Brick Wall People – Part 21 – Francis Curran

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Name: Francis Curran

Birth: about 1814

Death: 1877, Antrim, Ireland

Marriage: unknown

Location(s): Antrim, Ireland

Relation to me: Francis Curran was my mother's father's mother's mother's father's father. Which makes him 7^th generation before me.

Alias(es): none known

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): unknown

Children: 1 known – Thomas Curran

Other Family: none known

Details: Francis is one generation further back than my previous brick wall. When I started working on my family tree, it was the Curran family I so desperately hoped to find, but all I had was my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Curran. I was finally able to find her parents' names a few years back, and with them, I was also able to find a wedding record that listed their fathers' names, so I got even one more generation back on one side of each branch. However, I've made little more progress since, though I do keep looking.

As things stand now, Francis and Thomas are the only two people I have for this family. I have no idea who Francis married, or how many children they had. I also don't know where Francis was born. I would love to know all of that, and to firm up whether this branch is actually the pure Irish strain I speculate they are, unlike my other three Irish branches.

Proof:

1)      I first found Francis on his son's marriage record to Jennie Blair, which listed nothing but his name.

2)      The second was a death record in the Irish Civil registry, that lists his birth and death dates, and that he died in Antrim, Ireland, though I'm not entirely certain this is him. Francis Curran isn't an uncommon name, so it is possible the record is not his.

Needed:

Once more, I have no BMD info, so I would love to firm up the dates I have for him. As stated above, I'd love to know the names of any other family members aside from his son, Thomas, particularly his parents, wife, and children. And I'd love to know if these were Protestant the way the rest of my family were, and if they were always living in this area.

As always, if my family or anyone out there has any more information on this family, I'd love to talk to you about them. I'd love to learn more on any of them, if at all possible.

Matrilinial Monday – Maren Sofie Hansen

Name: Maren Sofie Olsen

Called by Grandkids: My grandmother and her siblings likely would have called her mormor if they'd ever met, but they never got to.

Birth: 1855, Slots-Bjergby, Denmark

Death: 1923, Alsted-Flinterup, Denmark

Spouse: Rasmus Hansen

Marriage: 1881, Alsted-Flinterup, Denmark

Children: Herman, Maren Hansine, Julie Oline, Hans Kristian, Johanne Kirsten, Ole

Parents: Ole & Birthe Marie Larsen

Siblings: 2 half-sisters: Christianne Marie Nielsdatter, Anne Kirstine Nielsdatter

About: Maren Sofie had a very interesting life. She was the only child of Ole and Birthe Marie, and her father emigrated to the US around the time she was born. The family did not see him again until Maren's youngest surviving son, Hans, went to America and met him in Minnesota, working for him for a time until the older man's death. After her father's departure, she was sent to work for neighboring families to help out around the house or on the farms. I am not entirely sure what she did, just that she was a family helper before she met her husband, Rasmus. Her mother had been married previously, and had two daughters older than Maren, though I am not sure how well they got along with their younger sister, or if they even ever met – it is possible they died with their father, as I have no death date for either girl.

Rasmus had been married previously when he met Maren, and had lost his wife shortly before. He had no children, but he had taken control of the family farm, and likely needed a wife and family to help him run it. The two had six children together before his death in 1895 of a respiratory ailment, and afterwards, she and the children ran the farm as best they could, her eldest son and two eldest daughters helping out, each in their own ways.

Her eldest two stayed close to home, marrying once they were old enough, and starting families of their own. Her third child, Oline, moved to Fredericksburg, a suburb of Copenhagen, with the agriculture minister, who was from their area, and helped out in their home until she decided to move to America in the early 1900s. Hans, her fourth child, moved to America before his sister, and wandered around the country, finding jobs where he could after his grandfather died. Both returned for a few visits to Denmark before their mother's death in 1923, but stayed in America, settling there and marrying. The youngest two both died early deaths. Ole drowned in his teen years, and Johanne committed suicide when she was in her very early twenties. I can only speculate how hard these losses likely hit my great-great grandmother, given they were her youngest children, and the fact that it is never easy to lose a child. She'd lost so much already in her life.

At the time of her death, she had just gotten her seventh grandchild, though she never got to meet her or her eldest sister, my grandmother. Her descendants reside mostly in Denmark to this day, though Oline's branch is spread out through America. Hans never had any children, but he resided her in the US until his death in the late 80s.

Rasmus and Maren, we believe with their son, Han ca 1890

Brick Wall People – Part 15 – Anne Sorensdatter

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Name: Anne Sorensdatter

Birth: about 1795, Slots-Bjergby, Denmark

Death: 1833, Rosted Mark, Denmark

Marriage: 1817, Slots-Bjergby Denmark

Location(s): Slots-Bjergby, Denmark Rosted Mark, Denmark

Relation to me: Anne Sorensdatter would be my father's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother. Which would make her 7^th generation before me, if I can prove her.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown, though her father's name is likely Soren.

Spouse(s): Henrich Christian Schrøder

Children: 3 known – Birthe Marie, Niels, Caroline

Other Family: none known

Details: Anne is an incredibly recent addition to my family tree. I found her in a PAF file on Family Search, which means that the connection at this time is highly speculative, but that she is likely my Birthe Marie's mother. I have no other confirmation of this, however, so at this time, this is only an assumption on my part, though her information matches well to her daughter.

Proof:

1)      As I said, the only proof I have of Anne is a PAF file at Family Search at this time, which is next to no proof at all, but it's a better placeholder than nothing at all, so I will keep her for now.

Needed:

Because the information I got came from a PAF file, it came with birth, death, and marriage dates, but given that that is my only proof of all of them, I can only assume that they are correct, so I'd rather find more documentation of her age before I take those dates as fact. I would love to know who her parents were as well, and if she had any siblings.

As always, if my family or anyone out there has any more information on this family, I'd love to talk to you about them. I'd love to learn more on any of them, if at all possible.

Matrilinial Monday – Else Katrine Hansen

Name: Else Katrine Larsen

Called by Grandkids: Likely farmor on my side of the tree, which is Danish for father's mother, because she was my great-grandfather's mother, though I don't know that my grandmother or her siblings ever met her.

Birth: 1865, Ringive, Denmark

Death: 1934, Vejle, Denmark

Spouse: Jens Christian Hansen

Marriage: 1855, Vejle, Denmark

Children: Hansine Kristine, Hans Jørgen, Holger Skov, Aage, Alfred, Ida Kirstine, Hans Knudsen, Adolf

Parents: Jørgen Larsen & Ivare Kirstine Christensen

Siblings: Kristine, Birte Marie, Mette Margrethe, Lars Kristian, Maren Kirstine, Søren, Dagmar Augusta, Ane Marie

About: Else was the eldest child of Jørgen and Kirsten Larsen's nine children. I know little about her life, though she lived all of it in and around Vejle as an adult, where she married her husband Jens and raised their eight children. Life was good, if poor. They often went without things, even such simple things as shoes for the children, according to her son. Her husband was a farmer, but also made a living as a mason, a skill which he taught at least one of his sons, my great-grandfather Holger, which helped him earn enough to come to the US as a young man. She lived long enough to see many of her children leave Denmark, one to England, and several more to the US, where they married and raised children of their own.

By the time Else died, her children had given her eleven grandchildren, and a twelfth was named for her shortly after her death. Her descendants live many places around the world today—Denmark, England, USA, and even Australia.

Else (l) with her daughter-in-law, granddaughter, son, and mother ca 1926

Brick Wall People – Part 14 – Lars Andersen

Note: I apologize for not posting the past couple weeks. Life's been distracting. I still have a few more of these to post, and several more Matrilinial Monday posts to put up, so there will be lots coming.

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Name: Lars Andersen

Birth: about 1794, Vejle, Denmark

Death: unknown

Marriage: 3/26/1820, Vejle, Denmark

Location(s): Give, Vejle, Denmark

Relation to me: Lars Andersen is my father's mother's father's mother's father's father. He is the 7^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown, though his father's name is likely Ander or Anders.

Spouse(s): Birthe Marie Sorensen

Children: Anders, Mette, Else Marie, Johannes, Peder, Soren Christian, Jørgen, Elias

Other Family: none known

Details: I found Lars and his wife only recently, after many years of having them listed as Lars Christensen and Oertha (someone had made a B with a squished top part of the letter, so that when it was copied, it got cut off and the bottom of the B looked like an O, so that's how it's been written for years). I decided to take a second look at their son's information and tried to track down his birth record, which listed his parents. From that, I got his parents' names, and that led me to a record on Family Search which no longer seems to exist that gave other children, and more about her family, but nothing more on his. Unfortunately I know little about them except that they were from Vejle. I hope to learn more soon, now that I have the proper names.

Proof:

1)      As I said above, for many years, my only information was that his name was Lars Christensen, which is actually his son's wife's surname, so I think that's where that actually came from, but I could be wrong. The original information came from my grandmother's cousin, Tula, whose mother was Jørgen's daughter.

2)      The next real info we got on Lars and his wife was from Jørgen's baptismal record. That gave me their names, though little else.

3)      The last is both the most information and the least substantial, as I had no clue who had created the record, nor was I able to verify the records included outside of that record. The Family Search tree included children and dates, but little else, so my only true information comes from that baptismal record until I can find more.

Needed:

Unlike most of my brick walls, I have a suggestion for a birth date, and a marriage date as well, though little else. I assume that Lars was a farmer, as that was the most likely occupation in this area at this time, but beyond that, I have nothing else.

I would love to know the names of his parents, if he had siblings, and when he died, though I assume it was in Vejle.

As always, if my family or anyone out there has any more information on this family, I'd love to talk to you about them. I'd love to learn more on any of them, if at all possible.