Author's Note
Families Chart
Denmark Map
Chapter 1
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Explanatory Notes
Danish genealogical research presents a number of problems that need to be explained. Because of these problems, significant confusion has developed over the years which require clarification. In all genealogical work, records of people and places used as source material are filled with variations and errors. Genealogy is not an exact science, especially when bridging languages and cultures. Alternate names, dates and places are used in this history, especially when source material is quoted or if there is uncertainty as to correctness. These issues can be summarized as 1) language-related issues; 2) variations in records; and 3) the nature of patronymics and common names in Denmark, especially before 1900.
1. Danish Language and Spelling
The Danish language includes a number of vowels which are not found in the English language.
Ø ø or Ö ö - Examples: Sørensen, Jørgen. Americanization replaces the letter with o, even though the pronunciation is different.
Å å - Example: Århus - the city where the Sørensen family lived around 1870, sometimes spelled Aarhus.
Æ æ - Example: Holbæk. In English, written as ae.
All vowels are pronounced. For example, Ane or Anne is pronounced as Anna ("Ah - nah") and are often interchanged with each other and with Anna.
There are differences in consonants as well.
th - Example: Methe Marie. Mette Marie is listed sometimes in the census records as Methe Marie. The "th" is always pronounced as "t," so Danes consider the two names the same.
J j - The letter J is more like the American Y in pronunciation.
v and w - Example: Anders Vilhelm or Wilhelm. W is not common in Danish. When used, it is pronounced as a v. When coming from Denmark to America, some people changed their names to a more American spelling, such as Anders Vilhelm to Andrew William. In his adult life, Anders Vilhelm was primarily known as William.
2. Variations in Recorded Information
Church and government agents and recorders sometimes were not in agreement with each other or with family in the spelling of names and places. Besides this, mistakes were made in the recording of the information. Over the years, family and even the people themselves relied on memory alone, so incorrect dates and places are eventually recorded. Because of this, it is good to use as many different sources as possible. Fortunately, Danish research using today's technological advances is much better than it was even a decade ago. Many of these people can be traced using church, census, military and other government records on computers. The Danish State Archives has provided access to a large portion of their church and census records via the Internet, some of which is searchable. This has helped tremendously in providing the background source material you find in this history. Still, since these records are so numerous and continuing work is being done to scan and index these records, mistakes and omissions can be resolved yet in the future. Updates will be provided using Internet services.
3. Danish Naming Conventions
Prior to the late 1800's children were generally named with surnames that are based on the first name of the father, appended with either -sen or -datter (son or daughter), as applicable. Because of the use of this system, called patronymics, it is difficult to trace a family going only by last name. As they came to America, the people sometimes changed their last names to be the same as their father's last name. This was the case with Hans and his family. His children, who previously had Hansen as their last name, took on Sorensen as their last name in church and public records. Another issue is that a small number of first names were extensively used in Denmark. Hans and Ane are two of these over-used names.
Because of the commonplace nature of the name Hans, a mistake in research happened in the past that has affected the understanding of Hans Sorensen's name in particular. Hans Sorensen and Ane Nielsen (Nielsdatter) lived in the city of Ruds-Vedby soon after the birth of their first son, Soren Peter. At the very same time, another family lived in Ruds-Vedby with parents named Hans Sorensen and Ane Nielsen (Nielsdatter). They also had a son about the same age as Soren Peter, with that same name. Because of this confusing situation, research in the early 1900s concluded that these two Hans Sorensens were one and the same person. The other Hans Sorensen was born in the town or Reerslev in August 1821 and was given the name of Hans Henrik Sorensen. Because of research following the Reerslev Han Sorensen, some family members began using Henrik (or some variation of that name) as a middle name for our Hans Sorensen. A couple of histories in existence, written at that time, use this incorrect middle name. There is a page in the appendix devoted to explaining this situation and why we know that our Hans Sorensen is not Hans Henrik Sorensen.
Note Concerning Danish Record References
The two Internet websites used extensively in finding information in Denmark both are provided by the Danish State Archives:
http://www.sa.dk/ao/ (scanned images of parish and census records)
http://ddd.dda.dk/ (searchable index of records)
The first one is called arkivalieronline.dk and has a set of images for each parish book or census locale. The individual images are each numbered as an "Opslag," which word corresponds roughly to "research page." As much as possible, when references are cited from the arkivalieronline, there will be an Opslag number and possibly also a page number, if page numbers were in the original document. This allows anyone who wishes to be able to find the document in the www.sa.dk website.
