The 1905 Norwegian Lutheran Church death record of son Albert Halvorsen, a silversmith, has his mother's name as Ellen Andrea Halvorsen (born Nilsen). . . . An 1880 ship manifest does appear to identify Andrea Halvorsen but as a 32-year-old male laborer, traveling with two male children, Alfred (age 3) and possibly Albert (or Halbert or possibly Hackbert) (age 4). Only the age of Alfred is consistent with census records. . . . The 1900 census includes a Hannah (probably Anna) Halvorsen living in the household of Elen Andrea Halvorsen, apparently her daughter-in-law and son Albert's wife (although the description is largely illegible). . . . The 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census records have an Ellen A. Halvorsen, born in Norway in 1849, immigrated 1884, living as an insane inmate at the Kings Park State Hospital in Smithtown, New York. Kings Park was established by the county in which Brooklyn sits. The 1920 Census has the inmate as a widow. The 1930 Census has the inmate as married (but is of questionable validity because no one of the same page is shown as widowed). The inmate died on August 20, 1935. . . . In my mind, the best candidate for a birth record is that of Andrea Hansen, born October 2, 1849 in Borre, Vestfold, Norway, about 30 miles south of Drammen, where Elen Andrea's two sons were born. Andrea was the daughter of Hans Olsen and Elen Andrea Hansdatter. If she had the same name as her mother, it would not be unusual if she used a different form of it, namely Andrea, even in being baptized.
