Sharing My Love of Genealogy

Grandmother Hansen

When I was 13 years old, I went to Monroe, Utah to spend a couple of weeks in the summer with my paternal grandmother Hansen. As far as I know, I was the only one of her grandchildren to be chosen for such a visit, but I’ve always been so grateful for the opportunity that I had.

I remember getting up early in the morning to pick raspberries from her abundant raspberry patch; we worked in her flower garden with peonies and roses; we walked downtown; she taught me to sew and made me a chartreus green blouse with a Vogue pattern; but most importantly she taught me to love genealogy.

I can remember making me own large genealogy chart and grandmother telling me about each generation and the people. I imagined that the British ancestors were pirates; that the Danish ancestors were Vikings, or maybe they lived in the two castles that our family lived near—Elsinor Castle (Hamlet’s Castle), and Fredericksburg Castle. Years later when my older brother went to Denmark on his mission, he wrote back if our ancestors were ever at the castles, they were the servants—we had no connection to royalty. And, we had no connection to English pirates—our ancestors were hard-working Manchester weavers, dyers, and other peons of the textile manufacturers.

My Grandmother Hansen began my love affair with genealogy. I have always loved history and have been fascinated with the people behind the stories. With genealogy, I get to discover the people behind the names and facts. Each detail that I located in the dry documents fleshed out the stories of these people that I grew to love. When I viewed the marriage ban of Joseph Heaton and Maria Consterdine in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1838, it shows that neither of them could sign their own name—but had an “X” and the comment, “his/her mark.” Yet, records of my Danish ancestor, Hans Peter Hansen Miller, a contemporary of Heaton, read Danish fluently as well as English and was the translator for their ship coming to America. I was confused by this, until while researching Bornholm, Denmark, the small island Miller came from, it said that Bornholm had the best educational system in all of Denmark, and put a great emphasis on educating every student—from 1400 onward. It is from my Miller ancestor that I read about the history of Danish/Swedish wars in a way that I’ll never forget.

My English ancestors all lived in a small area of townships in a six mile radius— Ashton-Under Lyne, Blackley, Chadderton, Newton Heath, Oldham, and the chapels they were baptized, married, and buried in were ), St. Michael’s (Ashton-Under Lyne), St. Peter’s (Blackley),  St. Matthew’s (Chadderton), All Saints (Newton Heath), St. Mary’s (Oldham).  If they weren’t found in those towns (usually one family would stay in that one township) I could be pretty sure they were not my family. 

The small townships near Manchester where my ancestors lived

My sister Ann and I share our love for genealogy, and we’ve worked together to do our work. Years ago I went down to Monroe to get a box full of Grandmother Hansen’s records from a Great Aunt, organized them, and when I was working full time and couldn’t do the work on them, I passed on the papers to Ann, who verified, researched and worked on them for years. Now Ann is working, and I’m working on the genealogy and sharing my discoveries with Ann. She documented all the farms on Bornholm where our ancestors lived, and put other things together. Now I work with Ancestry.com and online records (all the Danish parish records are on line), since I have better access than she does.

 

Bornholm, the tiny island where two separate families of my ancestral lines are from is a unique place. Although it is Danish, it is East of Sweden. It is now a summer resort. During the cold war, when Denmark was a NATO country, no NATO forces could be on Bornholm, because it was too close to Eastern Europe and Poland. Certain rights are given to Bornholm citizens that are not given to other Danish citizens. During the 1700, 1800, 1900s, all Danish males had to be on a draft list, and tracked wherever they lived so they could be conscripted into the army if necessary. This is a treasure for genealogists because they can locate males because of these army rolls, even if the men were not called up for war. However, Bornholm men were exempt from this rule. So if you are researching in Bornholm, you have a handicap. Because it is in the middle of the Baltic and has more visitors from other parts of Europe, it is more cosmopolitan than other parts of Denmark. 

Bornholm Island

Facebook Family History Groups

 One fun way to share pictures and histories is through FACEBOOK  groups. You can make a Family History group (see left side of FACEBOOK), share it with cousins, etc., then post pictures, histories, and encourage them to do the same and you can get lots more stories and pictures from everyone else.

Though my grandmother has been dead for 53 years, the love for genealogy that she sparked in me has only grown through the years! I hope I can share that love with my own children. 

I like to make family histories of my ancestors

I love to collect the family histories of my ancestors and try to make them available to other members of my family also. Where I once loved to imagine their lives, I now am obsessed with accuracy; I want to make sure every fact of their histories is correct! I think I learned this from the seven years I worked for the editorial offices of the Liahona magazine. Every fact was checked and rechecked. Even though the family histories are not to be published, I want them to be just as accurate.