Beginning to Build Some Corroborating Evidence. My Olesen Family of Denmark

       I continue to be somewhat frustrated searching through the Danish records with the patronymic surname.

North Sea to the west, a small shot of beach section of Ny Sogn

     
     I have been able to nail down the area of Denmark where my Danish family lived as shown in the census reports and other documents.  The first piece of research that I found zeroing in on an area in Denmark was my paternal great great grandfather's immigration report, which lists Jutland as his birthplace  (1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription, Archive reference RG10, Piece number 4785, Folio 222).  The first Denmark census report listing him with his family is 1845.  Their home is in Rinkobing county, Hind hundred, Ny Sogn parish and the place name (which is the church nearest to their home), Haurvig (church)  (Census Year 1845, Danish Demographic Database Ref. DDA-9888, Kipno. C1512. Parish: Nysogn. Hundred: Hind. County: Ringkøbing. Record no. 1435 of 1561).  This area is in the portion of Denmark called Jutland.

Section of the Denmark map where my Olesen family lived

   
     I love maps and utilizing them for family placement and to understand where they lived and why their choice of occupation.  This map shows the area where my Olesen family lived.  With the North Sea to the east and Rinkobing Fjord, to the south, they would have had their home near Haurvig Church in Ny Sogn. 

Ole Christensen portion of 1845 Denmark Census

     From the information gleaned from the 1845 Danish census:  My paternal 3x great grandfather's name was Ole Christensen, son of Christen.  He was born in 1809 In Rinkobing county, Buur Amt. parish.  The 1845 census is the only one that lists his year of birth as 1809.  All others and his death record lists 1820 as the year of his birth.  I will admit that the year of birth threw a monkey wrench into my research so to continue researching this family, I had to focus on Ole's wife, my paternal 3x great grandmother, Elizabeth Lauridsdatter (Elizabeth daughter of Laurids).  Her documentation remained constant throughout.  But I digress.  Ole was the owner of an agriculture business (eier jordbrug or jordbruk).

     Another issue that has entered into my research is my paternal great great grandfather, Christian Ingvart Olesen, is only enumerated with his family at age one in 1845.  I have spent a number of blogs relating that Christian was a somewhat belligerent hothead as an adult.  Perhaps he also displayed these characteristics as a child and he was "farmed" out to various relations during his life in Denmark.  I did find him listed on the 1860 Danish census and he was not living with his parents.  To be fair, he was somewhat easy to find on the 1845 and 1860 census as his middle name is listed.  Trying to nail down his record searching for Christian Olesen, even using his birth year and place has not proven fruitful.  I am also not certain that the household he is enumerated with in 1860 is an extended family member.  The "mother" of the household's surname is Christensen (oddly sen and not datter).  Perhaps she is the sister of Christian's father. 

     As Ole and Elizabeth continued to add children to their family, the only one missing is my great great grandfather.  Very strange.  Before I forget, I want to mention that when my paternal great great grandfather married, the name of his first daughter, my paternal; great grandmother, was possibly a combination of the names of both of my paternal 3x great grandmothers--Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen.  
      

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2017, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



What's in a surname? My Olesen Family of Denmark

     

      It's been a year since I made the time to add even a word to my blog.  Shame on me!  It isn't for lack of something to write about.  Quite the opposite.  I have simply not made the time to put pen to paper.  I am making a concerted effort to change that in 2018.

     One piece of research that was sent to me by my genealogy buddy in the UK was an Internet site (FREE) that has copies of Danish census reports published.  She also noodled around the site and found my Olesen family listed.  I was gobsmacked!  The Olesen's have been a somewhat illusive branch and in the past year or two, again, thanks to Heather, information regarding the family while living in Hartlepool, England have been revealed in drips and drabs.  I never had any hope of tracing them back to their motherland.  Never say never.

    The bridge I had to cross to nail down my Olesen family was how the Danish derive their surnames.

"As in the other Nordic countries, the use of primary patronyms (and sometimes matronyms) instead of surnames was common in Denmark until hereditary surnames became mandatory in 1828.
To create an Danish primary patronym, the suffix -sen (= 'son') or -datter (= 'daughter') is added to the father's name.

Sometimes the genitive form of the father's name is used before adding the suffix. You will find the genitive forms of Danish names in the grammar tables on the respective name pages. In Danish, usually just the suffix -s is added directly to the name. "  (https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Danish_Surnames)

    So, simply plugging in Ole Olesen (the name listed on Christian's marriage certificate) into the search engine to find my great great great grandfather was not the way to go since his surname would not be Olesen.  The alternate method was plugging in my great great grandfather's name Christian Olesen to see what would come up.....The answer--thousands.  But low and behold there was a Christian Ingvart Olesen on the 1845 census.  BINGO!!  There he was along with his family.

,

1845 Denmark Census, Ringkøbing, Hind, Ny Sogn, page 36

     

     Records I have of Christian do list him as Christian Invart Olesen born in Denmark about 1844.

          His marriage record of 1874 lists his father as Ole Lonne Olesen. 

         .

     Keep that additional name Lonne on the back burner as it will be revealed how it helped me get further across that genealogical bridge.  ;-)  And I simply have to ignore that on the marriage license Christian listed his father's surname as Olesen.
   

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2017, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



     Today my family and I drive to the Washington, DC area to participate on Saturday in the Women's March.  As a child of the late 60's, I feel as if I am going back to my roots as I approach my 70th birthday.  Back in those days we marched against the Vietnam War, racial injustice and Richard Nixon.  We marched for human rights, the environment and student rights.  I believe we were not wrong.  Now forty eight years later, I am to taking to the street, protesting the rights women could loose by the incoming administration, and quite frankly, protesting the election of a man who will set our country back to a time when women and minorities were considered second class people....not even citizens.

    As a genealogical blogger, I need to put all this into a family perspective.  Here is a glimpse of my female ancestors who lived during a time in this country when women slowly gained more human rights.  For instance, the youngest women in my family who were allowed to vote in 1920, were my two grandmothers at ages twenty two and forty.  Or another instance, lack of spousal rights....my husband's grandmother, who at age thirty six in 1931, lost her husband. She also lost her right to stay in her home and on the family owned farm land.  She was raising seven children, who became wards of the court due to her inability to provide.  She had no legal rights and others (males) in the family seized her home and property.  Perhaps one of the most horrific stories was told by my father relating to lack of reproductive rights.  When he was on rotation in the late 1940's, as a new intern, he saw numerous women coming into the ER who had either butchered themselves or had gone to a sleazy neighborhood abortion place and were hacked up beyond belief.  Either losing the ability to have children or losing their life due to no women's reproductive rights.

     I found the following quote on The National Women's History Project which explains what can be lost or set back and why we march.

"The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven generations in family life, in religion, in government, in employment, in education – these changes did not just happen spontaneously. Women themselves made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the passive recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations of women have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic ways: through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and nonviolent resistance. They have worked very deliberately to create a better world, and they have succeeded hugely." (History of the Women's Rights Movement)

  There will be other issues to protest with the incoming collection of governmental swamp dwellers.....bring it on.....I'm ready.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2017, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Lily Dale, New York

Carol, Reflections from the Fence, has once again challenged me...back in 2010; however, it showed today on my Facebook scroll.  I don't have much to offer; however, here are some gorgeous flowers ( and I can't remember the name....bad Linda) I captured on a summer 2016 visit to Lily Dale, New York.  

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2017, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser