Utreist med/Emigrated on: "Ausonia" from Liverpool, England

Utreist til/Emigrated to: Canada

John Olsen Langkaas was born 29 November 1893 at the Langkaas farm in Lunde, Telemark to Ole Olsen Langkaas and Olea Johnsdatter. John was the second oldest of six children with Olaf, Marie, Inger, Hanna, and Astri being the other children. John was the only member of this family to emigrate from Norway.

John, his father, and his grandfather before him were cottagers, who moved several times to improve their social and living conditions. Ole and Olea lived in Lunde, then Holla on the farm having the name Langkaas(1900-1920), then to Gjerpen on the farm Løberg Søndre, aka Rønningen (1920-1928) and then to Skien where they both died. Ole Olsen was born 18 September 1865 at the Langkaas farm in Lunde, Telemark, the sixth child of Ole Olsen Langkaas (1828-1888) and Ingerid Olsdatter (1833-190?).

John's mother, Olea Johnsdatter was born 9 October 1861 at the Helgen farm in Holla to John Jensen Graver (b. 1823) and Mari Olsdatter (b. 1833). She was the sixth of eight children. Olea's 3rd paternal great grandfather, Augustinius Jensen Graver (1703-1766) was the son of Jens Johannesen Graver (1666-1746) and Anne Pedersdatter Heisholt (1681-1743).

John married Marie Hantomyra on 1 September 1923 at the Gjerpen Kirke. Marie was born 4 July 1900 at the Hantomyra farm in Flaabygd, Lunde, Telemark to Neri Haraldson Hantomyra (b. 1852) and Mari Johnsdatter Dalane (1862-1944). Marie's ancestors include Nerid Ova, Birgit Klevar, Kjetil Fjågesund, Hallvard Graatop, and Erling Alfsen Thornberg just to name a few.

Like several other young men in Telemark, John did not want to continue as a farmer as his ancestors had, so he accepted a position with Canadian National Railways to work in Canada. He left his two sons Martin and Olaf (both born in Gjerpen) as well as his wife Marie, with the plan to send for them when finances would permit this. In March of 1927, John boarded the Cunard Line ship "Ausonia" in Liverpool, England.

Arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on March 20, 1927, John traveled to Saskatchewan where he spent the next two years in an extra gang building railway lines. Following this he moved near Tofield, Alberta where he worked at the Dodds Coal Mine. When John's wife and two sons arrived from Gjerpen in 1930, they lived in a house on the coalmine property. In the 1940's the family purchased a house in the town of Tofield.
John also worked in forestry and for the natural gas industry.

John passed away on 15 March 1982 in Tofield, Alberta. All of his descendents in the year 2002 still live in the province of Alberta.
 

This information is supplied by Brian Langkaas. Thanks a lot Brian!!

© 2002 - Skien Genealogical page - by Jan Christensen