Elling Andersen
Elling Andersen was born about 1784 and owned the farm Aspeholt in Hedalen, a side valley of Sør-Aurdal parish in Valdres, Norway. The church clerks wrote his name Ellen, the way Elling was spoken in the valley, and they wrote the farm as Aspeholdt, Aspholdt and Aspegaard. His patronymic, Andersen, says his father was called Anders.
On 27 March 1808, at Hedalen, "Ellen Andersen", a bachelor of Aspeholdt, married Ingri Iversdatter, a maiden of the farm Nordbye. Two men of the valley, Guul Andersen Stugaarden and Torgrim Andersen Aaslie, stood as trulovere at the betrothal. These were the sponsors who vouched to the priest that nothing stood in the way of the marriage.
Their children were baptised at Hedalen: Sigrie in October 1808, Karen in March 1811, and Anders in February 1814. That first Anders was buried in June 1814, entered in the burial book as "Anders Ellensen, Aspegaard, Barnet", the child. A second son was baptised Anders on 25 June 1815, and he lived. A daughter, Sigri, followed about 1821.
In 1816 Norway levied a silver tax to give its new national bank a reserve of coin. Every property holder was assessed. The roll for Aspeholt enters Elling as "E. og bruger af den hele gaard": owner and user of the whole farm. A man who owned his farm outright stood above the tenants and cotters of the valley, who worked land that belonged to someone else. In 1801 the farm had been held by Anders Jonsen, then forty-six, and his wife Sigri Erlandsdatter. Elling may have been their son, away from home in 1801, but he is not on that census page and no record says so.
The Sør-Aurdal burial book records Ellen Andersen, aged forty-one, who died on 3 March 1825 and was buried on 10 March. The entry gives no farm, but the age fits him exactly, and his widow was free to marry that autumn. On 10 October 1825 Ingri, "of Aspehold", aged thirty-six, married Ole Gundersen, who was farming Aspeholt by 1826. Elling's son Anders was ten. He grew up to farm Aspeholt himself, named his own first son Elling, and in 1861 took the family to America.
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Cite: Heirology, "Elling Andersen (1784-1825)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/elling-andersen-1784-1825-235731.