The Hansen Family; Jutland, Denmark
I have several branches of my family tree that are patronymic in origin. Hansen is the most prominent, if not most prevalent (Jensen and Christiansen and variants take that honor) of my family.
My grandmother's parents were both born with the surname Hansen because of the old Danish naming traditions. This week, I'm going to cover his family, which has only been Hansen since his father's generation.
The furthest back in this line I've managed to get was a man named Knud Madsen, though I presume his father's name was Mads, I have no other information about him, and little about his son. Knud was my great-grandfather's great-great grandfather, who was born in the Jutland area of Denmark sometime in the mid 1700s. The line continued there as farmers until the early 1900s, when my great-grandfather made enough money to travel to America.
This line is as Danish as my family gets. It's possible they have origins elsewhere, but for at least 5, probably 6 or more generations, all of the family was born in Jutland, and probably never traveled much further than the nearest town until my great-grandfather.
He made a fairly good living as a bricklayer in New York, and might have settled there permanently but for a return trip to Denmark in about 1916 that changed things again. It was on that trip that he met my great-grandmother, who was living in Chicago at the time. When all ships back to the US were cancelled due to a blockade because of World War I shortly after their arrival in Denmark, he took the chance and traveled to her home on the island of Sealand to court her. After returning to America, the two moved to Cleveland, neutral ground and a fresh start for both, with a small Danish community already in place. They married there and had three kids together before her death in 1929.
The Hansen line is as follows, for those interested:
* Knud Madsen, son of Mads ? was born in about 1730. We know
nothing about his wife, or how many children he might have had, but we do know of one son.
* Knud Knudsen was born in Denmark in 1794, and married Ane Marie Hansdatter in 1822. the two had five sons and two daughters.
* His second son, Hans Knudsen, was born in the same place in Denmark in 1824. He married Christine Jensdatter in 1854, and the couple had 4 sons and 4 daughters.
* Their eldest son, Jens Christian Hansen, was also born in the family's long-time community in 1858. He married Else Katrine Larsen in 1885, and the two had 6 sons and 2 daughters. He made much of his living as a bricklayer, and when his second son (my great-grandfather) was old enough, he taught him the skill as well.
* My great grandfather, Holger Skov Hansen, was their second son and third child. He was born in the same small town in 1891, and lived there until about 1910 or so.
+ In 1909, he helped his father build Thyregod station (site is in Danish, though easily translated with Google translate), which still stands today, and made enough money to travel to the US.
+ He married my great-grandmother Oline Hansen in 1918, and the two had two daughters and one son before her death in 1929.
+ Their children had 8 children between them, and those children had 12 children between them. Of us great-grandchildren, there are even 5 great-great grandchildren born, with one more on the way. All of us still reside in the US.
What I don't know:
* Though I know of Knud Knudsen, I know almost nothing about him. I'd love to know his mother's name, as well as any siblings he might have had, and exactly where and when he was born.
* I'd also love to know the same of Knud Madsen, his father, as I have even less about him. I assume his father's first name is Mads, but that is all that I can guess at this time, aside from his likely being born in Denmark.
Other information about this branch of the family:
Old Surname Posts – * Hansen part 1
Where We're From Posts –
* Where We're From – United States
* Where We're From – Denmark
Other -
* Four Generations
* New Discoveries
* Holger Hansen
* Finding Oline Correspondance .5
* World War II Draft Cards
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