| Oline Marie Gullicksdatter (Findall) | 2×G.G.mother | 1826; Kragerø, Telemark, NO | 1848 | 1879 | 52 | S-31B-2 |
| Halvor Olsen Aas | 2×G.G.father | 1810; Gjerpen, Telemark, NO | 1856 | 1892 | 71 | S-5B-2 |
| Maren Simonsdatter Stulen (Halverson) | 2×G.G.mother | 1807; Skien, Telemark, NO | 1856 | 1888 | 81 | S-5B-3 |
| Olea Maria "Marie" Paulsdatter | 3×G.G.mother | 1799; Buskerud, NO | 1848 | 1883 | 84 | S-31B-3 |
| Name | Relation | Born | Imm. | Died | Age | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lars Larsen Sannes | 2×G.G.father | 1816; Rogaland, NO | 1846-C | 1909 | 93 | E2-17-1-2 |
| Hanna Gurine Tobiasdatter | 2×G.G.mother | 1826; Lyngdal, Vest-Agder, NO | 1848 | 1877 | 50 | E2-17-1-2 |
Compiled by Kirsten Kingdon, June 2026, with many thanks to cousin Connie White McNeill for the invaluable information she gathered, available on Ancestry.com.