Always Check the Census!

I’ve had a lot of unexpected big family things come up over the past few months, which has kept me from working as much as I would like to. But the past two weeks have been great as I’ve been able to dig back into some projects and spend time doing research.

Last week I worked on a project in one of the rural counties of Denmark. Several years ago I had constructed a peripheral family group based on christening records in Hemmeshoj Parish. Because this family was not the main subject of my research, the family group was quickly assembled using just the church records.  The christening records stated the child’s name and the father’s name, but no mother’s name was given. The omission of a mother’s name is pretty typical throughout Scandinavia in the records that pre-date 1800. So I pulled all records for children born to Hans Pedersen for the years this family was living, approximately 1775-1800. I then found a marriage record for Hans Pedersen that fit perfectly for the time frame of the family. It seemed to be a great match for the family. This family group was added to the FamilySearch Trees.

Fast forward a few years, and a probate record was located by another FamilySearch user that listed Hans Pedersen from the same small community with his wife and only one child whose christening record was not previously located. This probate was clearly accurate, and the church records were clearly accurate. So what was the source of the problem? How was there so much conflicting information?

I looked at the census records for 1787 and what a surprise… there were two Hans Pedersen households living in the same small community.

Hans Pedersen Household, 1787 Census

Erdrup, Hemmeshoj Parish, household 8:

Hans Pedersen, man of the house, age 54, 2^nd marriage, farmer

Ane Jensdatter, woman of the house, age 34, 1^st marriage

Peer Hansen, their child of second marriage, age 11

Maren Hansdatter, their child of second marriage, age 8

Jens Hansen, their child of second marriage, age 6

Inger Hansdatter, their child of second marriage, age 3

Ane Hansdatter, their child of second marriage, age 1

Hemmeshoj Parish, Slagelse District, Soro County, Denmark 1787 Census, www.sa.dk, image 7.

Hans Pedersen Household, 1787 Census

Erdrup, Hemmeshoj, household 10:

Hans Peersen, man of the house, age 36, first marriage, cottager/farmer

Maren Nelsdatter, his wife, age 42, first marriage

Christine Hansdatter, their daughter, age 8

With these census records, there was evidence that showed how the two family groups should be split. The marriage of Hans Pedersen and Ane Jensdatter occurred outside of Hemmeshoj Parish. Their children had been attached to Hans Pedersen and Maren Nielsdatter in the FamilySearch Trees. The children were moved from that family group and attached to their correct parents, Hans Pedersen and Ane Jensdatter. Other evidence suggests that the child Maren Nielsdatter seems to have been born in the neighboring parish of Boeslunde. Unfortunately most early records for Boeslunde have been destroyed by fire. But this explains why information for this family group was missing.

My big take-away from this project was simple—just because we think one record group provides the needed evidence to support a family, it does not mean our research is exhaustive. Always look to see what other records might support your findings. The simple check of a census record would have cleared this misunderstanding years ago. In Scandinavia we tend to focus so heavily on the fantastic church records. They provide so much detail! We can do so much with these awesome resources. But if we cut out looking at every record, we’re going to miss important details.