1724, the family comes to Norway

The Dietrichson family has Danish roots. Erasmus Dietrichson was born in Copenhagen in 1673 and became an officer in the Danish army. In 1721 he was made a colonel, and later he went to the Danish West Indies. The family register of 1882 calls him governor there, but his name is not in the usual lists of governors, so the position is not confirmed. From there he came to Norway. In 1724 he was appointed commander of the 1st Vesterlen Regiment, which was based in Kristiansand, and it is this appointment that counts as the arrival of the family in Norway.

The family register of 1882 says clearly that it was Erasmus himself who came. Some more recent accounts, among them the local history wiki Lokalhistoriewiki, say that it was a son of his who took the name Dietrichson and came as an officer. That fits poorly with the register, which is the oldest source we have found. His son Frederik was born in the West Indies in 1723, the year before the appointment.

Erasmus became a brigadier in 1733 and a major general in 1735. He owned the farm Bringsvær in Fjære, died there in 1737 and was buried in Fjære church. Frederik made a military career and became major general and commandant in Kristiansand in 1780. He had four sons: Johan Wilhelm (1758–1803), Erasmus (1762–1844), Bernt Fröchen (1766–1810) and Gabriel Grubbe (1777–1855). They became the forefathers of one branch each, and these four branches are what the page “The family from the start” follows.

The name Dietrichson derives from the given name Diderik. Store norske leksikon says that Erasmus was the son of the merchant Diderik Rasmussen in Copenhagen, who died in 1683. This is not in the register of 1882, and we have not found ancestors further back.