2. Extending families in Danish research - a Case Study

 An Example and Guidance to Help Extend Families in Danish Research.

There are many kinds of records that can be useful to extend information known about a person in Denmark, especially after about 1815. Major help comes from the digitization of records that have taken place over recent years. I use three main sources for this digitized information and use the parish records (a fourth main source) to take that information and try to extend it even further with details.

The four sources are:

1. Danish census search system provided by the Danish State Archives (Rigsarkivet) - the Dansk Demografisk Database (DDD)

2. FamilySearch

3. Ancestry.com

4. Rigsarkivet - Parish (church books) collection of scanned images of the actual records.

Finding Where Extending Information Might be Possible.

Look at a family in FamilySearch. I like to look at children in a family where not much information is shown, usually there is no death date and often no spouse listed. Here is an example I will follow in this process.

In this case, there are a number of points to note. First, with Peder Rasmussen, there is no death date given, being merely listed as “deceased.” Also, as you click on the name in FamilySearch, it shows some details including temple work and in this case, there is no sealing to spouse. This usually means that there is no spouse recorded for this person. If the SS is yellow, then there probably is a spouse attached, but not enough information provided to really identify that person (critical dates and places).

Also in this example I note that there are two children listed in the family named “Hans Rasmussen”. This usually means that the earlier child died young and the later child was given the same name, a standard practice in Denmark. In any case, it is good to look for death information for the particular child. Death records can also be useful in that if the person was an adult when died, and there was a spouse, sometimes the spouse’s name is listed and other useful information included to help identify that spouse. For this example, I focus only on Peder Rasmussen.

Research Process Based on Discoveries

At this point there are a number of options to explore. Digitized records can help a lot. Though since there are always problems in records or in digitization, you cannot count on any of these to bring results. It takes patience and a lot of time sometimes (also prayer). 

Here is what I did in this case:

When I see the actual details for Peder Rasmussen (with him as the subject on the FamilySearch page), I click on the 

link in the “Search Records” panel on the right. Sometimes I need to fine-tune the search criteria by moving the controls in the upper left part of the ancestry screen presented:

 -->  (change as shown)

 

This is my usual method, but sometimes a more general focus is necessary.

Look at the list presented in the main panel. Sometimes you are fortunate and find something right away. In this case, I do see a very good match (the 3rd one down the list):

Since we know that he was from Kirke Skensved and the birth year was close, we try this suggestion and it pays off, with death information and a widowed spouse listed. Click and hover on “Denmark Church Records 1812-1924”. In this case his parents’ names also match. It mentions a wife, “Marie Johansen.”

Clicking on the “View Image” gives an image (from which I extracted this and added notes):

died: 1898 21 June                                                                                       born in Kirke Skensved  son of

Jersie town and parish, Thune district         buried 1898  27 June      Rasmus Christensen and wife     aged 58 years

                                                                                                                     Karen Pedersdatter

                                                                                                                  married to Marie Johansen

Often, useful results are not so quickly found. Usually, I have to alter the search to include only death or marriage sources, for example you could do this:

Click the “>” for  “>Birth, marriage & death” to get the three options. Then click on the option desired of those three for that focus, but for this example it is not needed. 

Searching Using the DDD (Census Searches):  https://ddd.dda.dk/soeg_person.asp

When you search using the Danish state archives system, you need to know the county (or Amt) where the family lived. Peder Rasmussen lived in the Copenhagen area, specifically Roskilde county. I note here for this specific example that in some record sets, Roskilde is combined as being in Copenhagen (København) instead of as a separate county. I have not seen any other county handled this way. Locations take a bit of learning and patience. Tune (or Thune in some spellings) is a district in Roskilde county. The DDD considers Roskilde a separate county.

With that, this is my search for Peder Rasmussen using DDD:

Note that Amt = county, Herred = district, and Sogn = parish. The word Vælg means, “choose.” In this case, I chose Skensved parish (Sogn), but I normally do not choose a parish, leaving the search focused on the entire county. Also note in the name the “wildcard” character, %, which is a substitute for any character or set of characters. Since Peder is often spelled Peter, this makes the search work for either. I include birth year (Fødeår) of 1840 in this case, with an interval of 2 years (±). Census years are presented in a list, but you can choose “All Years” (Alle år). For this example, with 1845 selected,  clicking “Sog” for search, I see the single result:

Now click “vis alle felter” to see all fields:

Here we see his family in 1845!  He is shown as 5 years old in that census. “Deres Barn” means “their child.” “Gift” means “married.”

“Roskilde, Tune, Skensved, Kirke Skjensved Bye” is:

Roskilde = county; Tune = district, Skensved = Parish, Kirke Skjensved Bye = Town  (note that some place names include the letter “j”, which indicates a “yeh” sound)

Now, when I search again in Roskilde, I was not able to find him in the 1890 census, for some reason, but when I tried the 1880 census, I found:

which yielded:

Now I know that Marie Johansen was born (Fødested) in Ejby parish of Copenhagen county and was 34 years old in 1880. I can now search Ejby in the parish records for her birth record. Using her information, specific searches could be made in either FamilySearch or Ancestry.com. I choose to manually search the parish records. The age is sometimes off by a year or two, so I keep that in mind. This also shows that they had at least two children by this time (Rasmus and Karen), which I can try in later searches.

Direct Searching in the Parish Records

Since we have some fairly specific information, I go directly to the Danish state archives for the parish records, looking for her christening in about 1845/6.

The address is   https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/geo/geo-collection/5

The record form looks like this (with the first fields chosen, so far):

Each one of these five items shown here represents a set of records, all scanned images, not indexed. The best one in any search between about 1815 and 1892 is usually the one for Kontraministerialbog with the “Ny Scanning i farver - indtil 1892” which basically means that the records are of a more recent scan project and are more readable, but the records go only up to about 1892. For records after 1891 click on the one above it. In this case, we choose the new scan. I click on the plus symbol in front of that line to see:

I click on Fødte kvinder (birth of females) 1834 -  …  1852 which brings up the set of record images for that book.

The image scan appears with a directory list on the left side and other tools on top showing for navigating the scanned images of the book:

This particular book covers the years 1834-1852 for female births and christenings. The first page is displayed (in part) here. Since Marie Johansen was born about 1845-1846, we will need to go a ways into this book. I try 30 on the left and see if I am close. 

Image 30 brought up page 73, late in 1847. I will need to go back a bit to get to 1845.

As I go back page by page, I finally find the record image on page 68, image 25:

In entry 155 on that page, I find the best match and her name was Maria Johansdatter, born 1845, 19 December, christened (Døbt) 1 February 1846, and her parents were Johan Rasmussen and wife (hustru) Kirsten Pedersdatter. (Note also the green boxes by the image numbers on the left, indicating that those records have been seen already by me.)

Marriage Search (a manual search through the Parish record books)

I usually like to try to find the actual marriage record if I can, because that might give additional information, plus, it might help keep me from making an error in assuming I have the right person. Many names in Denmark do not vary much and assumptions often lead to mistaken connections with people of the same names. It is always good to find additional records to make sure you have things right.

In Denmark, people did not move a lot (except when they did!) and marriages often occurred in the birth parish of the bride or the groom. Since the family lived in Skensved later (1880 census), also his birth parish, I will look there first. The oldest child listed in that census was born in Karlslunde, so we might also search there. He was 9 in 1880, so we will start looking around 1870.

Here is my start point for searching in Skensved for the marriage. [Note that in these records, Roskilde is combined with København (Copenhagen) county in the parish records.] I clicked on the last item (plus sign), then marriages for 1848-1891

and found it on image 4 (page 305):

7 March 1868

I am pretty certain now that this is the correct Peder Rasmussen, based on location, age, and the death record showing him married to her. This example ends here.

Note: This process actually surprised me with how quickly I found the appropriate information. Usually it takes a lot more trial runs at such processes over time.

-  Joseph F. Buchanan  -  16 November 2025