Hegge-Rask Families

The Hegges are from Norway with Hegge being their farm name in Stod, Nord-Trondelag, on a lake on the north end of Trondheim fjord. Census records show vividly why people migrated from there to the US--in 1865 my gggrandfather, Eilert Michelsen Hegge, was one of four nearly grown sons on a farm called Hegge vestre (Hegge west). There two other farms also called Hegge vestre. And there were three farms called Hegge østre (Hegge east), each with families on them. Also a Heggetangen (tongue of land), and a Heggetrøen. This was in the 1865 census--in the 1801 census Hegge (Hægge) was one big farm. Dividing up the land any further wasn't going to work out. At least two of the Michelsen Hegge sons moved to the US, to Burnett County, Wisconsin.

Recommended Genealogy sources:

Nord-Trøndelag resources:

There are a large amount of excellent resources online for this area

LDS Family Search - a large amount of Norwegian and Swedish church records transcribed and searchable, plus info on ordering microfilm copies, complete 1880 US census

100 Years of Emigrant Ships From Norway - searchable ship records, a growing collection

Minnesota Death Certificates - state many Norwegians came to

Ancestry.com - This site was made using Ancestry's FREE Family Tree database software, available for download at their site--strongly recommended. Subscription service with complete US census, historical newspaper collections, city directories, birth and death records, and much more (US & UK resources)

Digitalarkivet - Norwegian censuses, church records, maps --extremely extensive source

1701 census for Stod

1701 census for various loc. p. in Nord-Trøndelag

1801 census for 1734 Stoed

1865 census for 1734 Stod

1900 census for 1734 Stod

Polltax of 1645 from Inderøy bailiff

Livestock tax in Inderøy bailiff 1657

Baptised in Stod 1689-1815

Slektsforskning Stod - searchable databases of Stod, Nord-Trongelag records, very useful and well done

Stod - Nord-Trøndelag, Slektsforskning - listings of church records

Trønderlag of America - links to multiple resources

The Rasks are from Orebro, Sweden. Rask means 'daring soldier' and is appropriate. Jan Eric Rask was a hussar, a light cavalry soldier in Sweden. In 1868 he gathered up his entire family, including a grown son, and they all moved to America. A large part of the Rask ancestry on the mother's side (Marlena Helena Larsdotter) starting with her grandparents and going back from there is based largely on another person's research. This person--apparently a descendent of one of Christina Rask Hegge's sisters--shared her research on the LDS Family Search website. If you search these names you'll see her research (for which I thank her) and contact information. Information on nearer generations is based on my research, the start of which I owe, with gratitude, to a friend named Anna in Sweden who looked up the Rasks in Orebro county (Örebro län) records and, thus, gave me a starting place for the research.

This web site produced 10 Apr 2003 by Ancestry Family Tree, a product of Incline Software, LC.

D. A. Houdek

Deb Houdek Rule

Family History and Genealogy

Hegge Family of Stod, Nord-Trondelag, Norway

Rask Family of Orebro, Sweden

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