Annette Halsett/Halseth "Nettie" was born 20 July 1858 in Norway to Peder Ericksen Halseth and Marthe Kathrine Johnsdatter Bjorge. She was christened Annette Amalie in the Church of Norway (Lutheran)in May, 1859. Her parents are on the christening record as Peter Ericksen Halseth and Marthe Cathrine. She was the 6th of seven children born to them. Nettie's mother died in 1872. In 1873, her father, Peter/Peder decided to take four of his daughters and immigrate to America. Two of his children had already made the voyage to America a few years earlier. One of his daughters, Josephine, chose to stay behind and work for an additional year to help pay for their voyage. LDS church records show that Nettie was baptized in the LDS Church on 19, July 1871. Nettie and sisters, Emma, Lina, and Caroline made the voyage with their father on the ship, the "Wyoming". They left Christiana/Oslo on 29 August, 1873, sailing to the port of New York City and then on to Ogden, Utah by train, arriving 29, September, 1873. Ship records show Peder listed as 51 years old, Nettie as 14 years old, Lina as 12 years old, Karoline as 11 years old and Emma as 8 years old. Peder Ericksen's family had chosen the name of Halsett/Halseth as their surname when Norway made the decision to move away from the patrynomic system of surnames. (The name Halsett or Halseth is recorded at different times for their family and has been a confusing issue when doing genealogy. It is also common to see names such as Peter or Peder spelled either way and both are acceptable).
Peter Ericksen Halseth settled his family in the small community of Hyrum, just south of Logan, Cache Co., Utah where he developed a farm. Seven years later, when the family appears on the 1880 U.S. census for the first time, Peter had remarried to a woman from Norway named Mathilda and Emma was the only daughter left in the household.
It is not known where Nettie was living when the 1880 census was taken. We know she would have been 21 years old and had five other sisters and a brother living in Utah, and as an unmarried young woman, she could have been living with any of her siblings.
What we do know is that sadly, Nettie died in 1881 and is buried close to her sister, Josephine Halseth Anderson, in the Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete Co., cemetery. She was 22 years old at the time of her death. It is not known if she was living with her sister's family in Mt. Pleasant at the time of her death or just visiting. No marriage or any other record has been found for Nettie. Her sister, Josephine, had come to America in 1874, married John Anderson, a shipmate and friend of their brother, Antone Halsett.
Of additional interest in trying to solve the mystery of Nettie's death, is the fact that her sister, Josephine's, only child had died of cholera just one month prior to Nettie's death. Perhaps that might have been the cause of Nettie's death also. Nettie may have been at her sister's home because of the death of the child or indeed been living there when the 20 month old child contracted cholera.
An additional mystery just revealed while doing this family history; buried in the same plot with Nettie is a child of another sister, Lina Halseth Hinckley. Twenty two month old James Liderick Hinckley died of cholera almost 5 years later and was interred alongside Nettie in the same plot in the Mt. Pleasant cemetery.
Nettie's father, Peter Ericksen Halseth lived another seventeen years in Hyrum, Utah and is buried in the Hyrum City cemetery beside his 2nd wife Mathilda. There is no headstone on their gravesites.
No record nor gravesite has ever been found of Nettie's sister, Caroline Amalia, after her arrival from Norway. Another family history mystery waiting to be uncovered someday.