i didn't even see this until now!

that certainly sounds about right!

although i am bit confused on some things.
-from what i have found (us census, death certificate, etc) caroline was born in 1869-70. the 1865 census has her listed as 1 year old, so born 1864-65.

children's names are correct, though- ole, anna, karoline, and the spacing age-wise is consistent with what i have found.

thank you so much for all your help- i never ever would have found any of this information- the patronymic naming system would have confused me thoroughly, and would have been able to find anything.

and by the way, i have seen jens middle initial as "s" so samuelsen certainly makes sense, and although it says "thorsen" on karen's death certificate, trulsen(datter) is pretty close!

I found the birth of a Caroline Kirstine 30 Aug. 1865. http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_kildeid=594&id...
She probably died as infant, and the next daughter was renamed after her.

Ole and Anna were twins. They were born 11 Dec. 1862 http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_kildeid=593&id...
One of the witnesses is Nathalie Berg. Perhaps there is a connection to the use of surname Berg. I found Natalie Berg in 1865 census as an unmarried woman (42), born in Oslo, in the neighbourhood of Jens and Karen.

It was quite usual that names were changed when they emigrated, like Trulsdatter to Thorsen. Perhaps they did not like the way Trulsen was pronounced in English, and changed to an easier name.

i am wondering- the caroline kirstine b 1865 aug 30 you found has a birthday very close to the caroline i am aware of- 31 august. perhaps it IS the same person, i am not sure... i do remember now that, after reading about patronymic names and naming traditions, that if a daughter dies, the next daughter is named after her, so that could be it, too. although the birthdays are so close...

can you actually read what is in the church books or does your source type out the information on the scanned page? i am unable to make out anything.

The column in top of the picture tells what size you have zoomed the picture. You probably look at it in 40 % size. Try 100 % size.

Here is a site showing old handwriting (gotic) http://www.hist.uib.no/gotisk/ Click "alfabet".

thank you- i will give it a try!