Danish Roots

The steps to finding your family history depends, at least some extent, on what you already know about your ancestors. Perhaps you are lucky enough to know where in Denmark they immigrated from and when. But often that information has been forgotten over the years.

Before attempting to locate your ancestors in Denmark, or any other foreign country for that matter, the best place to start is at home. Write down what you already know about your family. Perhaps your family is a recent enough arrival in the United States that you can ask the immigrant for information about their past. More likely, however, you are several generations removed from the immigrant or, like myself, you never thought to ask that grandparent for information while they were alive.

A good place to start is to ask your older relatives if they have any information. Look through the written record that may exist in your family. The immigrant ancestor may have brought with him or her documents that will help determine where they came from in the “old country”.  Family Bibles are often a good source of information with births and deaths being recorded. There also may be letters from friends and relatives in Denmark. Maybe you can have the immigrants copy of their naturalization papers. Another valuable source might be what was known as a “conduct book.”  Beginning in 1832 and continuing into the 20th century all Danish domestics were required to have a conduct book in which their employers could make comments about their conduct. These books can be used to track their movement throughout the country. The first page also generally contains valuable information about the worker’s birth date, parents and home parish. The only record I had of my maternal great-grandfather was from his conduct book that my grandmother brought with her in 1912. Using this book I have been able to determine where he was born and his parents names. I also have been able to track his movement through Denmark.

Other items that may be of use are military service records, photos, old newspapers or diaries.

Marie Nielsen - immigrated to the U.S, in 1912

Between 1850 and 1920 more than 350,000 Danes left their homeland to start a new life overseas, most of them in the United States. The 2000 United States census lists 1,430,897 people claiming Danish ancestry. Since you have found your way to this website, your parent, grandparent or great-grandparent likely was one of those immigrants and you are one of those Danish-Americans.

Tracing your Danish ancestry can be a daunting and sometimes frustrating task. The system of patronymic naming that was used well into the 1800’s is only one of the things that can make it difficult to trace your family lineage.

There are, however, resources available that can help, many of them online. Hopefully there will be information on this site that can make your search for you ancestors a little easier as well as providing links to online databases and sharing some Danish history and culture.