The dot is the farm’s probable place; the map register names more than one spot that could be it.
Møgstu is in Veggli, half a kilometer north of Kjemhus. Today's maps spell it Mykstu. The church books wrote Mogstue and Møgstue, and the 1865 census Møklestue. It was several holdings, Nordre, Søre and Høljes-Mykstu among them, and which one the family had isn't settled.
Ragnild's people
Ragnild Tostensdatter was born on February 26, 1863, and baptized in Veggli on March 29. Both church books, the minister's and the clerk's, name her parents: Tosten Sebjørnsen, a farmer, and his wife, Ragnild Tollefsdatter, at Møgstue. Mother and daughter had the same first name. The second names kept them apart: one was Tollef's daughter, the other Tosten's.
The census at the end of 1865 finds the household:
- Tosten Sebjørnsen, 38, farmer and owner, born in Nore
- Ragnhild Tollefsdatter, 32, his wife, born in Rollag
- Anna, 6; Ragnhild, 3; and Kari, 1, their daughters
- Ole Tostensen, 19, and Aase Knudsdatter, 21, servants
Ole's second name matches the farmer's first, and nothing more is known.
They kept a horse, seven cattle, seven sheep and a pig, and that year sowed a little rye, a barrel of barley, two and a quarter of oats and five and a half of potatoes. That's about twice what the Stenersens had on Lillehøiset the same year.
Ragnild and Bergit
In the spring of 1887 Knud Ingemundsen of Helle left for America. On May 25, a week after he landed in Quebec, Ragnild, twenty-four and unmarried, had a daughter, Bergit. The baptism in Veggli on June 12 names Knud as the father. They never married. Bergit grew up in Rollag, married Tollef Kjemhus in 1906, and their daughter was Clara. The whole story is on Knute's page.
On November 17, 1894, Ragnild married Ole Gjermundsen. The marriage record names her father as Tosten Sebjørnsen of Møgstu, the same man as in 1863. Their children were Ole, Tosten, Sebjørn, Anna, Ragna and Georg, born between 1894 and 1908. In 1920 Ole and Ragnild were on Mykstu holding 6.
The cookhouse
A Mykstu cookhouse, from Høljes-Mykstu and about 1770, now stands at Rollag bygdetun, the open-air museum. It was the farm's second kitchen. They baked bread, flatbread and lefse in it, brewed the ale and did the big wash, and at slaughtering time it was where the heavy work got done. Whether it ever served Ragnild's family's holding isn't known.
Who lived here
born or died at Møgstu · a pale bar is a life whose start isn’t recorded
Show them as a list, with what puts each of them here
- Ragnild Tostensdatter 1863– · born here; died here
- Ole Olsen 1894– · born here
- Sebjorn Olsen 1897– · born here
- Ragna Olsdtr 1904– · born here
- George Olsen 1908–1935 · born here
- Ragnild Tollefsdatter – · lived here
- Tosten Sebjørnsen – · lived here
The records
- 1863. Ragnild, daughter of Tosten Sebjørnsen and Ragnild Tollefsdatter, Møgstue, born February 26, baptized March 29. Rollag ministerialbok I 9, p. 19, no. 16, and Veggli klokkerbok II 1, p. 46, no. 5: minister, clerk.
- 1865. The census, Møklestue, Veggli, household 46a: the transcription.
- 1887. Bergit baptized June 12: the record. It gives Ragnild's birth year as 1862. Her own baptism says 1863.
- 1894. Ragnild Tostensdatter and Ole Gjermundsen married, November 17: the record.
The cookhouse: Rollag municipality's guide to Rollag bygdetun.