Harry Larsen is home from the sea

Arne Larsen, of Haugesund, Norway, has traveled to Carrabelle to meet his extended family and honor his great uncle’s lost grave.

            After five years of searching, the 68-year-old Larsen is reunited with his lost great-uncle, Herman “Harry” Larsen and has discovered over 90 new relatives on this side of the Atlantic.

            On Saturday, after a year of planning and correspondence across the big pond, Larsen and his wife Joy attended a ceremony at his great uncle’s gravesite in Evergreen Cemetery in Carrabelle and then attended a cookout with over 30 of his newfound kin.

            When he began his search, Arne had only an entry in the 1890 Norwegian census, which said Harry Larsen was “at sea.”

            Larsen said he wasted his first year of searching because he believed his great-uncle had traveled to Vancouver. After he finally accepted the fact Harry had not landed in Canada, he began to search areas where there were large established populations of Norwegian expatriates, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

            Over the years, he worked his way to the Florida archives and finally found a Harry Lancer arriving in Carrabelle in 1900. Further investigation led him to believe he had found his relative. He later contacted David Larsen, of Tallahassee, Harry’s grandson.

            “When he contacted me, one of the first things he asked was why Harry would have stayed in Carrabelle,” said David. “I told him it’s the same old answer, a woman.”

            Harry met Druzilla “Drusie” Putnal, nee Richards, in Carrabelle, a Creek Indian and the widow of a local fisherman with five children. He married Drusie and adopted her sons and daughters. Together, Harry and Drusie had two children of their own, Beatrice and Harry Jr.

            Harry remained in Carrabelle for the rest of his life and passed away in 1951, a year after Drusie.

            Arne said he believes his great-uncle jumped ship in 1890 on Ship Island off the Mississippi coast.

            “There is still a black hole that I haven’t filled in,” he said. “Where was Harry for the 10 years from 1890 to 1900?”

            David Larsen said, “I may be able to help with that. My father said that Harry arrived in Apalachicola first and took a skiff he found and crossed the river to Eastpoint. He must have been living rough in the woods. He saw some chickens and took one to eat but the farmer caught him. When the farmer found out he was a foreigner working his way across country, he made him a farmhand, so Harry was in Eastpoint for a while.”

            Oldest in attendance at the reunion was Frances “Drusie” Putnal Martin, of Attapulgus, GA, and the granddaughter of Druzilla by her first marriage. Drusie remembers her grandparents and bears her grandmother’s nickname.

            “I was born, raised and graduated from high school in 1945 in Carrabelle. I got married at the First Baptist Church in 1949,” said Drusie.

            The youngest Larsen descendent present was David’s granddaughter, Isabel Rose Weider, of Tallahassee, who is just 20 months old.

            “I am a visitor who has the privilege of getting to know my family through five years of work,” Arne Larsen told his family. “It has been almost exactly a year today since I found my grandfather’s brother.”

            In anticipation of the reunion, brothers David and Harry Larsen refurbished the Evergreen gravesite, which was on the verge of slipping away, and furnished it with a new tombstone.

            On Sunday, David and his wife Linda set off with Arne and Joy for a cross-country trip to visit relatives who could not attend the reunion. They will travel to Vicksburg, MS, Memphis, TN, and in Florida, to Crystal River and Stuart.