Our
familys emigration/imigration
In the late 1800 and the beginning of 1900, thousands
of Danes emigrated to America to look for a better life. From the small Parish
Skelby at the south of Falster, where my family comes from, more than
120 persons travelled to America with or without their families.
Georg Jens Michael Hansen was a brother of my great
grandmother. He left Copenhagen with one suitcase on the 3rd of April 1889
aboard the ship SS Thingvalla. There were 284 passengers, and the day after
they picked up 91 passengers more in Christiania (Oslo in Norway to day). In
Christiania they also loaded 308.200kg wood pulp, 42 barrels of herring,
2.010kg fish skin and 1.160kg tinned products. In Christiansand they picked up
further passengers to a total of 410. They arrived in New York the 18th of
April. Georg is seen as passenger no. 139 in the passengers
list
Capt Laub delivered to the Customs in the city of New York.
SS Thingvalla
Mathias Simonsen was married to Georges sister Julie
Jette (Juliett). He left Denmark 15th of April 1890 heading for Illinois, according
to the Danish Emigration archive travelling "indirect". I found a
passengers list from SS Amsterdam with a passenger named Math. Simonsen 38 years
old baker from Norway! I am quite sure it is our Mathias; he also was 38
years old and baker. SS Amsterdam sailed from Rotterdam in Holland and arrived
in New York City the 5th of May 1890. Mathias was passenger no. 166.
Janette Vilhelmine together
with her husband Jens Christian Mikkelsen and their two daughters Anna 3 years
old and Ida 1˝ years old, travelled with the same ship, and they were passenger
no. 201-204.
SS Amsterdam
Julie Jette (Juliett) Simonsen and her two children
Peter Sophus Andreas four years old and Anna Martinette Bolette eleven
months old, travelled together with here sister Marie Hansen, and they left
Denmark the 2nd of September 1891 with the ship SS Hekla. There were 667
passengers according to the list Capt. Thomsen passed to the Customs in New
York and our family had the passenger numbers 159 to
162. It is not noted if
they had any luggage.
Julie Jette and Maries father Rasmus
Hansen travelled with the same ship, he was passenger no. 202 and he seems
to travel together with passenger no. 201 Jens Johs. Soenderup, who was a
citizen of USA. They are both heading for Kenosha. Soenderup left Denmark
the first time on the 19th of July 1888 and at that time he came from Skelby. Rasmus
had one suitcase.
I do not know for sure, if it is my great great
grandfather Rasmus Hansen, but I believe it. In the Danish emigrant
archive he says he is "manager", but in the passenger list he says he
is "farmer". In the census of 1906 in Denmark his wife says he died in 1895, but
I never found him dead in the Danish Archives. A Rasmus Hansen died on the 10th
og September 1895 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I think it is our Rasmus Hansen.
SS Hekla
I
guess that our family’s journey was like this:
These two pictures are from 1892 on a non-specified
ship from Thingvalla Line who owned Hekla.
If the weather was still fine in September it could
have been like this:
The picture is from a brochure printed by Thingvalla
Line 1887.
We know something, but not all
about what happened to our family in the new land.
Georges grandson William
Hansen has told me this:
The family history that I do
know, based on limited records or on what I have been told. George went
to America as a young man landing in New York with 5 cents in his pocket and
then walked into the country and found a job on a dairy. He married a
Danish lady named Anna Legaard probably in Connecticut but perhaps in Denmark.
They had two children Arthur and Eyner born in Connecticut. Eyner was my
father. I never knew my grandmother and it seems she must have died in
the east some where. I have no information about this period. Next,
George and the two boys turn up in Sheridan, Wyoming where George owned a small
dairy farm. George was by that time married to Anna Kristine Larsen born
July 11 1872 in Skelby, across the road from where George was born, according
to family lore. George and Anna had a son Martin born July 11 1909 in Sheridan.
The Hansen family then moved to Willows, in northern California, where
George again had a small farm. Finally the family moved to the San
Francisco Bay Area living for a time in Albany and then permanently (Anna and
George only, since the boys were grown and away) in Hayward, California.
George owned a small hotel for many years in a town near Hayward. He sold
the hotel and retired to his home on Blossom Way, Hayward.
Arthur never married. Eyner Hansen married Elsie in California and they
had three children, one of which (me) survived. Martin married Marge and
had two girls, Patricia and Kathleen (still living in Oregon). So,
although I have been married twice but have no children, I am the last of
Rasmus' descendants to carry the name Hansen.
George was naturalized 26th of November 1902
in Fairfield County, and in 1905 he went back to Denmark to marry his opposite
neighbour from childhood Anna Kristine.
Both William and I have been through the US Census to
look for the family, not with too much luck, but in 1930 I found something
interesting. In Alameda County California we find Georg M Hansen, his wife
Annie and their son Martin. The US Census is filled with a lot more information
than the Danish. We see that George was 24 years old when he first married. That means that he married Williams grandmother in 1893. Anna was 34 years old
when she married George, which means they married in 1906. It is also seen that
Anna immigrated in 1906. They own their 8000-dollar house and they have a radio
set! George and Anna do not work anymore, but Martin works at an Auto factory,
I cannot read what job he had. I wonder if Eyner and Martin were working the
same place, it is noted that Eyner is a "Metal polisher" in
Automobile industry.
George died the 24th of November 1941 and his wife Anna Kristine
died on the 1st of December 1945.
The story I know about George's
sister Juliett is this:
When I was a child, we had an
uncle Sophus in America who sent us packets with food and clothes after the war.
That was Juliett's son Peter Sophus Andreas. He was married to Madeline, and they
moved to Florida for their retirement. Sophus died in 1959, and Madeline died
in 1967.
Juliett died in the 15th of September 1892 in Somers, Kenosha only two years after she arrived in USA, and her daughter Anna Martinette Bolette died on the 10th of October 1898, 9 years old, also in Kenosha.
Concerning the family of "uncle" Sophus I had
more luck with the old Census records. I found him in 1910, 1920 and in 1930.
In 1910 Sophus, 23 years old, is head of
household living together with his father Mathias who is a widower. In 1920
Sophus and Madeline had married and Mathias is still living together with them,
and he still is in 1930. It has not been easy for Mathias, in 1910 it is noted
that he is only able to speak Danish and he is working as a "Shipping
Clerk" if I have read it correct! In 1920 he is able to speak English, but
he is not able to write? He is working in a Brewery Co. but I cannot read his
job. In 1930 he can read and write, but he cannot speak English. Madeline’s
father comes from Norway as noted in Census 1920, and in 1930 it is noted that
he is born at sea!
Mathias died on the 15th of July 1942 in Oak Park, Cook, Illinois.
Juliett's sister Marie married Andreas Carl Jacob Beeken on the 5th of December 1896 in Kenosha. Andreas was a son of Johan Christian Frederik Beeken and Karen Hviid, also a Danish family. Karen and Andreas got six children.
Janette
Vilhelmine and Jens Christian got three children more in America, but Janette
Vilhelmine died already in 1904. Jens Christian then married Martha Beilke from
Germany on the 7th of March 1907, and they did not get any children.
My great great grandmother, Martinette Hansens cousin
Hans Carl Anton Marthinsen emigrated to USA in 1902. He travelled from Hamburg
in Germany the 24th of April with S/S Deutschland alone, but the
year after he returned to pick-up his family.
On the 11th of April 1903 the family travelled from Liverpool in
England with S/S Saxonia. Hans Carl together with his wife Anna Katrine Hansdatter and their two children Eli
Margrethe eleven years old and William Fritz ten years old. They said to the
Danish emigration office that they were heading for New York City. In the
Census 1905, 1910 and 1920 the family lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Hans
Carl died there the 23th of May 1932.
In the Census 1910 Eli Margrethe is servant at a Danish/American family in
Hammond, St Croix, Wisconsin.
William Fritz, filled in Registration Card to the army in 1917, and he died the
11th of
November 1963 in Los Angeles.
Information’s are collected from:
http://www.norwayheritage.com/ships/ a
very interesting Norwegian homepage in English about the Norwegian Emigration.
http://www.udvandrerarkivet.dk/udvandrerprotokollerne/ the
Danish Emigration Archive in Danish, but it is possible to choose English.
Joern Christiansen 15. August 2016