Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process, here is another ancestor couple biography using the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 AI tool.
1) The genealogical sketch for my wife Linda's 2nd great-grandparents, Elling Eriksen and Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig, including family members, record abstracts and sources, is in
(AI NotebookLM Infographic - Elling Eriksen and Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig Family)
2) For the Claude AI biography, I attached a PDF of the genealogical sketch for the specific ancestors using the plus (+) icon, and then prompted the AI tool with: "You are an expert genealogist and family historian. Please create a biography based on information in the attached file for the Elling Eriksen and Anna Elligsdatter Natvig family. Include parents, siblings, spouses and children (with birth and death dates and places). Summarize life events, add historical events as appropriate, but do not add or embellish any extra genealogical details. Use section headings. Expand the information in each section to add more details. The tone should be engaging and suitable for family members."
3) The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 biography (lightly edited for accuracy) is:
The Elling Eriksen and Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig Family - From Sogndal, Norway to Cottage Grove, Wisconsin
Elling Eriksen: The Youngest Son
Elling Eriksen was born on October 12, 1820, in Eskestrand, Sogndal, a beautiful area in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He came into the world as the youngest child in his family, which probably meant he was pretty spoiled by his older siblings! His parents were Erik Hanssen (1779-1822) and Kristi Ellingsdatter (1781-1851), who had married back in 1807.
Unfortunately, Elling's father Erik died when Elling was just a toddler, around two years old. This meant his mother Kristi had to raise him and manage the family farm as a widow for nearly three decades until her death in 1851. Growing up without a father in early 19th-century Norway must have been challenging, but Elling had plenty of older brothers and sisters to help show him the ropes.
Elling grew up in a large family with five older siblings:
- Sjur Eriksen (1808-1834) was the oldest, born when their parents had only been married about a year. He married Synneva Jensdtr in November 1832, but tragically died just over a year later in January 1834 at the young age of 25.
- Hans Eriksen was born in January 1811, making him about nine years older than Elling. As the second son, he probably helped run the family farm after their father died.
- Brithe Eriksdtr was born in January 1814, the first daughter in the family.
- Helga Eriksdtr was born in January 1816. She married Ola Gjestsen in December 1839, when Elling was about 19 years old
- Gunhild Eriksdtr was born in February 1818, just two and a half years before Elling. She married Nils Nilsen and lived in Kvåle, Sogndal, where she died in January 1852 at the age of 33.
Anna Ellingsdatter was born on July 18, 1812, in Vatlestad, Sogndal—the same parish where Elling grew up, though on a different farm. She was about eight years older than Elling, which was not unusual for marriages at that time. Anna came from an even larger family than Elling did!
Her parents were Elling Olssen (1779-1833) and Brita Rasmusdatter (1783-1836), who married in 1804. Sadly, both of Anna's parents died when she was in her early twenties—her father when she was 21 and her mother when she was 24. By the time she married Elling in 1845, both of their mothers had passed away, so neither couple had their mothers present at the wedding.
Anna was the fourth of nine children. Here's the whole crew:
- Hans Ellingsen (born October 1806) was the oldest brother, about six years older than Anna.
- Randi Ellingsdtr (1808-1882) was born in August 1808. She married Mads Olssen in June 1837 and lived a long life, dying at Vatlestad in April 1882 at the age of 73.
- Ranveig Ellingsdtr was born in March 1810, just a couple years older than Anna.
- Then came Anna herself in July 1812.
- Ola Ellingsen was born in February 1815.
- Brita Ellingsdtr was born in January 1818 and named after their mother.
- Maria Ellingsdtr (1820-1890) was born in May 1820. She married Nils Johannessen in June 1850 and died in Sogndal in March 1890.
- Rasmus Ellingsen was born in January 1823.
- Ingeborg Ellingsdtr was the baby of the family, born in January 1826 when Anna was already 13 years old.
Before marrying Elling, Anna had been married once before. On October 31, 1837, when she was 25 years old, she married Solfest Johannesen. This first marriage appears to have ended—whether through death or other circumstances, we don't know for certain from these records. What we do know is that Anna had at least three children from this first marriage, and two of the children later came with the family to America. They were:
- Eli Solfestdtr (1838-1876), married 1862 in Sogndal to Erik Larsen (1831-1876), six children, remained in Norway.
- Brita Solfestdtr (1840-1913), married 27 May 1871 in Dane County, Wisconsin to Torsten Johnson (1840-1919), eight children.
- Ragnhild Solfestdtr (1843-1891), married 4 Jan 1869 in Dane, Wisconsin, United States to Thorvald Olsen Hegg (1844-1916), five children.
Elling and Anna were married on November 19, 1845, in Sogndal. Elling was 25 years old and Anna was 33. They settled in Øvretun, also in Sogndal, where they would have their four children together over the next eight years.
Elling and Anna had four children:
- Christina Ellingsdatter Natvig (1846-1911) was born on January 13, 1846, just two months after their wedding. She never married and lived with her parents throughout her life. Christina made the journey to America with the family when she was about 16 years old. She died on July 11, 1911, at age 65 in Dane County, Wisconsin, and was buried at Lower McFarland Cemetery, the same cemetery where her parents rest.
- Solfest Ellingsen Natvig (1847-1922), who went by the Americanized name "Sylvester," was born on December 15, 1847. He married Christina Erikson Vornos on December 12, 1885, in Madison, Wisconsin, when he was 37 years old. Sylvester and Christina had at least seven children together. By 1900, Sylvester owned the family farm free and clear—no mortgage!—and his elderly mother Anna and unmarried sister Christina lived with his family. Sylvester died on January 2, 1922, in Dane County.
- Erik Ellingsen Natvig was born on August 6, 1850. He came to Wisconsin with his parents and is listed in the 1880 census as a 29-year-old single farmer living at home. We know he died in Wisconsin, but the specific date isn't recorded in these documents.
- Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig (1853-1911) was born on May 16, 1853. She married Torger Sjursen Leland on May 30, 1876, in Deerfield, Dane County, Wisconsin. Anna and Torger had ten children between 1877 and 1893. Anna died on October 26, 1911, in Madison, Wisconsin, just a few months after her sister Christina passed away.
For about 17 years, Elling and Anna raised their family in Øvretun, Sogndal. Sogndal sits in the Sogn og Fjordane region of Norway, an area famous for its stunning fjords and mountains. Life in mid-19th century Norway was hard for most farming families. The growing season was short, farms were often small, and opportunities were limited.
During the 1800s, Norway experienced massive emigration. Between 1825 and 1925, more than 800,000 Norwegians left their homeland, with the vast majority heading to America. They were seeking better farmland, more economic opportunities, and a chance to own their own land—something that was difficult in Norway where the best farms had been in families for generations.
The Big Move to America
In 1862, when Elling was 41 and Anna was 50, they made the life-changing decision to emigrate to America. This was during the American Civil War, which shows how desperate conditions must have been in Norway—they were willing to move to a country in the middle of a war!
The family that made the journey included Elling and Anna, plus their four children together: Christina (age 16), Sylvester (age 14), Erik (age 11), and Anna (age 9). They also brought along Britha and Ragnhild, two of Anna’s children from her first marriage to Solfest Johannesen. So altogether, this was a party of eight people making the long and difficult journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
The typical journey from Norway to America in the 1860s took about 4 to 6 weeks by sailing ship, though steamships were starting to make the crossing faster. Passengers traveled in cramped, uncomfortable conditions in steerage class. Many Norwegian emigrants left from ports like Bergen or Trondheim, sailed around the southern coast of Norway, across the North Sea, and then across the Atlantic to ports like Quebec, New York, or Boston.
Starting Over in Wisconsin
The family settled in Cottage Grove township, Dane County, Wisconsin. This area had become a magnet for Norwegian immigrants. Dane County, with Madison as its county seat, had rich farmland and a growing Norwegian community. Many Norwegian families specifically chose Wisconsin because they heard from earlier immigrants that the landscape—with its rolling hills and scattered lakes—reminded them of home.
Sometime before 1880, the family changed their surname from the Norwegian patronymic system (where Elling was "Eriksen" meaning "son of Erik") to the more American-style surname "Natvig" (or "Netweg" or "Netwig" as census takers spelled it various ways). This was a common practice among Norwegian immigrants, who often took a farm name from Norway as their permanent family surname.
Building a Life in Cottage Grove
The family doesn't appear in the 1870 census, which might mean they were still getting established or that the census taker missed them. But by 1880, they were well-rooted in Cottage Grove. The census that year shows Elling (age 57) and Annie (age 67) living with three of their adult children: Christina (34), Sylvester (31), and Erick (29). All three of the children who still lived at home were single. The sons were listed as farmers, working the family land alongside their father.
They also had a boarder, Ole Hanson, a 39-year-old single man from Norway who worked as a laborer on the farm. Having a hired hand suggests the farm was substantial enough to need extra help beyond family labor.
Becoming an American Citizen
On September 30, 1880, Elling "Natvik" made his declaration of intention to become a United States citizen in Madison, Dane County. This was an important step in the naturalization process. While we don't have his final naturalization certificate in these records, we can be pretty confident he completed the process because the 1900 census lists both his wife Anna and son Sylvester as naturalized citizens.
The naturalization process in the 1880s typically required living in the United States for at least five years, filing a declaration of intention (sometimes called "first papers"), and then after a waiting period, filing a petition for naturalization and taking an oath of allegiance. For Elling, who had arrived in 1862, the five-year residency requirement was long satisfied by 1880.
Planning for the Future: Elling's Will
On September 2, 1895, when Elling was 74 years old, he wrote his last will and testament. Since he couldn't write in English, he made his mark with an "X" and had three witnesses sign: William Nelson, Isabel Dykesten, and Bertha Anderson, all from Deerfield, Dane County.
The will tells us a lot about the family situation. First and most importantly, Elling left everything to his "beloved wife Anna" to use during her lifetime. This was his way of making sure she would be taken care of in her old age—she was 83 when he wrote the will.
- After Anna's death, the estate was to be divided among various family members. Here's what we learn about the children:
- His daughter Anna Leland (married to T.S. Leland of London, Dane County) was to receive $300—the largest individual bequest.
- Britha Johnson (married to Thomas Johnson of Walton, Sauk County, Wisconsin) was to receive $100. Britha was Anna's daughter from her first marriage, so it's touching that Elling included his stepdaughter in his will.
- Eli Teigen (widow of Lars Teigen) was to receive $100. The will specifically notes she was living in "Sogndals Praxtigjeld Bergens Stoft Norway Europe"—she stayed in Sogndal and married in 1862. Eli was Anna's other daughter from her first marriage.
- The four grandchildren of his deceased daughter Ragnhilda (Oscar, Adolph, Gyda, and Alexander Hegg) were to share $100 equally. Ragnhilda had been married to T.O. Hegg of Madison and had died sometime before 1895. Ragnhilda was Anna’s daughter from her first marriage.
The will also mentions that if the estate wasn't large enough to cover all the bequests after debts and Anna's expenses, each person would receive a proportional share. And if there was money left over after all the bequests, it would be divided proportionally as well. Elling appointed Thomas Johnson (his son-in-law) and T.S. Leland (his other son-in-law) as executors, showing his trust in these men.
The End of Elling's Journey
Elling Eriksen Natvig died on March 15, 1896, at the age of 75, in Cottage Grove, Dane County, Wisconsin. He was buried at Lower McFarland Cemetery in McFarland, just a short distance from the family farm. He had lived in America for 34 years after leaving Norway at age 41—so he spent almost half his life in his adopted country.
Anna's Final Years
After Elling's death, Anna continued living with her son Sylvester and his wife Christina (who was also Norwegian) on the family farm in Cottage Grove. The 1900 census gives us a wonderful snapshot of this multi-generational household:
At age 89 (the census says she was born in May 1811, but her actual birth year was 1812—a one-year discrepancy that's common in census records), Anna was living with a houseful of family. Sylvester and Christina had seven children living at home: Elaxender (14), Anna (12), Susen (11), Ida (9), Rolph (7), Bertha (2), and baby Sewert who was less than a year old. Also in the household was Anna's unmarried daughter Christina, age 54, who had lived with her parents her entire life.
The census notes that Anna was a widow with "2 children born, 2 living." This is confusing because we know she had at least six children (four with Elling plus three from her first marriage). The census taker may have only recorded children from her marriage to Elling who were still living at that time, or there may have been an error in recording.
Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig died on June 16, 1901, at the age of 88 (nearly 89), in Cottage Grove. She was buried next to Elling at Lower McFarland Cemetery. She had outlived her husband by five years and had spent 39 years in America after emigrating at age 50—a remarkable woman who survived the difficult ocean crossing and adapted to life in a new country when many people would have been settling into old age.
The Family Legacy
Elling and Anna's story is a classic immigrant tale of leaving behind everything familiar to seek a better life. They left the beautiful fjords of Sogndal, Norway, where both their families had lived for generations, and took a huge risk moving to Wisconsin in the middle of the American Civil War.
Their courage paid off. By the time of Elling's death, they had established a successful farm that son Sylvester owned free and clear. Their children and grandchildren were Americans, though they maintained their Norwegian heritage. Some of their descendants remained in the Cottage Grove area for generations, and many are probably still in Wisconsin today.
The name "Natvig" continues as their family name, a reminder of their Norwegian roots. Today, their final resting place at Lower McFarland Cemetery in McFarland, Wisconsin, marks the end of a journey that began in the mountains and fjords of western Norway and ended in the rolling farmland of America's Midwest.
Though separated by an ocean and more than a century, the descendants of Elling and Anna can take pride in these hardy ancestors who dared to dream of a better life and had the courage to pursue it.
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4) An Audio Overview (essentially a podcast) created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool) describing and celebrating the lives of Elling Eriksen and Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig can be heard here (click on "Audio Overview" and wait for it to load).
5) The Video Overview discussing the lives of Elling Eriksen and Anna Ellingsdatter Natvig created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool is:
6) I edited the Claude biography text to correct minor inconsistencies and errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. I was an aerospace engineer in my former life, and my research reports and genealogical sketches reflect "just the facts gleaned from my research." The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and create readable text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail when requested.
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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.
Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver
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