Need help with this touching story
Dear community,
my name is Jörg Brinkmann and I am a family researcher from Germany. In the following I will describe what my request is all about.
My grandmother inherited a house and some land in a small town in Germany when she was a young woman in the year 1945. The older gentleman took her as a helping hand or maid with the promise to leave her everything when he dies. The story goes, that he was related to the family which I doubt very much. I have no idea - and nobody could help me to find out - what the whole thing was about and how they got in touch. He was round about 72 years old when she moved in and his wife had died a year earlier. In fact, she had committed suicide at the age of 75. Another story, nobody was able to help with.
I researched the two of them. I found out, that they had lived in New York for more than 30 years before they moved to Germany. They had married there in the year 1900 and remained childless, as far as I know. I don't know why they left the US and came to Germany, probably at the beginning of the national-socials reign. Especially because he was born in France and his wife was born in Denmark.
I found out a little about his family. The family name is Risse and - I am not sure about it - they could have been of German descendant. I can trace his roots back for some generations.
His wife Eva came from a little village around Alborg. I found out about her father’s family - the family name is Zimmermann - but can't get further with her mother. I do have a copy from a church entry which might offer another hint but ... it is in Danish. Her name was Frederikke Margrethe Henriette Constantia HENRIKSEN
I would be very grateful if someone could spare some time and effort and help me with the translation. I do promise to pay it back to someone who needs help with German records.
Best regards from Germany
Jörg
의견
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Eva was born 29 Dec and christened on 22 Feb 1869. Her mother Frederikke Margrethe Henriette Constantia was unmarried. The father was Carl Julius Leonhard Zimmerman.
In a slightly different version I found on MyHeritage it says that the mother was 23 years old: https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10455-9257095/eve-caroline-henriksen-in-denmark-church-records
If you could give a link to the record, it would helpful. I wasn't able to zoom in very well on the image you attached.
There's some other text that I can't interpret well, so I'll leave that part to someone with more expertise than I have.
😃
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Not being certain how much of this christening record is clear to you, I will give you a translation of the entire record.
Column 1: Entry number-66
Column 2: Birth date-December 29 (1868)
Column 3: Child's full name: Eva Caroline Henrichsen
Column 4: Baptism date-home baptized the 22nd of February 1869 (there is something that looks like "f(?) Sch________" below the date.
Column 5: Parents' Information: Unmarried Frederikke Margrethe Henriette Constantia Henrichsen with Staudt in Møllegaden and the said-to-be father of the child _______________ Carl Julius Leonhard Zimmermann. The child is fostered by shoemaker Jacob Ande(r)s.... (the rest is cut off)
Column 6: the mother's age-23
Column 7: Witness's/godparents' information-Blank
Column 8: Page in the Jevnførelses Register (Index)-87-393
Column 9: Introduction of the mother-Blank
Column 10: Notes/Remarks: Illegitimate-10 months before the child's birth, the mother had lived at Emiliesminde in Sulsted parish.
I found another version of this record here: https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/en/billedviser?bsid=356211#356211,70424097. Most of the information is the same as your record, except the last column, most of which I can read and 1 word I cannot. It reads "_______17 Aug by the parish priest Schun(?) the mother resided for 10 months before the child was born". Also, there is another page listed for the Jevnførelses Register (Index): 68-15. I have looked for those records, but am unable to find them.
I was able to locate the residence where the mother lived "with Staudt in Møllegaden" (see column 5 above) in the 1870 census in Ålborg. That record is here: https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/en/billedviser?bsid=54257#54257,11878451.
The same family and place is here in the 1860 census: https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/en/billedviser?bsid=10167#10167,250039.
And the same family and place in the 1850 census: https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/en/billedviser?bsid=115269#115269,17295927.
Frederikke Margrethe Henriette Constantia Henrichsen does not appear in any of these censuses, so I am pretty certain that they are not her family. I can't know for certain, but she was probably a household servant.
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Thanks to the Danish Family Search website I was able to locate Frederikke Magrethe Henriette Constansia Henriksen's birth record! In the birth record her first name is actually Pederikke. However, thankfully it was indexed as Frederikke or I probably would not have been able to locate the record.
The Danish Family Search indexed version is here: https://www.danishfamilysearch.com/kbid546976
and the actual birth record is here: https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/en/billedviser?bsid=441986#441986,79792147
She was born 19 September 1845 and christened in the church 15 February 1846. Her father is shoemaker Hans Henriksen and her mother is Pauline Magrethe Normann of Thornh. S (probably Tårnholm Skov). She was held during the christening by Madam Normann of Slagelse. The witnesses/godparents were cabinetmaker Normann of the same place (Slagelse), hirr (Herr?) J. Normann of Skjelskæer and merchant Larsen of the same place (Skjelskæer), and Johan Andersen of the same place (Skjelskæer).
The family is here in the 1850 census: https://www.danishfamilysearch.com/cid7926795.
Note: the child named Peder (born 1845) is indexed incorrectly. It should be Pederikke and should be a female child. You can see the original census record by clicking on the tab "Original Source" near the top of the page.
This census gives the birth parish of each person in it. According to the census, the father, Hans, was born in Smerup, Præstø, Denmark. The mother, Pauline, was born in Skjelskør, Søro, Denmark. The oldes child, Sophie, was born in Corsæer (Korsør probably). The rest of the children were born in Sørbymagle.
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I made a mistake on the father's occupation in Pederikke's birth record. It is actually "skovfoged" which is "forester, forest ranger on an estate. Reports to the head forester (ridefoged)" rather than shoemaker. See Danish wordlist here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Danish_to_English_Genealogical_Word_List#U
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Jennian and Norm, you have just become my personal genealogy heros. I am very grateful.
As I promised, I will pass on the good and if I can help with research in or about Germany, I will be happy to do so.
I will now go through all the information you gave me.
Coincidence wants it that I have already booked a holiday home near Alborg for this summer. I am very much looking forward to look at the places Eva and her family come from.
Thank you very much!
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I have filled in all the info at my Ancestry Account and it seems your info opened the door to the past.
As I understand it, Frederikke / Pederikke was left her family to work as a servant for a well of family in Aalborg. There she met young Mr Zimmermann. Since she moved later with her daughter Eva to New York, I guess Mr Zimmermann was not willing to marry her. Eva kind of lost her roots. Which makes it clearer, why she didn't move back to Denmark but followed her husband to Germany.
I do have an elderly relative who is way in her 90s. She might have known her or at least heard about her story because they lived in the same little town. There were probably rumors about the newcomers from New York and about Evas tragic death.
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