Isn't genealogy fun?

[snoopysue]

Rather than get a load of blank looks, I thourght I share this with a few like minded individuals! (Yes I do mean you lot!!)

I've been digging in my husbands family, and found out some things that they don't know.
We new that his grandfather Thorvald (Danish name!) was orphaned as a child - his father died when he was six months old. His mother remarried, and the story goes she died in childbirth shortly after. There was supposed to be a sister who survived. I'd not found a record of his mother's death. My husband's grandfather then lived in many places, and attended many schools - it was thought he was fostered out of the family.
I've just found out that she died 10 years after the marriage, and after the birth of six more children! Luckily it seems that Thorvald continued living with his mother through this period - they appear on a census. He lived with his grandmother after his mother's death.
The reason that I'm all excited is that Thorvald's stepfather moved the family around every few years, and while the Danish census and parish records are very good, there is no database to search - so it meant trawling through the records one by one until I happened to stumble on the correct one! What is also interesting is that Thorvald's stepfather was a mormon, so none of the children were christened in the Danish lutheren church - although all are recorded in the parish records! To find Thorvald's mother's death I had to start searching through the parish records for a whole county - with about 50 different parishes - luckily I only needed to look as far as "H".
Thorvald's stepfather remarried nearly 16 years after the death of Thorvald's mother. The woman he married, by that time had already given him seven children! Of which only one was baptised (not sure why!). They still moved around the area every few years, possibly due to being umemployed (they sertainly recieved financial help from the parish). Of thirteen children, there were nine different places of birth! Needless to say I've only found three census records (they were held every 5 years) of the six available.

I can't wait to tell my mother in law what I've found out!

[dudleytaylor]

Well done Sue . Genealogy is great fun , I just wish someone would tell my husband that

[MarkCDodd]

Good on you! I just hope they believe you. Sometimes it is hard to destroy family myths with facts.

[snoopysue]

Good on you! I just hope they believe you. Sometimes it is hard to destroy family myths with facts.

Actually, it confirmed some of what my mother in law had heard, but as the family was complicated, the people she thought were part of the foster family have turned out to be half siblings of her father's half siblings!
What she didn't know was that her father had more half siblings than the one half sister she'd heard of. She could even tell me names that I've discovered, and has met some of them.
She knew there was a mormon connection, but again this was attributed to the foster family - rather than her blood relatives. I don't think she was shocked though. I've been in touch with the daughter of one of the "foster family" - her mother and aunt emigrated to the US in the 50's. Her aunt is still alive, so I'm hoping she may remember something that may help. My mother in law has met most of this family, but didn't quite realise the connection.
I think my next job is to see if I can find a confirmation record for the half sister who was adopted out. I'm hoping that whoever adopted her lived the town the family came from originally - ordinarily confirmation records name the parents, so I'm hoping that in this case they name the birth parents - trouble is I don't know if she changed her surname or not, but I do have her date of birth, which should also be recorded on the confirmation record. Danish church records do tend to be accurate, and have loads of useful info on them.

[AndrewA]

Yes it is fun, a barrel of laughs !

SO far I have not anyone in the family who think it is great, they listened to me politely for a few minutes then switch off.

i thought they would be more interested but they are not.

[gardener]

That sounds like a lot of hard (and very careful work)!
Have you checked the Familysearch side of things? If there is a Mormon connection (and USA) then you might pick something up from them.

[snoopysue]

That sounds like a lot of hard (and very careful work)!
Have you checked the Familysearch side of things? If there is a Mormon connection (and USA) then you might pick something up from them.

I have checked Family Search, but they're not there! I checked a few years ago, when I first was researching my husbands family, and rechecked recently. There is very little on ancestry other than the one tree.