A Convert to Genealogy
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:44 am
You know how most peoples eyes glaze over at the mere mention of genealogy, well I think I just might have got someone hooked yesterday!
The mother of one of my collegues died from breast cancer at a relatively young age, and my collegue was saying how she didn't know very much about her mothers family. Her own children although young have asked questions about their maternal grandparents and family, and my collegue didn't know very much.
Her mother was born in 1947, so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find the parish records (in the area I'm researching for my husband, the Danish parish records are available up until 1940). She knew the surname of her maternal grandfather and the forname of her maternal grandmother, so we hadn't really got much to go on.
Finding people in the danish parish records demands that you know where to when the birth/confirmation/ marriage/ death etc took place, there is a searchable data base, but it's no way complete and again you need to know where and when to look. We checked the dates for the parish in question and were in luck, as they go up to 1949, so then it was a case of checking through the records. So within 20 minutes my collegue had found her mothers baptism! And she was extra lucky - most danish christening records have the name and occupation of the father, name (including maiden name) and age of the mother as well as who the godparents were. In this case the parents dates of birth and where they were born was also recorded. It even said that my collegues grandmother carried her mother during the christening.
My collegues first comment was, that somehow seeing it on the computer screen seemed to bring it to life, and make it more real to her.
I'm very much still feeling my way as far as the Danish records go, so it was great to be able to help someone else.
The mother of one of my collegues died from breast cancer at a relatively young age, and my collegue was saying how she didn't know very much about her mothers family. Her own children although young have asked questions about their maternal grandparents and family, and my collegue didn't know very much.
Her mother was born in 1947, so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find the parish records (in the area I'm researching for my husband, the Danish parish records are available up until 1940). She knew the surname of her maternal grandfather and the forname of her maternal grandmother, so we hadn't really got much to go on.
Finding people in the danish parish records demands that you know where to when the birth/confirmation/ marriage/ death etc took place, there is a searchable data base, but it's no way complete and again you need to know where and when to look. We checked the dates for the parish in question and were in luck, as they go up to 1949, so then it was a case of checking through the records. So within 20 minutes my collegue had found her mothers baptism! And she was extra lucky - most danish christening records have the name and occupation of the father, name (including maiden name) and age of the mother as well as who the godparents were. In this case the parents dates of birth and where they were born was also recorded. It even said that my collegues grandmother carried her mother during the christening.
My collegues first comment was, that somehow seeing it on the computer screen seemed to bring it to life, and make it more real to her.
I'm very much still feeling my way as far as the Danish records go, so it was great to be able to help someone else.
I was only helping you Lu!! 
