Danish Online Resources for Family History Research

Danish Online Resources for Family History Research

The Danish government provides free online access to church and government records. This is a remarkable service. Because of this, it is possible to search and put together families and individuals much more quickly and with better results than in any time in the history of Danish research.

How to Begin

In my previous post, I mentioned the problems found in the FamilySearch™ data in some Danish families. The best approach to analyze and fix linkage problems in FamilySearch™ is to begin with the most recent Danish ancestor, usually someone who joined the church in Denmark. If there are a few generations of ancestors who seem to be correct in the records, you can assume for now that they are correct and go back to the last one that seems OK and start from there, verifying that their information is correct in the original Danish records available online.

Establish your Resources

It is good to start with a few resources to help in understanding Denmark and the way the records work.

The following list should be assembled or found available online. The specific list items are covered and samples are given in the next entries in this blog.

1. A detailed map of the area of Denmark where your ancestors originate. Unfortunately, modern maps may be a problem because of changed names and boundaries. If you can find maps or charts that date back to the beginning of the 1900's or earlier, you will be better off.

2. Learn the geographic divisions of Denmark. Basically, the country is divided up into Amt (County), Herred (District) and Sogn (Ecclesiastical Parish). Within the Parishes there are the towns, villages and farms.

3. Get a Danish dictionary. It is also good to get a specific list of genealogical names in Danish, especially since modern Danish words may differ from these old words.

4. A chart showing the basic handwriting styles.

5. A calendar showing feast days and special church holidays in the Danish Lutheran church.

6. A list of the different record types and years of coverage.

I have a web page with links to the online services available and some documents showing these types of records, help guides etc. The web site is 

           http://buchananspot.com/joseph/genealogy/DanishHelper.html
   [ Note: with the change in the church records server, this DanishHelper document was updated 28 July 2015 - jfb ]

Methodology

One of the most difficult aspects of research in Danish records is the fact that there are a set of names that are used extensively. Occasionally there are non-patronymic surnames, but usually a person's name is simply a first name (sometimes middle names) and the last name consisting of a patronymic: the father's firstname followed by "sen" for sons and "datter" for daughters. Women usually are always known by their "datter" name and not their husband's last name, so that aspect of the culture better helps us to identify the women.

Because of this method of naming children, some names are very common and it is vital that other information is found to further identify the person, e.g. birthplace, occupation, birthdate, etc. It is also important to use other records as they are available, such as census and probate records. Since census records are available online for the entire country, it helps the work, though only beginning with the 1787 census. With these records, you can tie families together better and verify correct names.

One caution to observe in all research is to not expect names (both of people and places) to be consistent. Even the "primary" records - the parish church records - have misspellings or alternative spellings. Therefore, it is good to have multiple references. For example, there is the name Christen and Christian which are very different names, but occasionally they were recorded as the other name. Another example is Ole and Oluf. Sometimes -datter is spelled out and often abbreviated -dt or -dtr.

In the 1800's and later, be sure to look for confirmation records for the children. They were usually confirmed at about age 13-15 and those records often show the birth or christening date as well, and usually the parents' names.

Handwriting and Format

The value of the parish records can be compromised by bad handwriting of the recorder. Sometimes you need to spend a lot of time looking at the records for the time frame to start to recognize certain letters. Consult handwriting charts and see the various alternative ways of writing the same letters.

Records beginning about 1810 usually are in pre-printed form books so it is much easier to find the different kinds of records and what dates and names are what because of the columns. The handwriting san still be a problem, but you can better find the information. Prior to this time, the records were on plain paper books. Sometimes, the recorder would separate births from deaths, etc. but sometimes they are all intermingled. You need to spend some time studying these records.

Completing Families

As you study the records, be sure to check for more children. Infant and child mortality was high in Europe, so there are many children who die early and do not get recorded in the secondary records. Use common sense and expect a child within about two years of other children. Often when a child dies, the next child of that same sex will receive the same name. Also be sure to check death records for children. Their age is usually shown in days, weeks, months, etc. Sometimes children are listed as stillborn or "dodtfodt" even though they may have lived for a few minutes or hours, so record them as being born and died on the same day.

Record your Research

Above all, as you do research, keep some kind of research journal. It is useful to refer back to these and see where you found certain records of certain dates to help find the records again. Also, it is very important to record when you do not have success. That way you and others do not have to go over the same area in vain. Be specific about what you were looking for and reasons for not continuing the search.

In FamilySearch™ you can record the source information. This is a lot easier if you have been recording the process of your research. Include the web information as well as the original record details and page numbers. You can record image number (Opslag) to help yourself and others find the same online records, but sometimes the records are re-scanned so the Opslag numbers may be off for subsequent research.

Seek Help

There are online resources on FamilySearch™ as well as people in the Family History center in Salt Lake who are very good in helping. Do not forget that there are also people on the other side of the veil and your Heavenly Father is ready to help us in our work, so prayer is also important.

Incorrect Links in FamilySearch™

Fixing FamilySearch™ Pedigree Linkage Problems

As I look into my own pedigree lines in FamilySearch™, I often discover that some of the information is no longer correct. Usually, the parents of one of my ancestors is no longer correct, often with impossible or unlikely dates or locations. This is more often a problem in Danish ancestry. In our work in our stake as missionaries, people ask me about their family information in FamilySearch™ and I find similar problems in their ancestral lines as well - also usually with Danish ancestors.

I am not entirely sure of the reasons for these problems, but it appears that other people who look into their ancestry see the option for resolving possible duplicates. Unfortunately, those not familiar with the distinctive cultural issues in Danish history combine records of people who should not be combined, in order to resolve these issues.

I intend to show here a few points of information that might help people recognize incorrect linkages in their pedigrees in the FamilySearch™ system.

In all of these situations or problems, it is very important to seek out the original or primary records to substantiate the real information. FamilySearch™ information alone cannot be trusted to resolve these errors. Sometimes, there are source documents listed in the FamilySearch™ information. In those cases, it is easier to resolve these problems.

Checking for Unlikely or Impossible Dates and Places

Often, the most obvious indication of an incorrect parent or pair of parents can be found in the birth, death and marriage dates. Mothers usually do not bear children when over the age of 40. Also, it should be obvious that mothers with death dates prior to the birth of their child is not possible. Look at the birth dates of parents, compared with the birth dates of the children. Sometimes, the parent is correct, but due to some combining with other people of the same name or simply erroneous data entry can account for this problem, but sometimes, it is the wrong people linked to your ancestor as parents. Another indication is unusual place-of-birth. During colonization or modern times, it is not unusual for people and families to move a lot during child-bearing years, but prior to those times, people usually did not travel far from their place of birth. 

For people with Danish or other Scandinavian ancestry, there is a particular problem because the people in those countries reused a small number of names extensively and, unfortunately, people have erroneously combined "duplicates" creating incorrect family linkages. I provide separate documents concerning Danish research, in particular, which should help in determining the correct information. See that information at the end of this article. 

Impossible or Improbable Family Sizes

Sometimes, there is an unusually large number of children in a family. When you check the children of a family, look for children who probably do not belong to the family. However, names should not be assumed to be unique for the children. In some cultures parents will name children with the same names as previous children who have died. It is best to take a look at dates to see whether they make sense. The spacing of children should be an indication of possible errors in incorrect children added to a family. Two years is normally a good space between children births, unless the child dies as an infant, in which case, a subsequent child may be born sooner.

Different Surnames

Depending on local culture, children with names different from their fathers surnames should be suspicious. There are countries where patronymics are used and children receive names based on the first name of their fathers or mothers. Again this is a case where original records should be consulted.

Repairing the Problems

There are various methods to be used in repairing incorrect family relationships in FamilySearch™. The best thing to do is to look at the "Person" view of the individual and look at the section that shows parents. Usually when there are suspected problems, there will be several sets of parents listed. As you look at the different sets of parents, you can most easily click on the "Preferred" box for that set and your pedigree view will show that proper linkage of the family. This, however will not fix the problem for other members of your family. When you have truly established that the correct parents are in the list, you can go to the other parents in that list (right side) and for each occurrence of the child click on "Edit Parents." you can there delete the relationship of the child to those parents. You should include in the comments why you believe that this particular set of parents is not correct. There may be more than one set of parents that need to be removed in this manner.

In some cases, there may not be the correct set of parents in the list and you may need to add the correct parents first. In this case, you must add the parents one at a time, then remove the incorrect parents as listed above.

Finding Sources

You can often find source information from right within FamilySearch™. This is in the "Hints" area. Usually these are records found in the indexing program of the church. You should be very careful to be sure that the people found are correct before adding them from these files, but it can be a very promising method of locating your ancestors and expanding your pedigree and family information in the system.

For particular areas of the world, there are other places you can go to online to search records for your family. The Ancestry™ and FindMyPast™ systems can be useful and the LDS church has agreements which allow you to use their extensive data files for searching.

For those people who have Danish ancestry, there are remarkable sources of information available for doing research online. I have a list of resources available that can help with this work. Also, I am writing some blogs which summarize methods you can use to do this Danish research, even with little or no knowledge of the Danish language.

- Joseph F. Buchanan

Status of this blog

Well, as you have probably observed, if any of you are still following this blog, I have not written anything for quite a while.

Our mission is keeping us busy. It is in someways that same as our mission in Germany, but in many ways it is different. We are involved with visiting quite a few people each week. Usually every week we begin to start teaching someone new and we have started some regular, weekly visits with people and are generally welcomed. Only a couple of times have we had people request that we do not contact them anymore. That is one difference from our work in Germany. People seem to be quite receptive to us here and welcome our visits and teaching.

We have definitely had some memorable experiences, but they usually are not for public release. For example, we helped one person work through serious suicidal feelings, including spending some time in the hospital with that person. We have had the wonderful experience of bringing some people from very low points in their lives. We have also seen s number of people start to come to church more and work towards activity and goals of temple attendance.

One major difference in this mission is that we are home and can be involved with family more. We recently attended the baptism of one of our beautiful granddaughters. We have family get-togethers and parties. We can care for grandchildren when the need arises. One problem with being at home, however, is the pressure of home and yard care and the distractions that are ever present at home. In Germany it was much better in being focused on the work. That is the major difference we see here.

One think I really like here is the ability to do more family history work, usually for others. We did some of that in Germany and had some marvelous experiences. Here I can use my resources more and have enjoyed helping others in their work. I especially enjoy the work on Danish research. One of our people asked for help and I have been able to work through a number of problems in the FamilySearch system in fixing the linkages in her Danish ancestry.

As a result of some contemplation on the FamilySearch linkage concerns, I have decided to start writing some documents describing my approaches to the work necessary in order to straighten out problems some people encounter in their ancestry in FamilySearch. The next few blog posts will be in regard to these concerns, first the general recognition of the problems and then some posts describing the work of research in Danish records.

Please feel free to let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to see me post in these blogs.

We love the work of the Lord and feel that there is so much to do - in missionary work, in bringing the joys of the Gospel into the lives of others, in family history work and any other way the Lord needs us involved in His work.