Søren Abrahamsen

  General Notes:

Soren was born in Sondre Undal about 10 miles north west of Mandal. Johan Gustav is probably his brother and was born in the same village to a father Christopher.
By 1865 Soren married Gunhild Severine, 9 years younger than Soren. They had 2 daughters and a son living with the Tonnes Christian Aanonsen family at Brogaden 10a, Mandal.
By 1875 Soren and Gunhild had moved to the coast at Klevene 28, Mandal. They now had 6 daughters and 1 son. Soren was a skipper of a boat.
In the winter many would end up unable to make their way eastwards until the ice had begun to melt. One such ship was a German barque called Amalie which departed in February 1877 en route back to Germany. Soren joined the ship not as captain but as a hired hand - because he presumably knew the local waters. Shortly after departure however the ship encountered difficulties and had to pull into a ship repair yard before setting sail again. It was after this second departure that the ship was lost with all hands somewhere in the North Sea .
In 1985, Soren's family moved to Brogaden 2a to live with Soren's brother's family.

The house "Heia, number 28" has most of the time been divided into two units. The house was originally placed further down towards the pier, but was moved up the road as the road down to the steamship pier was built in 1883. This explains the weird numbering. Today it sits together with other houses number 44, 45 and 46, and is set right into the mountain wall.
Number 28's plot of land is mentioned in 1825 when Merchant Kristen Blom (1791-1829) from Mandal prepared a little piece of land to be built upon between number 27 and 29. The building is not mentioned in 1838, but is owned by Skipper Kasper Barth in 1845.
The Barth family moved before 1850 to Vigeland in Vennesla where Barth ran a farm for Samuel Otto & Co. From 1856 Jakob Johannesen is mentioned as owner, and from 1870, his mother, Marte Jessine Johannesen, also lives in the house.
Søren Abrahamsen moves into the second floor of the house (number 28) in 1875. with his family. Søren becomes a mate and gets his skipper certificate in 1869. He was working as mate or deck hand. He worked mostly on boats sailing on the North Sea and across Skagerak.
Søren Abrahamsen died when a German ship "Amalie" went down on its way to Hansted at the end of the 1870's. The ship had docked for a long time in Kleven, and it all went wrong when the boat was unable to turn. It then went to a shipyard for repairs. But on its return it went down during a storm. All of the crew died except a young boy who survived by floating on a piece of debris till he was rescued by some fishermen.

Søren married Gunhild Sorine Olson Jaabæk, daughter of Ole Erikson Jaabekk and Oline Cecilie Olsdatter Ihme, on 14 Aug 1860 in Mandal, , Vest-Agder, Norway. (Gunhild Sorine Olson Jaabæk was born in 1841 in Halse, Mandal, Vest Agder, Norway.)