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LET’S TALK GENEALOGY MEETING DATES
July 27, 2010
August 24, 2010
September 28, 2010
At 7:00 p.m.
LET’S TALK ABOUT A TRIP TO DENMARK
My mother has had a life long desire to see Copenhagen and Esjberg, the city her grandfather
departed from to immigrate to America. So along with my brother and his wife the four of us flew to Denmark in early May. I explained to my Mom that Grandpa Hansen was born in Guldager, a small town very near to the harbor town of Esjberg on the western side of Denmark. I’m assuming Grandpa Hansen sailed from Esjberg to Hamburg, Germany then boarded a ship to America and eventually settled in Chicago.
Besides Guldager I had two other towns on my genealogy list but because of time constraints we chose Ostofte as the other town to visit. This wasn’t a hard choice since I had photos of both the town churches of Guldager and Ostofte dating from late 1940’s to the early 1950’s. I was most anxious to compare the earlier photos with the present day structures and of course to wander the cemeteries.
Danish research is divided into counties or Amt in Danish, then townships or Herred and finally parish or Sogn. Each Sogn includes a number of towns and in the church records the town where the person lived is entered along with the individual entries. We visited the town of Guldager in the County of Ribe, in the township of Skast, and the Parish of Guldager. Ostofte is in the County of Maribo, Fuglse Township and the Ostofte Parish.
Many Danish churches were formed in the 1300’s, however it wasn’t until the 1700’s that the parish ministers were required to record those items the genealogist craves, Births, Marriages, and Deaths. As with all things new and required, it took a bit of time before the ministers complied with the new rules. Hence though most records begin in the 1700’s not all begin in the same year.
Unlike the United States which is a nation of immigrants, generation after generation of Danes were baptized, married and buried from the same church. Take a moment to think about how many people have died in 700 plus years and earlier in these towns. Think about the space issues. Denmark is a small country and mostly agriculture. People have to eat. There simply is not enough space to devote to the dead. So after a specified length of time, the graves are reused.
I do not know any of the gory details but I did not see many tombstones with death dates before 1940. If you look closely at the two church pictures, you can see a few tombstones reminiscent
of the 4 sided obelisks seen in older cemeteries in the United States. Now look at the photos of the same cemeteries today. As you can see, pea gravel has replaced grass and each plot is beautifully landscaped.
The day we journeyed to Guldager it poured rain and our rental car was battered by high winds. With the temperature hovering in the upper 40’s and the wind threatening to twist my umbrella into ruin, I plunged into the cemetery with camera in hand. This would be my one and only chance to take a picture of my ancestor’s cemetery even though only their ghosts remained.
Except for a few castoff monuments lining the perimeter of the cemetery, I didn’t see any evidence of where the very old tombstones might have gone.
The weather was much better on the day we drove to the town of Ostofte to see the church and its cemetery. There I saw possible evidence that if the family still had descendants living in one of the surrounding towns the older stones were propped up in the family plot. Or else thrown in the refuse pile in the back of the cemetery. Yes, I checked to make certain the names on those poor stones were not on my surname list.
Unfortunately neither of the churches was open and in fact no one was around at either location and there was no evidence of a parsonage or church office. The towns of Guldager & Ostofte are tiny and an accurate statement would be that the church is the town. The few homes are small with tile roofs though I did see one thatched roof. The town roads were barely wide enough to allow two cars to pass and with a little imagination you could picture horse drawn carts and farmers carrying scythes over their shoulders walking to their fields.
I stood in the Ostofte cemetery and gazed at the modern stones. Nothing remains of my ancestors except scribbled names in a brittle church book. The towns where they lived are unrecognizable, their tombstones are gone and their bones…
Were their spirits watching me? If so, were my ancestors pleased that I had a desire to see where they had lived and died? I like to think so.
Judy Robel
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| Last updated July 9, 2010 |
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