From the 1930s, in addition to farming, fishing and hunting, Ole was a road supervisor in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which at the time had begun constructing Highway 50 through Finnmark. Elvira had the main responsibility for the livestock and the household.
The family were coastal Sámi. They had an established barter arrangement with a reindeer-herding verddefamily, the Eira family. The Persens got meat and skins from the Eira family’s reindeer, while Ole helped them with practical matters and provided them with both equipment and goods. Elvira supplied the Eira family with handcrafted products, such as knitted garments.
In October 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, the family was ordered to evacuate. All the farm buildings were burnt down. They fled on their bicycles. On 6 November 1944, Ole, Elvira and Else arrived in the municipality of Balsfjord, in Troms. On 25 December they were lodged with Hilmar Bakken in Nordkjosbotn, where they remained until the end of the war. Elvira’s father, Aslak Pedersen, died in 1937. Her mother, Anna Jørgine Pedersen, b.1868, was packed on board the “death ship” Karl Arp together with 1900 others. 25 people from Finnmark perished during this voyage to Narvik. Anna Jørgine was one of them.