The youngest at Skjønheim
Ragna Johanne was born on May 13, 1920, to Olaus Johnsen and Marie Sofie Anstensen. The family home was Skjønheim in Strømm. That December’s census records her with her parents and siblings Alfhild, Ruth and Alf at Skjønheim 3.
She was baptized on Christmas Day, after the census. The baptism entry names both parents and says they stood outside the state church at the time. That describes their recorded church affiliation; it does not tell us what they believed.
Ragna’s birth and baptism, Strømm, 1920 · The family at Skjønheim 3, census of 1920
Ragna and Arne in her father’s notice
The family’s surviving funeral notice for Olaus is an important link to Ragna’s adult life. It names “Ragna and Arne Jørgensen” among the children and children-in-law, alongside Alfhild and Kristian, Ruth, and Alf and Rønnaug.
This directly connects Olaus’s daughter Ragna with Arne Jørgensen. The clipping prints July 18 as Olaus’s death date but no year, and it does not give Ragna’s wedding date. Arne’s full name and life dates remain to be established.
The newer research report treated the link between the Johnsen and Jørgensen names as missing. Reading it alongside this family-held notice substantially strengthens that connection.
A matching life in Oslo
The official death database records Ragna Johanne Jørgensen, born May 13, 1920, dying on January 13, 1997, with Oslo as her residence municipality. Her full given names and exact birthday match Alfhild’s sister, and the Arne Jørgensen connection is supported by Olaus’s notice.
A notice in Arbeiderbladet on January 16 gives the same death date, age seventy-six, and describes her as wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother. Arne signs first. Together these sources make a strong identification, although the original marriage record and the full chain through the intervening years have not yet been verified. The later death date remains qualified here.
Ragna Johanne Jørgensen, official death register, 1997 · Ragna Jørgensen’s family notice, Arbeiderbladet, January 16, 1997 · Olaus’s family-held funeral notice, with English reading
The probable later family
The matching 1997 notice appears to name Torgun Marie and John Arne as children, Anne-Kari beside John Arne as a partner, and Line, Stian, Merete and Henrik as grandchildren. These relationships are interpretations of the notice’s wording and arrangement. Separate birth and marriage records are needed to establish complete identities and assign the grandchildren to their parents.
The announced service was at Østre crematorium’s small chapel on January 20, 1997, and was to conclude at the chapel. It does not establish an eventual urn burial place. Oslo on the official record is her residence municipality, not proof of the actual place of death.
Ragna Jørgensen’s family notice, Arbeiderbladet, January 16, 1997
