KLDeWitt Genealogy Research Project
Our Family's Journey Through Time from Europe and Canada to the US
We're so pleased you dropped in to visit our site. We've worked for years on this family and its connections to our ancestors.
Note: I just switched to FamilyTreeMaker 2024. Unfortunately, it renumbered people's ID, so the links have changed (once again.) Hopefully, it will be stable for a while and Google can catch up with the differences...
This site is truly a work of love and dedication in order to tell the story of us and our ancestors. If you have something to add, please let us know. The more we can share with others the more we receive in return. Thank you again!
I was recently looking through old Danish genealogy records again to see if I could break through a brick wall in my family tree. That's when I suddenly had an "Aha" moment.
Over the last decade, I've managed to figure out all my grandparents, great-grandparents, and 2x great-grandparents. I even found info on who almost all of my 3x great-grandparents are. (I'm so proud of myself. LOL)
That is, except for three of them, two of whom are the parents of one person: Niels Sorensen. He's my father's direct paternal male-line ancestor and the source of my dad's original last name. (Not to mention his yDNA...) So I'd really like to know where he came from and who his parents were and so on.
Years ago, I found Niels' name on my great-grandfather Jens Martin Sorensen's birth record, along with Jens' mother's name of Ane Johanne Thomasdatter. Now I had that line's 2x gg's names. Normally, I would then check the Danish church records for their marriage. That would usually give me their parents' names, and I'd be off and running on the next generation. Danish genealogy records are really handy for linking one generation to another as a rule... Especially in small towns where families stayed for generations.
I tried for weeks to search through the church marriage records in that area and the surrounding ones for that info. No joy.
The hard-to-read handwriting of those old genealogy records from the early 1800s doesn't make it easy, by the way. Not to mention it's all in Danish, a language I don't speak! I finally gave up. I returned to other parts of my tree that were easier. But it's always bugged me the last few years that I couldn't get any further.
So, as I was going through some other Danish genealogy records for a different line, I decided to have at it one more time. I still don't speak Danish, but years of looking at the records have taught me a few basic words. That's when it suddenly hit me. Jens' mother was listed as "Ugifte."
Why is that important? It means "single/unmarried" in Danish. I never noticed it before. THAT's why I couldn't find a marriage record for her and Niels: Jens' was born out of wedlock.
I then remembered she also had a child, Maren Thomsen (Thomasdatter), with another man, Thomas Peter Jensen.
There was that word again that I'd missed all those times before, "Ugifte." So Maren was also born out of wedlock.
I decided to check one other thing: her burial record. "Ugifte" again. So, it appears she never married, hence no marriage records to either man for me to find.
That means trying to figure out which Niels Sorensen was my 3x great-grandfather becomes a search for a Danish needle in a very large genealogical haystack. (It's a bit like looking for John Smiths in the USA.) I haven't given up, but don't expect to figure it out any time soon.
In the meantime, to help others with their forays into Danish genealogical records, here are a few useful words to help you navigate them (and maybe catch on a bit quicker than I did...):
| Danish Word | English Translation | Context |
| Sogn | Parish | The primary unit for church records |
| Kirkebog | Church record/book | The ledger containing primary life events. (Birth, Death, Baptism, Marriage, Burials) |
| Folketælling | Census | Population enumeration records |
| Født / Fødsel | Born / Birth | Used in birth and christening records |
| Døbt / Dåb | Baptized / Baptism | Christening events |
| Konfirmeret | Confirmed | Confirmation records (usually around age 14) |
| Vielse / Ægteskab | Marriage / Wedlock | Found in marriage records |
| Copulerede | Married (Joined) | An older term often used for marriages |
| Død / Døde | Dead / Deaths | Found in burial/death records |
| Begravelse / Begravet | Burial / Buried | The funeral/interment record |
| Skifte | Probate | Estate distribution records after a death |
| Fader / Far | Father | The parent's male title |
| Moder / Mor | Mother | The parent's female title |
| Barn / Børn | Child / Children | General term for offspring. |
| Søn | Son | Male child |
| Datter | Daughter | Female child |
| Hustru / Kone | Wife | Female spouse |
| Mand / Husbond | Husband | Male spouse |
| Forældre | Parents | Plural for father and mother |
| Bedstefar | Grandfather | Male grandparent |
| Bedstemor | Grandmother | Female grandparent |
| Barnebarn | Grandchild | Child of a son or daughter |
| Enke / Enkemand | Widow / Widower | A Surviving spouse |
We make every effort to document our research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.
