4. Validating Details with Source Entries

 The Importance of Sources in Family History

As people are added to FamilySearch, and as details are entered for people of your family in FamilySearch, it is important to document these details and personal events using original sources. Many sources are available, especially in Denmark. This document will give some ideas and methods for providing these source details.

Using FamilySearch Sources Directly

When you look at the details of a person in FamilySearch, often you see suggestions of records contained in the vast FamilySearch system of record images. 

As you click on “Show All” you see the individual suggestions with more detail:

When you click on “Review & Attach, you see the details, side-by-side (not shown entirely here, but you get the idea):

If these look OK, click the “Attach” button and the source will be added to the sources collection for that individual.

When these hints are provided, they are based on transcriptions (from indexing) of those records. It is important to review these carefully, for several reasons. First, since names in Denmark are used often and many are very common, some suggestions make sense when really they are for different people with similar names and family situations. Sometimes they are listed as “weak,” but even it not, they should be examined well before proceeding. Also, there are sometimes errors in the records or transcriptions. I see these errors most often in census records.

Sometimes the hints are suggestions for merging your family member with person(s) who are also in FamilySearch who have similarities. These, also, should be approved with caution, but are important and may help connect families.

The Source List for People in FamilySearch, and Adding Sources

As you look at a person’s details, one of the views shows sources already attached for that person in FamilySearch. In that view, you also have the option to add sources yourself.

In this view, you can see the sources added from FamilySearch hints. Those are the ones with the FamilySearch tree symbol on the left side. Other sources are shown with the globe image on the left. Those are usually added from a person’s own research. If you add sources (as I will demonstrate here), those will be listed with that symbol.

If you click on “+ ADD SOURCE,” you will be presented with three options:

As you add your own sources in the FamilySearch system, they are usually included in your own Source Box (that is a choice given to you ). Here is an example of a source box:

You can see this list if you click on “Attach from Source Box,” and you can add a particular source to additional persons, clicking on “attach.”

Following is an example of taking details from a new record you have found and adding it as a source for someone in your family in FamilySearch. 

Marius Bernhard Olsen - Entered into FamilySearch, with Detailed Sources

Marius was born in 1893. The FamilySearch indexed records of parish volumes for Denmark ended in about 1891, so the source hints for Marius’ birth are not available. However, there are several of the census records that do extend into the 1900s, up to the 1930 census. (Lately, though, the 1916 and later census records have been restricted, so those later ones do not come up any more.) Because the parish volumes have not been transcribed for us in FamilySearch, other sources are helpful. Ancestry.com does have a lot of those later volumes transcribed and are available. Still, I have found that I need to review the actual parish records, searching from page to page, to fill in families.

Here is the example of the christening record for Marius and how I made the source record for that for him.

First, a note about research methods. It is good to keep a research log of some sort. I usually keep a text file on my computer where I place what I find in various records, mainly to help me see the big picture as I proceed. From these entries in the research log, I can then build the source entry for the particular records for that person. Here is an excerpt of my research log for the Niels Peder Olsen family (Marius’s father):

Niels Peder Olsen family

Maribo, Musse, Taars, Killerup, 0, 92, FT-1901, D8406

Navn: Alder: Status: Stilling i familien: Erhverv: Fødested:

Niels Peter Olsen  18621226  G  Husfader  Teglværksarbejder  Saxkøbing Landsogn  

Karen Marie Olsen født Jørgensen  18640615  G  Husmoder    Saxkøbing Landsogn  

Laurits Peder Olsen  18880908  U  Barn    Saxkøbing Landsogn  

Otto Peder Olsen  18900722  U  Barn    Taars Sogn Maribo Amt  

Marius Bernhardt Olsen  18930514  U  Barn    Taars Sogn Maribo Amt  

Julius Valdemar Olsen  18970715  U  Barn    Taars Sogn Maribo Amt  

Otto Martin Olsen  19000418  U  Barn    Taars Sogn Maribo Amt  

Maribo, Musse, Sakskøbing Landdistrikt, Rørbæk, , 6, FT-1916, C7472

Navn: Alder: Status: Stilling i familien: Erhverv: Fødested:

Niels Peder Olsen  26-11-1862  Gift  husfader  husmand    

Karen Marie Olsen  15-5-1864  Gift  husmoder      

Mary Olsen  16-4-1913  Gift  barn      [an error, her birth year is really 1903]

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=353312#353312,70311166

Sakskøbing Landsogn, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog new scans 1884-1891 male births

page 20 image 25 entry 15 for 1888 male christenings

b. 8 September 1888

Peter Laurits Olsen

chr. 7 October 1888

parents unmarried Karen Marie Jørgensen (age 24). child's father Niels Peter Olsen,Rodsnæs

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=158038#158038,26535965

Tårs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1892 FKVD - 1910 FKVD parish records

page 4 image 7 entry 6 for 1893 male christenings

b. 1893 14 May

Marius Bernhard Olsen

parents Niels Peder Olsen and wife Karen Marie, Jørgensen age 29 married Sakskøbing church 8/6/90

chr. 1893 9 July

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=158038#158038,26535979

Tårs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1892 FKVD - 1910 FKVD parish records

page 18 image 21 entry 12 for 1897 male christenings

b. 1897 15 July

Julius Valdemar Olsen

parents Niels Peder Olsen and wife Karen Marie, b. Jørgensen age 33 married Sakskøbing church 8/6/90

chr. 1897 7 November

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=158038#158038,26536042

Tårs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1892 FKVD - 1910 FKVD parish records

page 85 image 84 entry 2 for 1903 female christenings

b. 1903 16 April

Mary Christine Olsen

parents Niels Peder Olsen and wife Karen Marie, b. Jørgensen

chr. 1903 5 July

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=158038#158038,26535985

Tårs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1892 FKVD - 1910 FKVD parish records

page 24 image 27 entry 1 for 1900 male christenings

b. 1900 18 March

Otto Martin Olsen

parents Niels Peder Olsen and wife Karen Marie, b. Jørgensen age 35 married Sakskøbing church 8/6/90

chr. 1900 11 May

As you can see, I started with a search of the census records, using the DDD census records search service provided by the Danish State Archives (described in an earlier document). I found the family in 1901 and again in 1916 (with the error noted). Based on these, I started searching the actual parish records for the individual births (also noted in the research log). In this example, I follow the searching I did for Marius.

As you can see from the log, I found his christening record in Taars (or Tårs) parish in the 1892-1910 volume of births, confirmations, marriages and deaths (FKVD), on page 4 (image 7) entry 6 for 1893 male christenings. This information was entered in to his record in FamilySearch and then I created the source entry.

Creating the Source Entry

In the Sources page, I selected “Add New Source:”

 

    and filled in the next entry form:

This shows my own particular method of entering a source. You do not have to do it my way, but I hope that my method gives sufficient detail to make it most useful. As mentioned already, I save those particular details in my research log so it is easy to fill in the form.

The “Event Date” should be obvious. In this case the event being described is the christening, not the birth, but there are cases with infants who die without being christened, that it is the birth date. In this case I entered 9 July 1893.

I title the source with enough detail to make it easy to see at first glance exactly what it is, in this case: Location, year, event: Tårs, Maribo, 1893 christening of Marius Bernhard Olsen

This source type is from an actual web page, so that is indicated.

Next is the web address URL: 

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=158038#158038,26535965

In this case, to get this (on my computer system), I click on the address and it selects the full address and then I copy, and paste it into my research log.

Giving the URL in the source makes it possible for anyone looking at the source to be able to go right to the source and examine it for further details, if desired.

For Citation, I give an much detail as I can. In this case, I know that it is from the Kontraministerialbog (counter ministerial book) for the parish years of 1892-1910 for FKVD records (see above for the meaning of this). It is also useful to add the specifics of the location, so, in this case, I enter:

Tårs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1892 FKVD - 1910 FKVD parish records

page 4 image 7 entry 6 for 1893 male christenings

In the Notes section, I put in the rest of the detail I extracted from the record:

b. 1893 14 May

Marius Bernhard Olsen

parents Niels Peder Olsen and wife Karen Marie, Jørgensen age 29 married Sakskøbing church 8/6/90

chr. 1893 9 July

In looking at the actual record, you can see that there are really a lot more details. In this case, I chose what I considered the most useful:

Often, I will also include the birth place, but I did not in this case.

Now I also click on the buttons on the bottom to indicate Name Sex Birth Christening, so those are added to those detail items for Marius as sources attached.

Now, as people see the source, it shows:

Conclusion

As you add details and important information for a person, sources should be added to verify what you have included. Hopefully, this document had helped give some ideas about how to accomplish this.                       

                                                                                                     - Joseph F. Buchanan

3. Finding Details on that Elusive Danish Family Member

 Danish Research Techniques - When Other Methods Fail - an instructive example.

Here is a Danish family with two daughters, Karen and Maren, whose later lives are a mystery. We have records for them up until they were teen-agers, and then…  nothing.

This shows Karen and Maren (only Maren will be the focus of this document). The last we know of her is that she was confirmed in 1853. In this document we will use her research as an example of additional steps that can be taken when the usual methods fail to give conclusive information.

Sometimes you find a member of one of your families, similar to Maren, shown here,  who seems to elude normal record searching methods. Normally, a lot can be found through taking advantage of searching indexed and transcribed records provided by FamilySearch, Ancestry and other sources, including the Danish State Archives. One of the problems comes when you have a very common name or are in a location where there is a large population (e.g. Copenhagen). When this is the case, you will probably spend a lot of time poring over actual records images in fruitless searches.

I usually focus on a family member when we know basic information, but when death and/or marriage details are missing. If a death is found and we are sure this person was not married, at least we know that we need not pursue more research for expanding the family records for this person. So, here I first looked for a death date (missing for Karen, Maren and their mother, illustrated above). We do know that in some cases, a missing death date does not indicate an end of the line (as for their mother). As for marriages, at first glance at the details, you cannot tell whether a person shows as married in the FamilySearch records. If connected with the church system of temple ordinance information, it is possible to see a quick indicator whether the person has no marriage connection (as shown here):

If you click on the person’s name (e.g. Maren Hansdatter), you see a review of that person’s details. With temple ordinance information, we see the lack of a spouse (the “SS” in a dotted box). If a spouse is present in the system, then the “SS” will be in a solid square with some color, usually green, gray or yellow. In this case we know, by a simple glance, that there is no spouse listed for Maren in the FamilySearch system. Of course, we can go to her page to find this, but this is a quick method I use. At this point, I would normally start searching the Ancestry or FamilySearch systems for possible matches in the transcribed records. As already mentioned, nothing was found.

A Summary of Danish Records

The Danish State Archives (Rigsarkivet) provides images of their parish records over the period of many years (see chart shown later in this document).  These are based on county and parish. Within those records there are several sets or kinds of records. Records before about 1815 are called “Enesteministerialbog” where ministerialbog means “ministerial book.” After about 1815, the records usually come in two copies, one is the main, or primary ministerial record, or “Hovedministerialbog,” and the other the counter-ministerial record or “Kontraministerialbog.” I usually find the counter, or second record to be more readable, especially the “Ny scanning” or new scans. The image quality is significantly better. 

In these records, you find records of births/christenings, marriages, deaths/burials and confirmations. Children were confirmed at about age 14. In addition to these, the records usually contain details of people moving from one parish to another, but those are not consistently available. Sometimes you find them in the “Hoved” records when they are not found in the “Kontra” records. If you find records for the years you need, they may help trace people who move from place to place. Be advised that these records are often difficult to read and are not conclusive because some people are not recorded in their moves for some reason. Also included in some records are dates of vaccination. All people in Denmark received smallpox vaccinations starting in the late 1700s. These vaccinations were often recorded in the confirmation records, but also appear in some other records, but not consistently so. When found they can be very helpful in identifying someone. When they are available, they help, but it depends a lot on the diligence of the parish officials.

Also available are military levying rolls, extending from about 1790 to 1850, but this document will not address these records. They are handled differently from the usual parish church records.

Of all these records, the basic parish records have been indexed (extracted or transcribed) to a great extent by FamilySearch (church volunteers) up until about 1892 and by Ancestry.com (their own people) for those years and later years as well. In addition to these, the census records are transcribed and are available from the Danish State Archives, the Dansk Demografisk Database (DDD). These are the census records which occurred in these years: 1787, 1801, 1834, 1840, 1845, 1850, 1855, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1885, 1890, 1895, 1901, 1906, 1911, 1916, 1921, 1926 and 1930. (There are a few other years in the south Jutland area as well.)

All of these searchable records are very useful, but this document is focused on people who are hard to find using such methods, though some census searches were used in this process.

This document illustrates, through the example of Maren, a process that can be used in doing your own searches when the search engine services are not conclusive.

Finding Elusive Details for the Life of Maren Hansdatter.

Both Maren and Karen and very common female names in Denmark. That made it difficult to determine the correct person among so many possible options. Therefore, I started to go directly to the parish records to find some additional information that might give some clarity in finding the correct Maren.

First I need to note something else about this family. There was a reference that Maren’s mother died early, without details, e.g. a different mother appears in later census records. I felt I should verify Maren’s mother’s death. Death records sometimes include useful information. She apparently died while Maren was young. It is not unusual for a child, especially a daughter, to move away from home after her father remarries. This might have been the reason for her move.

1. I determined the specifics of the death of her mother. 

First I looked for Maren in the 1845 census. To do this, I searched the DDD for Hans Andersen in county Maribo in 1845, listing his birth year as 1798 ± 2 years and came up with a hit (first of 6), noting that the family was living in Vigsnæs at this time (where Maren was confirmed in 1853):

Clicking on “vis alle felter” gave me:

At this point I see that Maren’s father had remarried (the second wife showing in FamilySearch). As for the mother, Kirsten Mortensdatter, we do not (yet) have death information, but it was between 1841 (when her brother was born and died) and 1845. Here I searched the death records in Vigsnæs:

which gave me her record on image 12 (page 202):

showing that she died on 11 April 1842 (Maren was almost 4 years old).

2. I tried to find Maren in the usual searches.

As already mentioned, we last see Maren in Vigsnæs, but she does not appear with the family in the 1855 census records. Also, there were not any record suggestions for her in FamilySearch. Ancestry.com searches were not conclusive. These searches presented a lot of possibilities, but because her name was so common, it could not be determined from those suggestions where she went after her 1853 confirmation.

Maren was born in Tårs (or Taars), but the family soon moved to Vigsnæs where Maren was later confirmed at age 14. Sakskøbing was a large city near by and often young people went there to work (as I soon learned was the case for Maren and Karen). In my search process, several parishes of Maribo County were examined, including Vigsnæs and Sakskøbing. Our example of details shown here is for the Sakskøbing parish. Others were used in this process, and this example mainly shows the different kinds of records available for Sakskøbing from the Danish State Archives, “Rigsarkivet.” The details of such records will be explained shortly, but first I will show the process where I found her move from Vignæs to Sakskøbing in 1857.

3. I went to the “Tilgangs-” and “Afgangs-” lists for Vigsnæs. 

There were several groups of records, by date:

Many parishes do not have records going this far into the later 1800’s.

I found these details of a young woman, named Maren Hansdatter, who moved from Vigsnæs to Sakskøbing in 1857. Her age was off a bit (as noted in my notes), but later research proved this to be her:

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=353446#353446,70316760

Vigsnæs, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog new scans 1846-1873 arrivals and departures

page 110 image 23 entry 217 in  1857 departures

Maren Hansdatter  age 18  to Sakskøbing 31 October 57 (she actually would have been 19, barely)

Now I will show in more detail how to get to these kinds of records.

This graphic shows the access method into the parish records of Denmark. County and parish are specified in the upper section, and when the parish name is chosen, then the different record collection groups appear in blue with a plus sign at the left of each. This method of records is as described above. 

Our first approach is to search the departure records for Maren.  As already described, the “afgangslister” records for Vigsnæs were used first. Now, in this search, in Sakskøbing, I clicked on the bottom Kontraministerialbog (new scan) group of records (on the plus sign) and then on the Til and afgangslister for 1844 to 1863. In those records (shown below) I found an entry for Maren’s move to Sakskøbing from Vigsnæs which corresponded to the one recorded in Vigsnæs. The details of the index connected to this move record were noted. As I then went to the Jævenførelses register for 1844 to 1891, I found, in the appropriate record, an additional event in the index connected to Maren (also shown below): a reference to a marriage record in the same parish. That marriage record, when reviewed, showed vaccination dates for both parties which matched Maren and also helped verify the correct person who was her husband, Ole Nielsen (also a very common name). The details of this search follow.

4. I went to the records in Sakskøbing to find her arrival there (Tilgang).

 I followed the steps as listed above. 

The result gave:

This is summarized (including URL) as:

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=353279#353279,70310193

Sakskøbing, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog new scans 1844-1863 arrivals and departures

page 338 image 41 entry 76 for 1857 arrivals

Maren Hansdatter  age 19 from Vixnæs Jessen (or Jester)  31/10 57 

In this record, on the far right, you can see the reference to the index records, or Jævnførelses, with the code 283-37, indicating page 283 of the index, entry number 37. In my normal research, I rarely follow the index records as they do not often yield anything interesting, but in this case it helped a great deal.

In searching the 1844-1891 J (index) records, on page 283, I found:

… summarized as:

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=155350#155350,25952251

Sakskøbing, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog 1844-1863 Jævnførelses (index)

page 283  Ma  image 207 entry 37

Maren Hansdatter

marriages  D289-3

arrivals D338-76

The important point of all this is that not only does the index show her move record, her arrival noted as D 338-76, entry 76 on page 338, but also a marriage record: page 289, entry 3 (of the parish marriage records, same year range).

5. I looked for the marriage record for Maren.

Based on the index, I went to the marriage records (Viede) for the same date range ( or as close as I could come): 1844-1863. In that record, I found a page 289 and entry 3 was indeed for a Maren Hansdatter and her age was correct.

I summarize it:

https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=353278#353278,70310144

Sakskøbing, Musse, Maribo Kontraministerialbog new scans 1844-1863 marriages

page 289 image 39 entry 3 for 1861 marriages

bachelor Ole Nielsen of Ourebÿ age 23

Maren Hansdatter of Ourebÿ age 23

married 10 March 1861

index: 322-27 for him, 283-37 for her

vaccinations  27/6 39 Wilhjelm for him, 11/ [could be a 1 or a 7] 39 Wilhjelm for her

Since the 1 or 7 was difficult to determine (vaccinatoin date for her), I went to the Hoved records copy for the marriage and found the vaccination details clearly indicated:

where the bride’s vaccination is clearly 11/7 39. 

This is quite useful because Maren’s confirmation record of 1853 clearly shows her vaccination record as being 11 July 1839. To see this, you need to go to her source record in FamilySearch and view the image attached to that 1853 event. It was not indexed, nor entered anywhere else, but is appears in the original record. I find vaccination records to be very useful in solidifying a guess as to whether I have the correct person.

6. I determined the  details of Ole Nielsen to be added into FamilySearch.

I could have just entered the name of Ole Nielsen, as husband, with the same birth year as Maren, but it is always good to put in as much detail as possible to catch duplicates early. The marriage record did not contain anything about his birth nor parents. Some records do, many do not. In order to find out more about him, there are several approaches.

Again, because his (and her) names were so common, a simple search in Ancestry or FamilySearch did not come up with anything useful. My first approach then was to see whether I could find them in the 1870 census, the next census following their marriage. I assumed Maribo county, but that could have been a problem as well, but I did try it. For her I failed. For him, I found the family (and learned why her name did not work). Here is the result (Maribo County, Ole Nielsen, born 1838 ± 2 years, 1870 census:

As is sometimes the case, the census takers erroneously (or the transcribers) wrote her name as Marie, instead of Maren. I seems likely that this is him, BUT, to make sure, I will now search the parish records for him in Sakskøbing in about 1852/3 for his confirmation. He was born there and it was a fair guess that he was also confirmed there, but that also sometimes catches you with an empty search. In this case it worked. I went first for the confirmation record because that is likely where a vaccination date might be found (instead of the christening record, where vaccinations are rarely recorded). Again, I found success:

He is shown here with the vaccination date (last column) as 27 June 1839, which matches the one given in the marriage record.

I was fortunate with this. Usually it takes more searching, and often I cannot be sure I have the correct person. Since it did match, I entered his information, including birth date and parents, given in the confirmation record. I could also have gone from here to the actual christening record in Sakskøbing, but I was satisfied with these results. It turned out that there were several copies of this Ole Nielsen (marriage, parents, etc.) and I ended up merging several records and found that they had already been sealed as a couple. However, starting with this information, I was able to start putting children in the family and the expansion of Maren Hansdatter’s family was underway!

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This experience, with this example and documents provided are given with the hope that it might be useful to give hope to any of you who read this, that there are ways to expand these families of yours in Danish records.

- Joseph F. Buchanan