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Mathew Allen Vandeneynden
Member
Username: fatefulnite
Post Number: 3
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 3:43 pm: | 
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I am currently working as a first-person interpreter in the larger of the Titanic Artifact Exhibits in Columbus, OH.
I portray Olaus Abelseth, a third class passenger.
There's been tons of great information here, but I just recently was able to get some key questions answered. The decendants of Karen Abelseth visited the exhibit! I didn't get a chance to talk with them myself (wouldn't that have been odd) but I discovered some great info.
1) Olaus wasn't really an Abelseth. He'd been working with the Abelseth family since he was very young and (nobody seems sure why) he took their name.
2) This means that Karen and he were not related.
3) Which implies a HUGE amount of trust that the family had on Olaus. They allowed a non-family male to escort their 16 year old (marrying age) daughter to the United States? They must have had a lot of faith in Olaus.
On a stranger note. . . . how truly bizzare would it have been to be acting as Olaus only to have his family come in and see what I was doing? I can't imagine anything more awkward. |
Bob Godfrey
Member
Username: bobgod1
Post Number: 2126
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 5:06 pm: |
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Hallo, Matthew. I have to say I'd be surprised if Olaus was anything other than the natural son of Jorgen and Hanna Abelseth, as his early life and details of his birth registration, confirmation etc have been well researched through local records and family in Norway. See for instance Per Kristian Sebak's book Titanic - 31 Norwegian Destinies. But certainly he wasn't related to Karen Abelseth. Her parents worked an adjoining farm, and it was pure coincidence that these neighbouring families shared the same (fairly common) name. I wouldn't dismiss the version you have heard, but it's possible that Olaus might have spent a lot of time helping out or working for the (other) Abelseths and family recollections have become a little confused over the years. Can anybody shed more light on this?
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