While I'm sure most who do this prompt will talk about film found, or special prints, for me, this brought to mind one particular story once I thought about it, and I couldn't resist the chance to tell it because I don't think I have before here on this blog. It's the story of the beginning of the Bordewick line as far as we know, and what happened to that founder.
Hans Henrik Bordwig is my 4th great grandfather. According to family lore, he was born in or near Bardowick, Germany, but as a young man, he traveled north to become a sea captain in Norway. It was there he met and married his wife, Anna Magdalena Tiller, and became a citizen of that country. The couple had three sons: Ole, Johan, and Hans. Ole died within a year of birth, but Johan and Hans grew and married, though Hans died quite young, still in his thirties. So my 3rd great-grandfather was the only surviving son of that line, and its from him that the little we know about his father survives.
In Norway, Hans Henrik became the captain of a ship called De Tvende Venner, or The Twenty Friends in English. He carried cargo between Norway and England and the continent, but in 1812, Hans was in a shipwreck in Veilholmen, near the islands of Smolen and Hittern. The crew and their captain managed to reach shore, but froze to death before reaching the inhabitants. They were buried near Hittern Church. Johan was only ten years old.
I don't know a lot of how this affected Johan's life, though from what I do know, I can imagine. Johan lived to the age of 76, a good old age, and by that time, he'd married twice, and had a total of sixteen children. I know that from a young age, he went out to work, and I'm sure that was to help his mother after his father's death, as usually children weren't sent out to work until the age of at least thirteen, unless the family needed the money. He worked as a clerk for several years, eventually getting a job in the Lofoten Islands, helping to run a trading post there, which he ended up taking over when the owner had to leave (under mysterious circumstances, according to family lore--the owner was possibly on the run either from the law or from debtors, which meant he left it in Johan's capable hands). He even became the mayor of that town for a time in his later years. He himself never went to sea that I know, but at least one of his sons did, and made quite a good living at it. Johan made a great life for himself and his family, but I think he only worked all the harder because of his father's fate.
Hans is one of our big family mysteries, because though many have dug into the records around Bardowick, we have yet to find a record of any sort for a Hans Henrik Bordwig or any variation. It likely means he changed his name upon appearing in Norway, and we have no way of tracking down what that may have been. We all keep looking though, in an attempt to break through that wall.
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