My grandfather's surname was Thomsen. His father and mother came over from Germany in the 1890's.

KChristensen8

My grandfather's surname was Thomsen. His father and mother came over from Germany in the 1890's. His Father's name was Peter and I bellieve his mother was Catherine Jurgensen as shown on a baptismal record of one of the children I have.

In the 1920 Census it shows a William Wasserman living with them listed as her father. I haven't found any other info on him anywhere. I believe they came from Flensburg, Germany or Denmark, I'm not sure which country it was at the time of his birth in 1860.

Dennis J Yancey

with names like Thomsen and Jurgesen etc - I would think they came from Scandinavia - not Germany. - which uses Patronymic names.

Dennis J Yancey

see:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Scandinavia_Names

KChristensen8

Thanks for the replies. I'm familair with the patronymic names as my other main ancestry is Swedish. My grandfather always said he was German but since they were from the Schleswig Holstein area I started to wonder if his parents could have been born in Denmark. My husband's family also comes from Denmark and I've not had a lot of success in tracking them although I've found more on them than I have my grandfather's family. Their last name is Christensen so another very common name.

Gail Swihart Watson

Since you mention the Schleswig Holstein area, I have some more information for you. I have a letter written by my great grandfather in August 17, 1939 about a visit he made to Slesvig -Holstein (his spelling). He describes some history and the fact that it has a German speaking part. The PDF link below contains screen shots of that letter and envelope as well as my transcribed text. Intrigued about the reference, I had looked up the history of that area and have it in a rather large foot note. It turns out that area switched quite often between Denmark, Germany or Prussia. I haven't read my footnote in quite a while, but in 1860 that area could well have belonged to Germany when your father was born.

 

I also know a characteristic about German speaking people regardless if they are living inside the German border or not; they consider themselves Germans if they speak German and are part of a German speaking community.

 

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/79523011?cid=mem_copy

Gail Swihart Watson

Oh, I notice the letter did not have its envelope. I have so many letters written by my g-grandfather, and have only begun digitizing and transcribing them. I don't think I am even 1/4 done. Effie was my grandmother, who hated that name, and Tommy was my father.

KChristensen8

Thanks so much for the reply. That's very interesting and sheds some light as to whether they were a part of Germany or Denmark.