Maren Christensen

Notes:

BIRTH:
1. FHL film # 053243; Visby Parish Record, 1814 - 1872, book 3, p. 66.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Visby parish records; microfiche C118.3 plate 3 page 66.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053243; Visby Parish Record, 1814 - 1872, book 3, p. 66.

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053243; Visby Parish Record, 1814 - 1872, book 3, p. 213.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Visby parish records; microfiche C118.3 plate 7 page 213.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053243; Visby Parish Record, 1814 - 1872, book 3, p. 213.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Archive Record Family Group Sheet submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden Utah 84403. He references: "Film 9025 9024 Census paper 1840, 1845, 1850, 1855, and Fam. Rec."

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

Notes:

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. FHL film 053027, bk. 3, p. 152, shows Christen Enevoldsen, age 27, of Bedsted, moving to Sonderaa 16 Nov 1835.

2. All children born in Visby. Family moved from Visby on 31 Mar 1852 (Visby parish record, book 3, p. 184) to Gettrup on 2 Apr 1852 (Gettrup parish record, book 9, p. 20).

3. Also known with additional last name of Vestergaard from the farm that sits close to the Bedsted church and then americanized later to Westergard. Frederikke's obit. shows ...gaard, however brothers' burial records in Ogden show ...gard. The cemetery plat records for James and Hans show their father being Christian Westergard and mother is buried in Ogden next to Frederikke with the same plat records showing "Ane Kjerstine Westergard." Also known on some records as Christen Enevoldsen Westergard. On emigration ship records, name of mother and both brothers listed as Westergard. 3. 1845 census in Visby shows him as smallholder living off of his land; 1850 as housefather living off of his land; 1860 in Gettrup as carpenter and housefather. By 1860 Enevold and Fred. had left home.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Record, 1766 - 1814, book 2, p 151. Christen, home christened 11 Oct 1808, son of Enevold Pedersen Westergaard and Frederike Pedersdatter, Bedsted.
Film 053027, book 3, p. 102, shows the confirmation of Christen in 1823 with a birth of 18 Oct 1808 in Bedsted to Enevold Vestergaard in Bedsted.

2. Also Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Bedsted Parish Records; microfiche C119.2 plate 4 page 154. Sponsors: The daughter of the parish clerk Maren Silkeborg carried the Child; Niels Molgaard Junior; Jens Blacksmidt, Niels Habeth, Christen and Anders Kok with their wives; the daughter of Christen Nielsen and Ane Toppenberg.

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053246; Heltborg Parish Record, 1834 - 1866, book 9, p. 135, marriage was performed at the Visby Church.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Visby Parish Records; microfiche C118.12, plate 5, p. 135; Witnesses: Svend Jensen (Christen's stepfather) of Bedsted, and father of the bride.

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053056; Gettrup Parish Record, 1849 - 1873, book 8, p. 189.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053056; Gettrup Parish Record, 1849 - 1873, book 8, p. 189. Copy of Burial Memorial has survived (copy in files of Kerry Petersen) which among other things states: Memory of the deceased fellow christian Christen Enevoldsen born in Vestergaard in Bedsted 18 Oct 1808. Died in Gjettrup the year 1867, 21 Dec. Widow Ane Kjerstine Jensen. Happy marriage 31 years. Father of 7 children, 2 of them met their father in eternity, but the 5, with mother grieve the loss of a beloved father. Glory to they Soul. Peace with thy dust."

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Archive Record Family Group Sheet submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden Utah 84403 copy of which is in possession of Kerry Petersen. He references: "Film 9025 9024 Census paper 1840, 1845, 1850, 1855, and Fam. Rec."

2. Parent's family information from LDS Archive record. Record originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy, Utah. James Christian Westergard shown as heir. Note on sheet states:"Under the ruling issued by the First Presidency on 7 Jan 1966, those ordinances that appear to be out of order are accepted as recorded. Records noted are church and census records for Bedsted by Eva M. Gregersen.

3. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

4. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

Christen married Ane Kjerstine Jensdatter on 16 Apr 1837 in Visby, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. Ane (daughter of Jens Michelsen Smed and Maren Jensdatter) was born on 3 Feb 1812 in Kjaestrup, Heltborg, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; was christened on 2 Mar 1812 in Heltborg, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; died on 1 Jul 1883 in Harrisville, Weber, Utah, United States; was buried in Ogden City Cemetery, Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Censuses:
1870 US: Judging from this statement of her son Jens, she would appear to most likely be in Mt. Pleasant but she is not with the Swen Olsen family. Statement: "Went to Salt Lake City, took a trip to San Pete to visit my mother and my sister. I was back in Ogden by the first of April 1869 then went back to work on the railroad till it was completed. (See below for full quotation.)" One possibility however may be this entry in Mt. Pleasant 4th Ward, Sanpete, Utah, p. 83b, household 86, family 80, living by herself about 45 families away from her daughter Maren:
Annie Christian, 55, keeping house, $300 real estate, $250 personal property, Den.

1880 US: Fred Westergard per his email of 2 Feb 2003 indicates that he searched the US 1880 census for the Harrisville, 4th Ward of Ogden, and Mount Pleasant enumeration districts looking for Ane Kjerstine Jensdatter. The only one that looked close was Annie M. Jensen several doors after Swen Olson and Maren Christensen Westergard in Mt. Pleasant; however the age is not right and it appears to be a long shot that this is even the correct one. A look at the actual microfilm needs to be done. Also doing a full search in Weber and Sanpete counties of all "Annies" or variation of that name with a 10 year search either side of an 1812 birth in Denmark found the following:
Anna Christensen living alone in Fairview, Sanpete, UT age 67 of Denmark.

2. "Names of Persons and Sureties indebted to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company 1850 to 1877," http://www.jacksonfamilyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Doc030_PEF.pdf, p. 156, accessed 23 Apr 2014:
Ann and Hans Westergaard - 1868.
Jens Chr. Westergaard - 1868.

3. According to Archive Record family group sheet for father as submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, last name also known as Smed (blacksmith). On TIB card for daughter Frederikke Lovise Christensen (see notes for FLC), temple notes mother's name as Anne Kirstine Jensen. This is per submittal of her son James Westergard. Dorthea Westergard Holland's fam. grp. record (copy on file with Kerry Petersen) shows "Anne Christine." Tombstone reads "Ane Kjerstine Westergard." Copy of birth record for dau. Frederikke shows name as Ane Kirstine Jensdatter.Obituary in Ogden paper for Friday, Dec. 22, 1933: "Funeral Services for James C. Westergard, 88, who died Thursday at 2.30am at the family home, 1950 Jackson avenue, will be conducted Sunday at 1:30 pm in the LDS 20th ward chapel with internment in Ogden City cemetery under direction of Lindquist and Sons Mortuary. Mr. Westergard was born in Denmark, May 14, 1845, a son of Christian and Anna Jensen Westergard. He came to America with his mother, crossing the plains with one of the last ox-team trains and arriving in Ogden in the fall of 1868..." Copy in posession of Kerry Petersen.

4. In my files, I have a copy of "Emerald Isle Journals" prepared by Fred Westergard for the 2002 Westergard reunion. Using various sources, Fred has collected excerpts of the journals of various passengers who were on the same voyage from Denmark as was Ane Kjerstine Jensdatter (56) and her two sons, Jens (23) and Hans (18). These journals are too lengthy for this database, but I do herein summarize some pertinent information. (Also note that Fred prepared a similar typescript called "Kenilworth Journals" for Maren Westergard Olson of which I also have a copy on file.) They followed Maren (who sailed in 1866) by sailing from Copenhagen, Denmark on 13 Jun 1868 on the "Hansia or Hansa" arriving on 16 Jun 1868 at Kingston upon Hull, England. Owing to the large company on board they were very much crowded for space. From this point and in the evening of the same day they traveled by rail to Liverpool, England. Here they found accommodations in seven different hotels, where they, with the exception of one place, received anything but decent treatment because they had had next to nothing to eat. On 20 Jun 1868 they boarded the 1736 ton clipper sailing ship "Emerald Isle," commanded by a Captain Gillespie. They had a half day wait on the wharf because the carpenters had not completed their labors in making temporary berths for the passengers. Elder Hans Jensen Hals, and his counselors Elders James Smith and John Fagerberg presided over the company of 876 Saints (627 from Scandinavia and the rest from the British Isles). On June 26th the "Emerald Isle" sailed into the harbor of Queenstown to take fresh water on board, as a certain machine on the vessel used to distill seawater for culinary purposes was out of commission and could not speedily be repaired. On the 29th the ship left Queenstown, Ireland, but the voyage after that was anything but pleasant. This emigrating company of saints probably had the worst treatment of all emigrating companies because of lewdness of the crew and the stagnant water that caused much sickness. Fortunately it was the last company of Scandinavian Saints which crossed the Atlantic in a sailing vessel. From that time on only steamers were employed in the transportation of the Saints. No less than 37 deaths occurred on the voyage. Many of these, however, were caused by measles among the children, but the stagnant water, which all the passengers had to use, was undoubtedly the real cause of the heavy death rate. One comment by Hans Jorgenson about the "Emerald Isle" passage illustrates the general feeling expressed in most of the journals: "The treatment we had on board said vessel was anything but human. The captain and crew showed themselves as rough and mean towards us (especially Danish) as they could and the provisions did not by any means come up to the bargain. The shortest I can say about it is that this treatment was something like the Danish prisoners received in the 1807-1814. I for my part can never think on the deadly "Emerald Isle" but with the greatest disgust and hatred." The Saints held multiple meetings during the sabbath days in different parts of the ship and were divided into 13 wards, each with a presiding elder. Occasionally a dance would be held on deck. Schools were started in which the English were to teach the Scandinavians to read and speak the English language. They arrived in New York harbor on 11 Aug 1868 and after 3 days quarantine, landed at Castle Garden on 14 Aug 1868. On the same day a steamer conveyed the emigrants a few miles up the Hudson River, where they found shelter in a warehouse for a couple of days, while their baggage was being weighed by the railway station. On the 17th the journey was resumed by railway from New York and the emigrants traveled via Niagara, Detroit, and Chicago to Council bluffs where they arrived on the 21st. They stopped at Niagara and were able to see the falls. The following day, they were taken across the Missouri River on a rainy day by a steamboat and thence they traveled in cattle cars on the Union Pacific railroad to the end of the line arriving the morning of 25 Aug in Benton, Wyoming about 700 miles west from Omaha. Here the Church teams met the emigrants and took them to their camp on the Platte River, about six miles from Benton. On 31 Aug 1868, they began the rest of trip to Salt Lake City, Utah by church ox team of 62 wagons in Captain John G. Holman's company via Muddy Gap, Three Crossings, and the rest of the original Mormon Trail. The English Saints traveling with mule teams could ride, while the Scandinavians traveling with slow ox teams, walked most of the way to Salt Lake City. Sickness continued to rage among the Scandinavian emigrants with about thirty dead between New York and Salt Lake City. Jens left the company when it reached present day Echo, Utah and went down Weber canyon to Ogden where he went to work for the railroad. They with the rest of the company of approximately 650 people arrived in Salt Lake City on 25 Sep 1868 at about 9 o'clock in the morning. They camped temporarily in the Tithing Yard. See FHL films: 025686 - Perpetual Emigration Fund; 298442 - Crossing the Plains Index; 25692 - BMR, Book #1048, pp. 322-332, 370; 175654 - Customs. In the same typescript, Fred included the following biography of James (Jens) Westergard written by a granddaughter as follows: "Granfather James C. Westergard. This is some history grandfather told me about and I wrote it down. I must have been in grade school. 'Mother, myself, and Hans left Denmark the first week of June 1868. Crossing the North Sea to England took three days. Took the railroad to Liverpool. We were in Leverpool a week when we boarded a sailing vessel for America. We were on the Atlantic Ocean eight weeks and four days. Many took sick and 43 died on the ocean. We landed in New York 27 or 26 of June. We had a terrible storm at sea. We were in New York eleven days. Then took the railroad to Benton, Wyo. which was then the end of the U.P. railroad. Traveled 500 miles in 5 weeks when we landed in Utah. I left the company at Echo, Utah, 23 Sept. and went down to Weber Canyon to work on the railroad. I worked there a week before Christmas. Went to Salt Lake City, took a trip to San Pete to visit my mother and my sister. I was back in Ogden by the first of April 1869 then went back to work on the railroad till it was completed. After the railroad was completed all the white men were discharged except the foreman. They hired Chinamen. I went back to Omaha, Neb. Got work on the railroad again and worked two years. 17 Apr 1871, I married Mary Holst. In the spring of 1871 we left Omaha and went to Carbon, Wyo. working there for the Wyo. Coal Co. Was there a year. We moved back to Utah and bought a farm of 20 acres near North Ogden, Utah.'"

5. As of about the year 2000, 1451 ancestors have been identified in the US living in 21 states per information derived by Wayne Westergard.

6. Website https://user.xmission.com/~nelsonb/scand68.htm accessed 29 Jan 2018:
"Scandinavian Emigration-1868
"Our Pioneer Heritage," Vol. 12, p. 7-9.
"Emigration From Denmark-1868" published in the Scandinavian Star:
Saturday, June 13, 1868, 630 emigrants left Copenhagen with the steamship Hansia, and arrived in Hull, England, Tuesday the 16th. The same evening they took passage on the railroad for Liverpool. Upon arriving there, they were housed in seven hotels where they were poorly treated. On the 19th they went on board the sailship, the Emerald Isle. There were 627 Scandinavians and 250 English emigrants under the direction of Elder Hans Jensen Hals as president, and counsellors J. Smith and John Forsberg, with Elder Peter Hansen acting as provision dealer. Arriving at Queenstown, they remained three days, which proved anything but pleasant, as the emigrants were roughly treated by the ship's crew. Seldom have Latter-day Saints suffered as much as did those who were the last to cross the Atlantic with sailships.
It was not only the rough handling of the Saints that made it so unpleasant and hard to bear, but the water became so rank that it caused many of the emigrants to sicken and die. In all, thirty-seven died, most of them children, from measles and bad water.
The ship anchored in New York Harbor, August 11th, and was quarantined for three days, where they were inspected, and thirty of the sick were taken to Staten Island for treatment, and the rest were taken to Castle Garden, Aug. 14th. On the same day, the company sailed on a steamboat for the Hudson River, where they were stationed for two days while the baggage was weighed. While there a boy died. On the 17th, the railroad journey began from New York to Niagara Falls, Detroit, Chicago and Council Bluffs. They journeyed on the Union Pacific to Benton, 700 miles west of Omaha, arriving on the morning of the 25th. Here they were met by the Church wagons that took them to the Platte River, two miles from Benton. There they stayed until August 31.
The travel-weary Saints were still besieged with sickness, and thirty more gave up their lives between New York and Salt Lake City. The remainder of the emigrants arrived in Salt Lake City September 25, 1868.
This company concluded the emigration from Europe by sailship and oxteam. The hard journey to Zion, which so many of Norden's sons and daughters had passed through, was now a thing of the past. It was not any too soon that a change took place, for hundreds and hundreds of the 19th century's best men and women who had left their fatherland, relatives and friends for the Gospel's sake, according to the counsel of God, to go to Zion, offered up their lives through hardships. Many of them became so weak they despaired reaching their destination, fearing they would either be sunk in the sea or go to sleep on the big prairie, their lonely graves watched by howling wolves instead of their dear ones. How often had fond parents closed their eyes on their loved ones when at last given up to die, and how many gray-haired veterans, whose fond hopes and longing for Zion had to be given up.
Those who survived will never forget those sorrowful days, when without coffins they had to bury their loved ones in the wilderness; while they through weakness were hardly able to fulfill the last rites. While hovering between life and death, they did not know who would be the next victim. (End of quote.)
Starting of Wagon Trains.-The following trains started from Laramie City, at the dates named, with immigrants: Captains Rawlins' and Loveland's trains left July 25th; Captain Murdock's on the 27th, and Captain Haight's on the 28th, with the passengers that came by the Minnesota and John Bright, 1,250 in number. Captain Seeley's train left August 1st, with the Williamsburg passengers, and freight. The first of the trains may reach this city by Saturday or Sunday, though it is difficult to say exactly, since no information has reached yet of their striking the road where a telegraph station is; and the first they would come to, on the road they will most likely travel, would be at Bear River.
Since writing the above, the following telegram has been received from Captain Murdock:
Fort Bridger, Aug. 13, 1868.
President Brigham Young:-My train is on the way in good condition. Be at Salt Lake the 20th. J. R. Murdock
We are indebted to President Young for the following telegram: New York, Sept. 28, 1868. President B. Young:-I arrived this morning. The company start October 3d, and will reach the terminus in ten days. H. B. Clawson.
The company alluded to are those who had to be left in hospital at New York, sick. There are nearly sixty of them, in charge of Elder Frederick G. Anderson. -Deseret News"

7. Website https://user.xmission.com/~nelsonb/enarrative.htm accessed 29 Jan 2018:
"Narratives of the Emigration from the Scandinavian Mission 1852-1868 from excerpts of the "History of the Scandinavian Mission," by Andrew Jenson, pp. 204-205:
"In 1868 a strong effort was made in Zion to gather means to assist the poor Saints who wished to emigrate and large sums of money were sent to the British Islands to assist members of the Church to this end, especially faithful Saints of many years standing. Besides this, the Church sent for the last time teams out to the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad to bring them thence across the deserts and mountains. Although scarcely any of the means collected was applied to assist the poor from Scandinavia, goodly number (820) souls emigrated from the Scandinavian countries in 1868, viz: 544 Danes, 209 Swede and 63 Norwegians; also 4 German emigrants. Of the above-named number 10 Swedish Saints sailed from Goteborg May 29, 1868, by the steamer "Hero" in charge of Elder Christoffer C. Folkmann, arriving in Hull, England, May 31st. Here they were joined by a small company of Danish Saints in charge of Elder Carl Widerborg and along with these continued the journey to Liverpool by railroad. On the evening of the next day (June 1st) Elder Carl C. A. Christensen arrived in Liverpool with some emigrating Saints from Nor. way, about 50 in number. They had sailed from Christiania by steamer for England, where they joined the main body of emigrating Saints from Scandinavia. On June 3rd all went on board the ship "John Bright" (Capt. John Towart). Elder James McGaw was appointed president of the company, of which 17 were Scandinavian and more than five hundred British Saints. Christoffer O. Folkmann and Fred C. Anderson were chosen for assistant presidents. The Scandinavian Saints, who were located on the lower deck, were placed under Elder Carl C. A. Christensen's special charge. The "John Bright" sailed from Liverpool June 4th. It was intended that the emigrants this year should have crossed the Atlantic by steamers, but on account of the high price demanded for steamship passage, the voyage had to be made by sailing vessels as in previous years, so that those of only limited means could be accommodated. During the voyage there was very little sickness, and only an aged sister from England, who was sick when she went on board, died. A Swedish couple were married during the voyage. The captain was very kind and obliging towards the Saints. The company arrived safely in New York July 13th and on the following day was conveyed by railroad westward. The emigrants traveled via Chicago and Omaha, and on the Union Pacific Railroad to Laramie City. The fare from New York to Omaha was $14 and to the terminus on the Plains $35, but those who would stop to labor on the Union Pacific Railroad were conveyed all the way for $14 The company arrived at Laramie, 579 miles from Omaha, July 23rd. A, that time, Laramie City was the western terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad, and also, temporarily, the outfitting place for the journey across the mountains with teams. Here the emigrants met the Church teams and most of the Scandinavian Saints went with Captain Horton D. Haight's company, which left Laramie July 27th, and arrived in Salt Lake City August 24, 1868.
Elder Folkmann acted as leader of the Scandinavians in this company and also as chaplain for the whole company. Two Swedish emigrants died on the journey across the mountains. Elder Carl C. A. Christensen, together with some Norwegian Saints crossed the Plains with Captain John R. Murdock's company, which left Laramie a little before Captain Haight's company and arrived in Salt Lake City August 19th. The fare by the Church teams from the railroad terminus to Salt Lake Cit. was $29, which the emigrants were required to pay later.
About 630 emigrants left Copenhagen by the steamer "Hansia," June 13, 1868. On the departure the brethren had considerable trouble with the police authorities in Copenhagen. After a successful voyage across the North Sea, the company arrived in Hull, England, on Tuesday, June 16th, and in the evening of the same day they went by train to Liverpool. Here they found accommodations in seven different hotels, where they, with the exception of one place, received anything but decent treatment; and when they on the 19th went on board the ship "Emerald Isle," they were insulted most every imaginable way. On the 20th the ship sailed from Liverpool, carrying a company of emigrants consisting of 877 souls, of whom 627 were Scandinavians, all in charge of Elders Hans Jensen (Hals) as president with James Smith and John Fagerberg as assistants. Elder Peter Hansen was appointed commissary for the Scandinavians, and Elder Mons Pedersen who had labored faithfully for four years in the mission office in Copenhagen, was chosen as secretary. Eighteen other Scandinavian emigrants sailed this year by other ships, some of them from Hamburg and some from Norway.
On June 26th the "Emerald Isle" sailed into the harbor of Queenstown to take fresh water on board, as a certain machine on the vessel used to distill seawater for culinary purposes was out of commission and could not speedily be repaired. While the ship waited at Queenstown Elders Hans Jensen (Hale) and James Smith had an excellent opportunity to accompany the captain on a railway trip to Cork. On the 29th the ship left Queenstown, but the voyage after that was anything but pleasant. The emigrants received very rough and harsh treatment, both from officers and crew, and only by the strong protest of Elder Hans Jensen (Hale) in their behalf did they succeed in getting a part of their rights according to the contract made. On one occasion, when one of the ship's mates attacked a sister by the name of Sander, Brother Jensen took hold of the mate and pulled him away, while sharply reproving him for his conduct. Soon a lot of sailors came up ready for a fight, but the incident ended when the offender got a severe reprimand from the captain, whom Brother Jensen reminded of the promises made. No other company of emigrating Saints from Scandinavia are known to have met with such bad treatment as this on board any ship in crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately it was the last company of Scandinavian Saints which crossed the Atlantic in a sailing vessel. From that time on only steamers were employed in the transportation of the Saints. It was not alone the rough treatment which the emigrants received from the ship's crew that made the voyage so unpleasant, but the water taken on board at Queenstown soon became stagnant and unfit for use, causing much sickness among the passengers, and no less than 37 deaths occurred on the voyage. Many of these, however, were caused by measles among the children, but the stagnant water which all the passengers had to use was undoubtedly the real cause of the heavy death rate.
On August 11th the ship arrived at the entrance of New York harbor and 30 of the sick were taken ashore on Staten Island. The following day, (August 12th) eight other sick people were landed, and finally, alter being held in quarantine three days, the rest of the emigrants were landed at Castle Garden, August 14th. On the same day a steamer conveyed the emigrants a few miles up the Hudson River, where they, found shelter in a warehouse for couple of days, while their baggage was being weighed. While staying there a boy belonging to the company died. On the 17th the journey was resumed by railway from New York and the emigrants traveled via Niagara, Detroit and Chicago to Council Bluffs, where they arrived on the 21st. The following day, (August 22nd) they were taken across the Missouri River by a steam boat and thence they traveled by the Union Pacific Railroad to Benton seven hundred miles west of Omaha arriving there in the morning of August 25th. Here the Church team; met the emigrants and took them to their camp on the Platte River, about six miles from Benton, where they remained till August 31st, when the Scandinavian Saints took up the journey across the- mountains by ox train led by Captain John G. Holman, while the English emigrant; about the same time left by mule teams. Elder Hiram B. Clawson acted this year as emigration agent for the Church. The English Saints traveling with mule teams could ride while the Scandinavians traveling with slow ox-teams, walked most of the way to Salt Lake City. Sickness continuing to rage among the, Scandinavian emigrants, about thirty died between New York and Salt Lake City, where the surviving part of this, the 28th, company of emigrating Saints from Scandinavia arrived on the 25th of September, 1868."

8. The book "Scandinavians to Zion: From the Old World to the New World Excerpts from Homeward to Zion," by William Mulder has the following concerning the history of the Mormon Scandinavian Emigration 1854-1868 to the United States from. The first family member to emigrate in 1866 was Maren Christensen, the sister of our ancestor Frederikke Lovise Christensen. She was on the ship "Kenilworth" of British registry, 987 tons, Master J. Brown, 684 Mormon passengers, 52 day passage with 25 May 1866 departure from Hamburg and 16 Jul 1666 arrival to New York City, with S. Sprague as group leader. Ane Kjerstine Jensdatter, widow of Enevold Christensen, came in 1868 (the last year before the completion of the transcontinental train) with here two sons. They were registered as Anna K. Westergaard, age 56, Aalborg Conference, born at Kjerstrup, with her sons Hans and Jens Chr. Westergaard. They were on the ship "Emerald Isle" of U.S. Registry, 1736 tons, Master Gillespie, 876 LDS passengers, 55 day passage with 20 Jun 1868 departure from Liverpool and 14 Aug 1868 arrival to New York City, with H. Hals as group leader. There are a couple of key parts in the following transcript pertaining specifically to the "Emerald Isle" and its group of LDS Saints which I highlight in { }:
"THOUGH WE HAD OUR TROUBLES ON THE JOURNEY, NOW EVERY HEART SWELLED WITH JOY TO SEE THE SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS AND BEAUTIFUL VALLEY..."[1]
"Only good news came back from the handful of emigrants who had left Copenhagen early in 1852. The Italy had brought the "little flock" from Liverpool to New Orleans by May 10 "all well in body and spirit." They had proceeded up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Kanesville, Iowa, where they had joined a large encampment of Saints getting ready to cross the plains. In July Erastus Snow had caught up with them and, as part of Captain Eli B. Kelsey's ox train of one hundred fifty wagons, had led them into the Salt Lake Valley on October 16 "They are all alive and well satisfied," Stjerne could tell its anxious readers, "and they urge their friends to follow them."[2]
Their letters dissolved the worst fears about the hazards of the long journey and silenced the skeptics distrustful of conditions in Mormon landet, the rumor-ridden land of the Mormons. A few of the emigrants had already bought places to live and turned the first soil; Niels Jensen and his nephew Frederik Petersen were getting ready to build a pottery in the Second Ward, a parish soon to be known as "Little Denmark"; clerk Conrad Svanevelt's wife had a new baby, a girl they called Josephine Brighamine in honor of the prophets; the Rasmus Petersens were staying temporarily with Erastus Snow, turnabout for the time he had made his home with them in Denmark; tailor Wilhelm Knudsen looked forward to the arrival of his father's family with the Forsgren company and went north to the settlement at Box Elder to get ready for them; midwife Augusta Dorius married Henry Stevens and went south to Sanpete Valley, where Cecilia Jorgensen followed to become in time the plural wife of Hans Jensen Hals. It was a sad day when Stjerne had to report Svanevelt's defection, removal to California, and final return to Denmark, but a happy one when it could announce his reunion with the Saints.[3] So ran the news about the five families, six bachelors, and four spinsters who were the forerunners of the hosts to come. They were never out of mind, though it was not until death that some of them figured again in the news from Zion: the obituary always remembered they were "one of the first twenty-eight," and that paid them the highest respect.
An even greater watchfulness followed the adventures of the Forsgren company, which sailed from Liverpool on January 16, 1853 aboard the Forest Monarch, the Mayflower of the Mormon migration from Scandinavia. More characteristic of the future emigration in numbers and organization than the first group, the Forsgren pilgrims provided a more genuine test of the ability of Saints from the European mainland to make their way to Zion and establish themselves as equal citizens of the Kingdom. It was a long nine months before they could record in their journals: "September 30, 1853. This day we entered the Valley and camped in the center of the city." And it was a long way from Copenhagen, where in the previous December they had assembled to make preparations for the journey.[4]
Some had to travel far to get to headquarters. As early as the first of August, Lars Poulsen and his family of six, who had sacrificed their farm at half its 5000 rigsdaler value, left their native island of Jegendo in an open boat to make their way down Lim Fjorden to Aalborg, only to find cholera raging, and they had to put up in a simple hut on the outskirts of the city. It was November before they reached Copenhagen, but in time to assist a number of hopeful converts to join the company. Christian Ipsen Munk, a cooper from the island of Bornholm, came to Ronne and crossed over to Copenhagen with his family weeks early to lodge with eight other emigrant families in the same house "in perfect harmony," a friendship that would keep several of them close neighbors in the settlements.
At noon on December 20, the emigrants--199 adults and 95 children under twelve—boarded the steamer Obotrit amid "songs of praise and thanksgiving" from friends and jeers from the idle gathered on the wharf at Copenhagen. A stormy night forced the vessel into a Falster harbor for forty-eight hours, and it did not reach Kiel in Holstein until the evening of the 22nd. Kiel was but three hours by train to Hamburg, where the emigrants aroused "great curiosity" the next morning as they marched through the streets to their quarters, a large hall on the banks of the Elbe just outside the city. They found their fare a "palatable and well-cooked meal, tea and bread and butter," though they had to sleep on straw and chairs scattered the length of the building. Willard Snow, John Forsgren, and Daniel Garn, Mormon missionary in Hamburg, had dinner with Mr. Morris of the shipping firm, who spread "a good table." Morris & Co. furnished the emigrants their breakfast on the morning of the 24th and, after their customary songs and prayers, saw them aboard the English ship Lion bound for Hull. A newspaper account picturing the emigrants as "driven out of Scandinavia" and making it appear an "act of humanity" on Hamburg's part to permit them to land and re-embark, angered Snow as "insult" and "pretense," because "Mr. Morris had paid $20 for the privilege of landing the steamer," and "the Senate and police authorities had been trying for a long time to drive Bro. Garn out of the country."
The company, reluctantly leaving an ailing "Sister Knudsen" behind, sailed down the Elbe in good spirits, rode out a fogbound Christmas Eve in Cuxhaven, and, buffeted by violent storms which strewed the North Sea with wrecks, finally dragged into Hull on the 28th. They crossed England the next day to Liverpool, where they were housed in a comfortable hotel, served a warm meal "immediately," and "taken good care of" until on December 31 they boarded the Forest Monarch, a "splendid sailing vessel" which had not carried passengers before; carpenters, in fact, were still installing the berths. "And thus," journalized Herman Julius Christensen, one of the emigrants, "the year 1852 ended with all its remarkable events. God be praised for the many blessings which he has bestowed upon his people."
On New Year's Day two tenders towed the frigate out into the River Mersey, but it was another fifteen days before favoring winds took it out to sea, a layover which brought "murmurings and complaints" but which gave the company a chance to regulate its housekeeping: two were named to help in the galley, and three to deliver foodstuffs to it; thirteen "captains" were to distribute daily provisions and seven more to ration the water; and two were to supervise cleaning the quarters.
Daily prayers and almost daily meetings permitted airing of feelings, provided inspiration and instruction, and established a pattern of general consent for conducting the emigrants' affairs: everything was ordered by vote. On January 11 when "the brethren and sisters raised their hands in agreement to live in harmony with each other," Willard Snow, who had settled with the Liverpool office, felt satisfied and returned to Copenhagen, leaving with the ship's officers a testimonial of his pleasure at the arrangements. Meanwhile, on January 7 and 8, the Forest Monarch received visitors newly arrived from Zion, among them Hans Peter Olson, on his way to fill a mission in Scandinavia, who "gave us good tidings of Zion, which caused us great joy." Dancing and games in the evening celebrated the occasion.
At last, on January 16, with the weather fair, the Forest Monarch set out to sea and headed for New Orleans. The Saints observed the event by taking communion. Five marriages, two births, and three deaths had seen life come full cycle while they were still in port; and Jeppe Bentzen, bitten by a dog in Hamburg, had to be left behind in Liverpool with a badly infected leg.[5] It was not many days before foul weather tested the improvised berths, which creaked fearfully, some even tumbling down. Brother Hans Larsen fell and knocked an arm out of joint, the first in an epidemic of bad hurts and bruises as land legs failed to hold the unpredictable deck. Though seasickness was universal, on the whole the weather was calm, particularly as they approached the southern latitudes, and the Atlantic crossing pleasant
Within four weeks they glimpsed the West Indies and it became too warm to hear daily discourses on the millennium, the resurrection, and the gathering of Israel, though not too warm for Christian Christiansen's violin. But Brother Holzhasen stayed away from meetings altogether, and gave himself to levity; it was proposed, seconded, and unanimously agreed that he should be cut off from the church for having turned "to worldly ways." And Brother Andersen and his wife, it came out, were not united. The Andersen asked forgiveness and hoped to be remembered in the prayers of the congregation. But by the time the Forest Monarch reached New Orleans on March 17, matters between them had gone from bad to worse, and they left the company. A greater loss was the five who died within sight of the promised land and were buried in port.
At New Orleans, where customs officers mistook the emigrants for Irish laborers,[6] they bought fresh bread, but Elder Forsgren had to warn them not to go into the city, for the people were most ungodly.
They gave Forsgren a vote of confidence and, pooling their means to enable everyone to go on, moved by steamboat upriver to St. Louis, marveling at the panorama of life along the Mississippi—the extensive forests, here and there being burned over for a clearing, the pleasant towns, the spring song of birds, the orchards in fairest bloom, the slaves working in the fields, where Negro women rode the ox-pulled plows and children waved from the banks with wide handkerchiefs. "Everything looked full of life and very good."
In St. Louis, where Mormon emigrants were already familiar figures and the congregation numbered over three thousand, they found enough empty houses for a month's stay and worked at odd jobs while waiting for the "sickly season" along the river to pass, Forsgren meanwhile keeping them close together through frequent meetings, communion, and counseling, for the temptations in St. Louis were great. During April three more couples were married, five of the company died, two children were born, and a Sister Mathiesen was refused fellowship because she "had not made a true acknowledgment and could not be received into the Church without having the fruits of repentance." Thankful their troubles were no greater, half the company left on April 21, for Keokuk, Iowa, twenty-four hours away and not far from storied Nauvoo. The rest followed ten days later.
At Keokok, where they became part of a great encampment of Welsh and English Saints, they found that Elder Haight, the church agent, had been diligent in obtaining their outfits for the plains. The "Danish camp," as they became known, pitched in a flowered prairie grove in a setting of oak trees and wild grape, was a lively place as they learned the mysteries of the yoke and whip in handling oxen and got used to living in tents and wagons, "as good as a house."
In conference on May 17, the camp members put their accounts in order and renewed their covenants; they unanimously agreed to sustain Brigham Young, his counselors, and the apostles, approved Elder Forsgren's leadership, voted to travel under four captains, ten wagons to a company, and agreed that "anyone found drunk in the Danish camp would be cut off from the Church." Elder Christian Christiansen read a letter from Copenhagen reporting that the membership in Scandinavia had risen to 1400 that the brethren in Norway had been released from prison, and that several persons had been baptized in Sweden. It was a day of "enlightenment and instruction"; the captains "expressed their feelings in a spirit of humility"; and the conference closed on a note of general satisfaction. The camp was ready for the plains.
Christian Nielsen, one of the emigrants with an eye for memorable detail, found the crossing "not wearisome at all." Going barefoot to save his shoes, he walked by the side of his two yoke of oxen and his heavily loaded wagon "of excellent quality and solid, far surpassing the Danish." Besides his family, he carried "a widow from Bornholm and her two children." He grew sunburned and let his beard grow. "Many of us look formidable," a sight for the begging and thieving Indians: "they have no beard." The oxen fattened on the fine grass; wood and water were plentiful.
The worst hardship, besides the constant hazard of falling from the wagons or being run over by the stock, was the weather, the sudden storms that broke over Iowa and Nebraska frightening beyond anything known in the Old Country: the ominous thunder and the flaming sky, with lightning striking terror among the tents, cloudbursts drenching them, and winds whirling them over, left the emigrants cowering and helpless. A quieter grandeur was the sight of the buffalo herds, the thousands of deer and antelope, the far-stretching, uninhabited country itself with its great rivers to ferry.
By June 25, they camped at Kanesville near Council Bluffs to rest for a week, only to have their peace seriously disturbed when the Niels Pedersens, the Jørgen Nielsens, and Frederikke Frederiksen withdrew declaring they would go no farther. "Jørgen Nielsen said there were liars and slanderers among us, and that it was not better among us than any other place in the world." He brought the law from the city to force the return of certain oxen to him, but H. J. Christensen had driven them off, and Jørgen hauled him into town and made him pay an eleven-dollar fine. To the rest of the company Jørgen seemed "possessed of an evil spirit," and he and his disaffected fellows were excommunicated; they were the beginning of an apostate element in Council Bluffs and later Omaha that would grow with each emigration, in time augmented by backtrailers from Zion itself, who gave western Iowa and eastern Nebraska their earliest Scandinavian settlers.
George P. Dykes, familiar to many of the Forsgren emigrants as Erastus Snow's early companion in Scandinavia, happened to be in Council Bluffs and counseled them "against talking with any of the people of the town, as there was no place where the Devil had more 62 power than right here, and the people would do all they could to keep the Saints here." But old Father Christiansen, the choirmaster, destined shortly to lay down his weary bones in the mountains, voiced the general feeling when he said that he would not remain there, no matter how much he was offered; he could just as well have remained in Denmark, but he wished with all his heart to come to Zion. Elder Forsgren said "everything which would delight the soul" would be found in Zion, but he also warned them not to be dismayed if, when they "came home to the Valley," they found some ungodliness.
There was no more defection, only the tedium of creeping along sixteen to twenty miles a day in mud and sand and dealing with unruly stock that tried tempers and brought out "imperfections" to be repented daily. They crossed creeks with colorful names like Wolf and Rattlesnake and Crab, and joined the English Saints in building bridges; they fed curious Indians—a band of sixty once—and were strictly forbidden to take any Indian ponies on pain of being cast out of camp. Resting only on the Sabbath, they passed one by one the historic landmarks of the Oregon and California trail—Scotts Bluff, Laramie, Bridger.
To Christian Nielsen the way presented an amazing litter of dead animals, strewn wagon parts, clothing, and equipment, the shambles left by the goldseekers stripping for the race to the coast. Emigrants who could not bear to see such waste overloaded their wagons each day with their finds—the "beautiful" brass kettles, pans, and wheel rims— only to be forced to abandon them all again before nightfall. It was all very comical. Reflecting on the rivalry of the goldseekers, Christian was impressed that in Mormon wagon trains the emigrants helped each other: if one lost an ox, the others came to his aid; if something broke, the whole company waited until it was mended—the smith set up his forge and in a moment made repairs. No one was left behind, though he observed that the selfish ones were the first to call for help.
"At last we neared the valley." On September 30, in the evening, they entered Great Salt Lake City, to be met by their old familiar, Erastus Snow, who re-baptized them all the next day to wash them of the sins of the journey and renew their covenants. It was a visible token they had come out of the world; they were in Zion, and what was past for them was merely prologue.
Some of the immigrants found a temporary home with the first twenty-eight, who had already given their neighborhood a distinctly Danish character. Some followed John Forsgren north to Fort Box Elder, where his wife was living with her father, Bishop William Davis, founder of the settlement. With John went his brother Peter, the weaver, and wife, and his sister Erika, who would become the bishop's plural wife. Most of the company, on Brigham Young's advice, went south within a few days to the high country of Sanpete Valley to strengthen Father Isaac Morley's colony. "One would imagine we were tired of traveling," but Christian Nielsen went the 150 miles with them to Spring Town, soon better known as New Denmark. The people along the way were good to them, "overloading" them with "all kinds of articles"; in Provo someone killed an ox for them. But the farther south they traveled the more it looked like war, until they came to mute evidence in the form of two wagon boxes tipped over, their wheat and broken chests spilled on the ground in a skirmish that had seen eight Indians and four townsmen killed. They found Spring Town practically deserted: "It was a wretched fort; the walls were miserably built, the houses in unlivable condition, and we had to be armed constantly; there was good grassland here and they could become fine fields, but we were too weak to resist the Indians." In November Christian took his family to nearby Manti, where his services were needed to build a grist mill, which "with God's help" he built "after the Danish fashion." Before winter all of the company were called in from Spring Town to Manti. Within a year the larger emigration even then forming in Copenhagen would reinforce them and secure what for the moment seemed a precarious stake in Zion.
The Forsgren company left a golden track in Mormon history. Their casualties in death and apostasy had been providentially light. They had provided a model of self-help, cooperation, and democratic leadership, with authority and humility alternately exercised in crisis with good results, and they had settled in strategic areas which would influence the colonization of the emigrants to come. An ounce of their success was worth a pound of propaganda in Scandinavia, and a hundred companies confidently followed in their wake, their adventures continually renewing the twice-told tale of the first voyagers and pioneers. They gave the migration of Scandinavian Mormons a distinctive pattern.
In the Old Country, many of the converts had never been farther from home than the nearest market town. For them the Skandinavens Stjerne became an emigrant guide, its minute instructions encompassing every detail of preparation and departure; and the presiding elders in the conferences were their faithful shepherds, guiding them through the legal maze of obtaining passports, assisting them in the disposal of their goods, and even bending to the task of packing.
{Farmer Hans Jensen Hals, emigrant of 1854 who had settled in Manti, the husband of three wives and able counselor to Apostle Orson Hyde in handling Danish affairs in the settlements, was back in Scandinavia on a mission in 1865, to find his experience at a premium and his time absorbed with emigration matters: I went with N. Nielsen to the Poor Commission in Nortranders School and received a promise of 200 dollars for him to travel on.... Held two meetings in Aalborg. The Emigrants were upbuilt and counseled in their preparation. A blessed day.... Received 4,000 rigsdaler Emigration money from C. Christensen and Jens Olesen from Thylan.... Bought material for tents and sleeping bags for the emigrants and put the tailors to work sewing them.... Came to Copenhagen and delivered to Pres. Widerborg 6,196 Emigration money. The accounting was correct.... Rented P. Larsen's hall for the emigrants from Vendsyssel.... Passed out certificates and passports, and held a meeting in the hall. Fourteen Brethren gave their farewell talks.... Received a letter from Christansen in Zion, and there read about the travels of the Emigrants....[7]
In April 1868 he was told he would lead the next company of 627 to Zion, a stewardship which kept him constantly preoccupied and which was not discharged until his arrival in Salt Lake on September 25, when at Brigham Young's invitation he made his report from the stand in the Tabernacle. And even then he could not rest: he went to "Brigham's office to find out if the families could get the money back for them that had died on the way," and he took some of them with him to Manti. "Now I could go home with my family and attend to my duties." And he was proud to bring with him five instruments—a tenor tuba, two tenor horns, an alto horn, and a flute—which he had bought in Copenhagen for his town's brass band.
Before 1869 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, instructions warned the proselyte that the journey would take from six to nine months: leaving in midwinter and arriving on the frontier in spring or early summer, the emigrants should have clothes for both extremes of weather, and shoes to last the journey. It was not true, they were told, that they had to take along enough clothing to last ten years, nor need they be concerned about differences in standards of dress as they prevailed in the Old Country—in the New World such things did not matter. They were advised to part with the heavy chests "inherited from the fathers since time immemorial" and to take light trunks and suitcases which they could readily carry on board ship and load easily into "prairie wagons." They should not take over a hundred pounds in freight per person because few could afford to pay excess weight charges, which on the plains alone, in pre-railroad days, amounted to $24 a hundredweight.
Those who expected to go all the way to "the Valley" should have at least 150 to 200 rigsdaler, and be prepared against "robbers and false brethren who will appear friendly as long as your money lasts." They would have to take their own bedding and cooking and eating utensils, preferably tinware, items advertised for purchase at cheapest rates at Mormon headquarters in Liverpool. Emigrants must-have food for five days while en route to Liverpool. Those who had valuables would do better to convert them into cash and plan to acquire a good cow that would give milk "to their children on the plains . . . and it will be no sin to have a few dollars left for homemaking in the Valley." Artisans who desired to take the tools and models of their trade should choose the lightest and most valuable.[8] After 1869, when steam and rail made for swifter passage, the instructions were still as detailed and full of oft-repeated precautions: lash your luggage well; mark baggage "Utah, U.S.A." with lampblack; use leather tags, not paper; don't wrap luggage with sail cloth, for it prevents rapid opening at the customs; in coming to Copenhagen, don't leave baggage on various railroad platforms en route; the office force at Copenhagen will meet anyone who sends notice of train or steamboat arrival; you must furnish your own food to Liverpool, costing about 10 kroner ($2.50) Adults will be allowed 135 pounds of freight on their ticket, children half as much; be prepared to pay excess freight charges, either in Copenhagen before setting out or to the Mormon agent in New York; take all the bed clothing you can; your food basket or box should be long and low allowing it to slide under the seat on the train; don't forget hand towels, comb, and soap for each person be prepared to pay lodgings, drayage, and other expenses incurred in, Copenhagen.[9] This attention to small expenditures suggests how closely the voyage was budgeted for the majority: any unforeseen outlay, however small, spelled disaster.}
The instructions reflected the times: in 1872 heads of families with insufficient means to see them through to Utah were discouraged from believing that, if they could only reach the eastern states, they would find "lots of work" to enable them to return or send for their families. "Experience has taught us this is not so easy." In 1885, when conditions were equally bad, but happily offset by lower rates, Saints were reminded to keep faith with proved church methods: other agents might offer even cheaper passage but were not as responsible or as interested in the welfare of their clients. "Do not go without a shepherd."[10]
The Stjerne was an emigrant guide with a difference: instructions were invariably accompanied by a moral rider. They began with dollars and concluded with dogmas, a portrait of Mormonism anxious to give no offense to an already critical world. Let the Saints honor every debt incurred en route and leave a good name behind, free from blame. Let them conduct themselves according to the laws of the land in all respects that they might be "justified before man and God." Let them be prayerful, repentant, seeking knowledge "by study and by faith." Let them honor cleanliness as a heavenly principle, doing everything essential for health, for "an unclean body is not fit temple for the holy spirit that dwells there." Again and again the difficulties of the journey were rehearsed, the necessity for spiritual preparation underlined. The Saints must go with "singleness of purpose." Those without faith had better not go at all, for they would never withstand "the hate of persecutors or the power of the Destroyer."[11]
In sailing-vessel days the Saints were frankly told that the risks were great, sickness and death constant companions of the voyage over the water and the trek across the plains. Especially was the toll high among children. "Very few ever get through with them all," the father and mother of four small children were told.[12] Scandinavians seemed particularly susceptible to measles; common killers were cholera and dysentery. Companies after 1859, traveling the entire distance by steam and rail, suffered no losses at all, but earlier they buried normally 10 per cent of their number before journey's end. Most tragic were the parties which left in January 1854 aboard the Jesse Munn and the Benjamin Adams; 200 out of 678 lost their lives, most of them of cholera while in camp at Westport, Missouri.[13] The only comfort was that they died "in the Lord."
There was also comfort in the record of safety at sea. Ships were dedicated before departure, and they were pictured as "flying like a cloud towards the promised land" with a special providence controlling the winds and the waves. Captains were impressed: said the skipper of the S.S. Idaho with 703 Scandinavian Saints on board in 1874, "I have conveyed Mormons safely across the Atlantic for eighteen years and have never heard that any ship went under with them on board." To be sure, there were other reactions to Mormon praying and singing: the mate of the John J. Boyd, carrying 437 Scandinavian Mormons in 1855, grew superstitious because of a prolonged passage and declared that ships with preachers on board were always sure of trouble.[14]
{Going to America involved more than stepping aboard a vessel on one side of the Atlantic and disembarking on the other. It was a whole series of journeys. The proselytes first had to make their way to Copenhagen, main assembly point. Unless they lived on Zealand itself, that meant crossing the straits from Jutland or one of the Danish islands, and the Sound from Sweden—short laps but adventurous to many who were seeing the face of their country for the first time. Swedish Saints funneled through Malmö. Subsidiary assembly points in Jutland were Aalborg in the north, Aarhus in the middle, and Fredericia in the south, all along the east coast. The same little steamer picked up waiting emigrants in succession on its way to Copenhagen or, when groups were large enough, took them directly to Kiel or Lubeck on the German portion of the peninsula, where the Copenhagen detachment joined them. The journey was continued by rail to Altona, within walking distance of Hamburg, or to Gluckstadt, a little farther down the Elbe. Except for the years 1862, 1865, and 1866, when parties went directly from Hamburg to America, the emigrants moved across the North Sea to Grimsby or Hull and entrained for Liverpool along with whatever Norwegian Saints had come directly from Christiania or Stavanger.}
The North Sea passage was often the roughest part of the whole journey: accounts describe the horrible retching in the holds of the vessels, sometimes little better than cattle boats, the hold thickly layered with sand in which the sea-green sick buried their vomit or burrowed for miserable sleep. Shelter at various stages of the journey certainly had none of the comforts of home; a sensitive Norwegian woman found the "poor Saints" packed into a large hall in Copenhagen, given beds on straw in a loft in Hamburg with no segregation of men and women, quartered in a "kind of stable" in Grimsby, and sheltered in "a rude shed" in Liverpool. But the converts, mostly farmers, artisans, and laborers, were on the whole less squeamish and, rejoicing in their new-found fellowship, expressed their gratitude for these way-station accommodations: time and again their journals speak their relief at finding good food and adequate shelter waiting for them.[15]
From Scandinavia to England was but a foretaste of interminable changes, endless distances. After the Atlantic there stretched a continent to cross. Until 1855 Mormon emigrants traveled the New Orleans route, utilizing the waterways to get as far inland as possible — Keokuk or Quincy on the Mississippi, Atchison or St. Joseph on the Missouri. To avoid the murderous climate of the lower Mississippi, all emigration after 1855 passed through eastern ports. The route in the states was determined by the best contract Mormon representatives were able to make. In 1866 the 684 converts aboard the Kenibuorth arriving in New York from Hamburg found that the church agent had gone to some lengths. He sent them by coastal steamer to New Haven, thence by rail to Montreal in "dirty cattle cars," along the north bank of the St. Lawrence and lakes Ontario and Erie to the St. Clair River, where they were ferried over to Port Huron, Michigan, to continue by rail to Quincy, Illinois, via Chicago; there they were ferried across the Mississippi and entrained for St. Joseph, continuing by steamboat up the Missouri to the town of Wyoming, Nebraska, where they were met by church teams waiting to trundle them to Salt Lake.[16]
The tortuous itinerary did not disturb the Saints as they prepared to leave the Old Country, for there was too much excitement at departure. A Dane remembered the scene in Copenhagen in 1869: with his mother and sister he stayed with four hundred other emigrants, the greater part Mormons and "mostly farm folk," at the Bolles Hotel. The sitting room was in constant motion. Some people went about in the crowd begging to be taken along. "It was a sight to behold"—four hundred people marching from the hotel to the dock, lugging their worldly goods to the clanging of loose tinware and singing "Think not when you gather to Zion your trials and troubles are o'er...." At the dock he remembered vividly how a mother gave her three small girls a last embrace before turning them over to a young woman to be taken to Zion.[17]
Crowds of the curious were always on hand, scornful of their countrymen who were foolish and disloyal enough to leave home as victims of the double delusion of America and Mormonism. Sometimes there were scenes. At the boat landing in Copenhagen in 1857 an indignant crowd tried to snatch the children away from one convert couple: let the elders be damned, but it was too bad the young should face a shameful upbringing in the Mormon kingdom. In 1868 the leaders of a company of 627 proselytes were arrested just as they were embarking and hauled before the magistrate, only to be cleared when nothing could be found against them.[18]
Times changed. When the S.S. Otto left Copenhagen for Lübeck in 1872 with 397 proselytes aboard, Stjerne gave thanks to "our agent, Hr. Duhrsen, his assistants, the police, the militia, and the captain for their humaneness, forehandedness, and willingness to serve with which each in his place assisted us and our friends in accomplishing the departure." No one drank a toast of farewell schnapps; there were no "depressing pipes, cigars, or nauseous quids," but only "friendliness, unity, helpfulness, and patience." And there was a noticeable absence of the usual emigrant weeping; instead, "joy and thanksgiving reigned for the chance to go to Zion."[19]
In Liverpool, once aboard the ship which would carry them across the Atlantic, the converts found themselves members of a well-ordered community. A select committee of the House of Commons on emigrant ships for 1854, after examining the Mormon agent in Liverpool, concluded that "no ship under the provision of the Passenger Act could be depended upon for comfort and security in the same degree as those under his administration. The Mormon ship is a family under strong and accepted discipline, with every provision for comfort, decorum, and internal peace."[20] Under a general presidency—for the shipboard company was of mixed nationality—the Scandinavians had their own supervisors responsible for things temporal and spiritual: cleaning and galley details, morning and evening devotionals, recreation and morale.
It was customary to berth families amidships, separating the single men from the unmarried women. Watchmen maintained vigil during the night. In 1861, after six days at sea, the realistic president of the company aboard the Monarch of the Sea suggested it would help the crowded condition of the vessel if betrothed couples got married at once; thirty unions were forthwith solemnized.[21] {Hans Jensen Hals found the crew of the Emerald Isle ugly: they molested the young women and threatened the brethren with physical violence when they interfered. Hals as president of the company remonstrated with the captain, who only rattled the irons he had used, he said, on former insubordinate passengers. Such bad treatment was rare, but lustful sailors were a common enough source of trouble.[22]}
Life went full circle: births, deaths, and marriages. For the children there was semblance of school, for the adults frequent lectures, generally by returning missionaries recounting things to expect in the new home. Everyone diligently studied English, or they sewed the tents and wagon covers they would need on the plains. If in no other way, the passing of the days could be noted by the menu, which might be "sweet soup" on Sunday, pea soup on Monday, rice on Tuesday and Wednesday, pea soup on Thursday, barley mush on Friday, and herring and potatoes on Saturday. In addition to the food requirements of the British Passenger Act, the Saints were supplied with two and a half pounds of sago, three pounds of butter, two pounds of cheese, and one pint of vinegar for each statute adult, and half the amount for children between one and fourteen; one pound of beef or pork weekly for each adult was substituted for its equivalent in oatmeal, provisions which enabled many of them to live "more bountifully" than they had lived in their native countries.[23]
Arrived at the Battery in New York and delivered to Castle Garden, the Mormon companies received the same special care. An able man like William C. Staines, for years (1869-81) the church immigration agent in the port city, wrought a swift and practiced order out of the confusion of inspection, securing lodgings, and expediting the transfer to the trains, which usually saw the converts through to the frontiers without change of cars or mixing with other passengers. On one occasion Staines dispatched a company of eleven hundred immigrants in eight hours.
Newspaper reporters, eager to give a curious public a glimpse of each new shipload of Mormons—particularly during the antipolygamy crusade of the 1870s and 1880s, when it was alleged that foreign converts were recruited from "the dregs of society" for immoral purposes in Utah—observed their quiet conduct as they passed through customs, evidently under some "controlling influence," and were surprised to find them "as fully intelligent as the ordinary immigrants." They had come voluntarily; most of them had paid their own way; there were as many males as females, old as well as young; and there were no paupers. A New York Times correspondent found the 723 converts arriving on the S.S. Wisconsin on June 7, 1877, "not without a share of youth and beauty, although the beauty was high in the cheek bones and too rugged for New-York belles." Another reporter found the men in an earlier company "strong, healthy fellows, averaging thirty years of age and divided about equally in occupations as farm laborers and mechanics." Another, in 1882, concluded that "the immigrants in the party were thrifty people who would probably do well in Utah."[24]
Some observers were prejudiced by the circular which Secretary of State William M. Evarts in 1879 sent to United States diplomatic and consular officers in Europe seeking the aid of foreign governments in preventing the departure of Mormon proselytes, "prospective lawbreakers" and "misguided men and women" lured by "agents. operating beyond the reach of the law of the United States."[25] The Times described the first group to arrive after the Evarts communiqué as "an unintelligent-looking crowd, but . . . fairly clean as compared with other batches of their brethren who preceded them in Castle Garden."[26]
In 1880 the Times reported an incident: the Nevada had discharged 338 Mormons; as usual, representatives of the New York Bible Society and the Protestant Emigrant Aid Society moved among the throng distributing New Testaments printed in the converts' native language, but the Mormons seemed indifferent to this proselyting. A missionary of the Emigrant Aid Society, Blossett by name, emboldened by the Evarts circular, attempted to convince the Mormons of their enormity in believing in polygamy. When he asked who instituted polygamy, he was told "Almighty God." "No," ventured the missionary, "it was Cain after he murdered his brother Abel." Whereupon, says the account, "one of the elders seized the venerable man of God and flung him violently aside," and Garden attendants had to come to his aid.[27] But such episodes were rare. Despite popular antipathy, government hostility, and increasingly rigid inspections reflecting more stringent immigration laws, Mormon companies moved through customs with remarkably few delays or detentions. On the frontier new experiences awaited the converts by way of camp life and the handling of oxen, an accomplishment most of the autobiographies dwell on, not a few confessing how disastrous it was when greenhorns tried to substitute harness "Danish style" for the yoke or "Yankee manner." A full outfit before railroad days consisted of a wagon, two yoke of oxen, two cows, and a tent to each ten individuals; and the emigrants found the provisions, stockpiled in advance, abundant: flour, sugar, bacon, rice, beans, dried apples and peaches, tea, vinegar, salt, and soap. There were modifications—the system was not flush every year.
A tragic chapter in the migration was that

Notes:

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Jens Praestgaard reports: "Their farm Vestergaard was a copyhold under Tandrup, a great estate that owned hundreds of farms. In the contract it says: I Niels Willemoes the ownerof Tandrup give Enevold Pedersen the copyhold of the farm at Bedsted named Vestergaard which his father Peder Grontoft had, but no longer is able to run because of age and weakness, and voluntarily has given to his son, who is subjected to the following conditions: 9 articles telling him what he has to do, and what he has to pay, and what he is not allowed to do." He continues: "15 Dec 1826 there was an administration and distribution of Enevold's belongings to his wife Frederikke Pedersdatter and his children: Peder Enevoldsen, 25, pro tempora soldier; Peder Christian Enevoldsen, 21, staying at home; Christen Enevoldsen, 19, staying at home; Laust Enevoldsen, 9; Else Enevoldsdatter, 23, at home; Ane Cathrine Enevoldsdatter, 14; Maren Enevoldsdatter, 12. Jens Pedersen (Frederikke's younger brother) of Sønderhå was guardian for the widow. Curator and guardian for the other children under age was Enevold's sister's son Peder Nielsen Moelgaard of Bedsted. Each item on the farm was listed and valued. Nothing was too small: socks, spoons, etc. Two pages of his belongings. But alas! The liabilities exceeded the assets. There was nothing to distribute but a debt to pay the owner. Frederikke's new husband Svend Jensen obtained an arrangement. But the book does not tell how much he had to pay. The debt was more than 281 Rdl. The price of a cow was 4-5 Rdl. A horse 6 Rdl."

2. Vestergaard farm located just west of Bedsted parish church.

3. In 1811 the name Enevold Pedersen Vestergaard appears.

4. Per Joyce Cupit:
a. 1787 Census: Grøntoft, Bedsted:
Peder Grøntoft, 46
Anna Cathrina ?, 40
Johanne Maria, 21, children
Enevold Pedersen, 16
Niels Pedersen, 2, daughter's
Plus 2 servants.
b. 1801 Census, nr. 18, Bedsted:
Peder Pedersen, both in their first marriage, husband.
Ane Cathrine ?, 71, his wife.
Enevold Pedersen, 31, unmarried, his child.
Dorthe Marie Nielsdatter, 12
Niels Jensen, 15, daughter's child.

5. Also known as Enevold Pedersen Vestergård or Westergård in the birth records of his children.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Record, 1766-1814, book 2, p15; record states "feria 3 Pasha (the third day of easter or 17 Apr since Pasha was a movable holiday occurring that year on 15 Apr).

2. From Joyce Cupit: "Bedsted Kirkebog 1770, fødte Enevold Pedersen Grøntoft. 1770 Bedsted: Dato?? Gaardmand Peder Grøntoft og hustruen Anna Cathrina et barn til daaben kaldet Enevold. Baaret? af Dorthe Enevoldsdatter, faddere: Oles ?, Jens Hove, Xsten Gröntoft, Peder Knurborg, Maren Spangberg."

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1780-1825, book 2, p 12.

2. Regional Archives in Viborg, Denmark; Sønderhå Parish Records; microfiche C114.2 plate 1 page 12; Witnesses are Peder Leegaard, and Peder Græntoft of Bedsted.

DEATH:
1. Regional Archives in Viborg, Denmark; Bedsted Parish Records; microfiche C119.3 plate 7 page 195.
FHL film 053027, bk. 3, p. 195, shows same page: Envold Pedersen Vestergrd., d. 16 Nov, bur. 26 Nov 1826, 56 years old, Bedsted parish.

2. From Joyce Cupit: "Bedsted Kirkebog 1826, døde Enevold Pedersen Vestergaard, Død 16 Nov 1826, 56 år."

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Parent's family information from LDS Archive record. Record originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy, Utah. James Christian Westergard shown as (ggson) heir. Note on sheet states:"Under the ruling issued by the First Presidency on 7 Jan 1966, those ordinances that appear to be out of order are accepted as recorded. "Records noted are "church and census records for Bedsted by Eva M. Gregersen.

2. Submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden, UT. 84401 Film 8093, 8848: census paper: 1834, 1840, 1845; Copenhagen, Denmark.

3. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087 (801) 295-2906.

4. May 21, 1999 correspondence of Jens Praestgaard at "jens-v-p@post5.tele.dk".

5. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

Enevold married Frederikke Lovise Pedersdatter on 2 Oct 1801 in Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. Frederikke (daughter of Peder Andersen Leegård and Else Jensdatter) was born in in Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; was christened on 26 Dec 1779 in Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; died on 20 Dec 1846 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 27 Dec 1846 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Christening record indicates Frederica Lovise Pedersdatter. Also shown on some censuses as Frederikke Lovise. Death record shows Frederikke Lovise Pedersdatter.

2. Confirmation per Joyce Cupit: "Sønderhå kirkebog 1793 konfimerede: Peder Leegaards søn Laurids og datter Fredericha."

3. 1787 census for Jestrup in Sønderhå notes Peder Leegaard 50 farmer both in their first marriage, Else Jensdatter 46 his wife, Inger Pedersdatter 14 Child, Laurids Pedersen 10 Child, Frederica Pedersdatter 7 Child, Jens Pedersen 4 Child, Caroline Pedersdatter 2 child.

4. 1801 census for same place notes Peder Leegaard 66, in first marriage, parish bailiff and "gaardbeboer," Else Jensdatter 60 his wife, Laurs 22, Frederica Louise 21 unmarried, Caroline 15 unmarried.

5. 1840 census, Nr. 18, en gaard, Bedsted: Svend Jensen Westergaard 48 married farm leaseholder, Frederikke Pedersdatter 61 married and his wife, Peder Christian 34 unmarried her child, Maren 25 unmarried her child, Ane Kirstine Christendatter 13 unmarried his child.

6. Per Joyce Cupit, this individual also appears in census for Bedsted for 1834 and 1845.

CHRISTENING:
1.FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1696 - 1914, pp. 353 & 354. Christened as home prior to date reported for the church.

2. Per research of genealogist Bent Pilsgård of Viborg, Denmark; Viborg Regional Archives microfiche C114.1 (the last page of the book) Sønderhå parish records; Sponsors: The wife of dean Paludan carried the Child, Mads Snever and Niels Oestergaard of Jestrup, Jens Bentsen of Haae, Salmon Andersen Ulnitz of Bedsted (here the mother is named Moerk).

3. Per Joyce Cupit: "Sønderhå kirkebog 1799 fødte: 26 Dev 1799 havde Peders Andersen Leegaard og Else Jensdatter Mörch i Jestrup en datter til daabens konfirmation i Sønderhaa kirke. Frederice Louise. Provstinde Paluden bar barnet. Faddere: Mads Snever?, Niels Østergaard af Jestrup, Jens Bentzen af Haa og Salmon Andersen Ulnitz af Bedsted." [Same record per Joyce Cupit in english: "Sønderhå: 26 Dec. 1799 Peder Andersen Leegaard and Else Jensdatter Morch of Jestrup had a daughter baptized in Sønderhå church. Frederice Louise. Vicar's wife Paludan carried the child. Witnesses: Mads Snever?, Niels Oestergaard of Jestrup, Jens Bentzen of Haa and Salmon Andersen Ulitz of Bedsted.]

MARRIAGE:
1. Enevold Pedersen: FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1780-1825, book 2, p 12.

2. Svend Jensen Kjaer: Bedsted Parish Record.

DEATH:
1. Regional Archives in Viborg, Denmark; Bedsted Parish Records; microfiche C119.3 plate 7 page 215.

2. Per Joyce Cupit: "Bedsted kirkebog 1846, død 20 Dec, begr. 27 Dec Frederikke Lovise Pedersdatter i Bedsted. ? Gaardfæster Svend Jensen Vestergaards hustru, født i Sønderhå, 67 år, alderdom."
Same record shows per FHL film 53027, Bedsted, Bk. 3, p. 215.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Parent's family information from LDS Archive record. Record originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy, Utah. James Christian Westergard shown as heir. Note on sheet states: "Under the ruling issued by the First Presidency on 7 Jan 1966, those ordinances that appear to be out of order are accepted as recorded. Records noted are "church and census records for Bedsted by Eva M. Gregersen.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

3. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

4. May 21, 1999 correspondence of Jens Praestgaard at "jens-v-p@post5.tele.dk".

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Last name also known as Smed (blacksmith). Occupation also farmer.

2. There is no estate probate for him. In the estate of his mother-in-law we can see that he bought her house from his brother-in-law.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053030; Ydby Parish Record, 1669 - 1914, p 180.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Ydby Parish Records; Microfiche C123A.2, plate 4, page 179b. Sponsors: Jens Madzen, Lars Jensen, Johannes Jacobsen, Maren ?datter fra Peder Hedgaard?; Else Marie Christensdatter.

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053071; Hurup Parish Record, 1669 - 1911, p 142.

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053246; Heltborg Parish Record, 1648 - 1913, p 215.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Heltborg Parish Records; Microfiche C118. 12, plate 8, page 214b; notes birth in Ydby parish and his father was Michel Smed.

CONFLICTS:
1. Alternate AFN 4LDT-3K.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Information for family group from Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651 B, Sandy Utah. She states information is from church records of Heltborg and Ydby, Hurup by Eva M. Gregersen. James Christian Westergard is listed as ggson.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

3. Film 8438, 9026; Census papers:1801, 1834, 1840, 1845, 1850; Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jens married Maren Jensdatter on 5 Dec 1794 in Hurup, Refs, Thisted, Denmark. Maren (daughter of Jens Jensen Brandtoft and Anne Villadsdatter) was born about 1768 in of Refs, Hurup, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; died on 24 May 1849 in Heltborg, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 3 Jun 1849 in Heltborg, Refs, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Her wedding entry notes that she is of Brandtoft. There is no estate probate for her. No birth records because the records of Hurup parish for 1733 to 1784 are missing; however, death record in Heltborg indicates she was born in Hurup.

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053071; Hurup Parish Record, 1669 - 1911, p 142. 2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Hurup Parish Records; Microfiche C122.1, plate 3, page 141b; Witnesses: Michel Smed of Ydby and Jens Bruusgaard of Refs.

DEATH:
1. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Heltborg Parish Records; Microfiche C118.12, plate 8, page 234; Pensioner of Kjestrup (now Kjæstrup), her father was Jens Jensen of Hurup, where she was born, Age 80 1/2 years.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. From Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden, Utah 84403 (lists himself as 3ggson). References Film 8438 Census Paper; 1787 Par. reg. no 1731-84, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2. Information for husband's family group from Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651 B, Sandy Utah. She states information is from church records of Heltborg and Ydby, Hurup by Eva M. Gregersen. James Christian Westergard is listed as ggson.

3. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

4. Film 8438, 9026; Census papers: 1801, 1834, 1840, 1845, 1850; Copenhagen, Denmark.

Notes:

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Joyce Cupit provides variant name of Peder Pedersen Græntoft Vestergaard.

2. Per Joyce Cupit:
a. 1787 Census: Grøntoft, Bedsted:
Peder Grøntoft, 46
Anna Cathrina ?, 40
Johanne Maria, 21, children
Enevold Pedersen, 16
Niels Pedersen, 2, daughter's
Plus 2 servants.
b. 1801 Census, nr. 18, Bedsted:
Peder Pedersen, both in their first marriage, husband.
Ane Cathrine ?, 71, his wife.
Enevold Pedersen, 31, unmarried, his child.
Dorthe Marie Nielsdatter, 12
Niels Jensen, 15, daughter's child.

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Also known as Peder Pedersen Græntoft. There is a farm just west of Vestergard farm in Bedsted with the name Græntoft - Groen translates as Green - which may have some significance. Græntoft farm dates back at least to Knud Svenningsen and his father. He is associated with Vestergard farm as a copyholder to the great estate of Tandrup. Refer to biographical notes of his son Enevold Pedersen Vestergard for transfer details of Vestergard copyhold.

2. Census for 1787 for Bedsted lists Peder Græntoft 46 farmer, Anna Cathrine (Enevoldsdatter)40 his wife, Johanne Marie (Pedersdatter) 21 Child, Enevold Pedersen 16 Child, Niels Pedersen 2 - child shows up under name of Niels Pedersen in 1787 and 1801 censuses as a child of a legal marriage living with his uncle Peder Pedersen Græntoft. Christening record shows him as son of Knud (Pedersen) Græntoft (Peder's brother) and wife Maren Nielsdatter christened 19 Aug 1785. His mother was approaching age 50 and subsequently died in 1787. Boy evidently went to live with his uncle and aunt thereafter and picked up name of Pedersen. Also listed was Maren Nielsdatter, the wife's daughter, but not Peder's (no clue what this means). Two hired workers also listed: Christen Sorensen, age 26, and Dorthe Marie, age 38.

3. Occupation as farmer and parish bailiff.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Records, 1707-1765.

2. Per Joyce Cupit: "Bedsted kirkebog 1741, fødte Peder Pedersen Grøntoft. Bedsted 1741: 19 Okt førte Peder Sadelmager og hustru Johanne Lauridsdatter et barn til daaben kaldet Peder. Baaret af Dorethe Mølgrd. Fadder: Niels ?, Anders og Maren Knudsdatter."

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Records, 1707-1765.

BURIAL:
1. Per Joyce Cupit: "I følge Lars Bak dør han den 21 Nov 1815 i Bedsted, aftægtsmand i Vestergård, 74 år gammel." [74 years old.]

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Film 8093; census paper: 1787, 1801; Copenhagen, Denmark. Submitted by Fermen J. Westergard.

2. Archive Record family group sheet as originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy Utah. She mentions James Christian Westergard as 2 ggson and source as church records for Bedsted by Eva M. Gregersen.

3. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

3. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

4. May 21, 1999 correspondence of Jens Praestgaard at "jens-v-p@post5.tele.dk".

5. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

Peder married Ane Cathrine Enevoldsdatter on 4 Dec 1764 in Bedsted, Hassing, Vestervig, Denmark. Ane (daughter of Enevold Pedersen and Anne Jepsdatter) was born in in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; was christened on 15 May 1735 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; died in in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 4 Mar 1807 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Joyce Cupit notes variant birth year of 1734 which makes sense with age given at time of death.

2. Per Joyce Cupit:
A. 1787 Census: Grøntoft, Bedsted:
Peder Grøntoft, 46
Anna Cathrina ?, 40
Johanne Maria, 21, children
Enevold Pedersen, 16
Niels Pedersen, 2, daughter's
Plus 2 servants.
B. 1801 Census, nr. 18, Bedsted:
Peder Pedersen, both in their first marriage, husband.
Ane Cathrine ?, 71, his wife.
Enevold Pedersen, 31, unmarried, his child.
Dorthe Marie Nielsdatter, 12
Niels Jensen, 15, daughter's child.

BIRTH:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Records, 1707-1765, book 1.

CHRISTENING:
1. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Bedsted Parish Records; microfiche C119.1 plate 2 page ?; sponsors are ?? Christendatter of Horsted carried the Child, ?? of Broogaard, Peder Knudsen of Grontoft, Niels Pedersen of Hvidbjerg, and Christen Pedersen of Vestergaard.

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Records, 1707-1765, book 1, p 86.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Records, 1766-1814, book 2, p 146.

2. Per Joyce Cupit: "Bedsted kirkebog 1807, Begravelse: 4 Marts begr. Anna Cathrine Enevoldsdatter, Peder Westergaards kone [wife], 72 år."

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Archive Record family group sheet with copy on file with Kerry Petersen as originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy Utah. She mentions James Christian Westergard as 2 ggson and source as church records for Bedsted by Eva M. Gregersen.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087 (801) 295-2906.

3. Per records of Fred H. Westergard, 1940 Laird Dr., Salt Lake City, Utah 84108-1823, phone 801-583-4405.

4. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

ACTION:
1. Check parish records for birth date for 1734 or 1735.

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. 1787 census for Jestrup in Sønderhå notes Peder Leegaard 50 farmer both in their first marriage, Else Jensdatter 46 his wife, Inger Pedersdatter 14 Child, Laurids Pedersen 10 Child, Frederica Pedersdatter 7 Child, Jens Pedersen 4 Child, Caroline Pedersdatter 2 child.

2. 1801 census for same place notes Peder Leegaard 66, in first marriage, parish bailiff and "gaardbeboer," Else Jensdatter 60 his wife, Laurs 22, Frederica Louise 21 unmarried, Caroline 15 unmarried.

3. A farm by name of Legaard exists northeast of Sønderhå which may be namesake from whence comes "Leegaard".

4. Occupation: farmer, parish bailiff.

5. At the christenings of all of his children, his name is noted as Leegaard.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record.

2. Per Joyce Cupit: "Sønderhå kirkebog 1736 fødte: 29 Feb havde Anders Larsen of Inger Salmansdatter? i Ledgaard? her i jestrup til daaben en søn kaldet Peder. Gudmoder: Else Poulsdatter, Lars Bagges?, Faddere: Jesper Larssen, Peder Madsen, Christen Nørgaard."

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1696 - 1787, book 1, p 140. Confirmed the record below. Note that both witnesses signed. Anders Leegaard may be the father of Peder since it was customary to generally have the fathers as witnesses. The relationship of Povel Jensen to Else Jensdatter is not given, but could possibly be a brother.

2. Per research of genealogist Bent Pilsgård of Viborg, Denmark; Viborg Regional Archives microfiche C114.1 page 140 Sønderhå parish records; Witnesses: Povel Jensen of Kiestrup and Anders Leegaard of Jestrup, they were engaged 31 Jul 1766. The couple is Peder Andersen Leegaard and Else Jensdatter Mørch, both of Jestrup.

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sonderhaa Parish Record.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record.

2. Per Joyce Cupit: "Sønderhå kirkebog 1814: begravet Nov. 23 Gaardmand Peder Andersen Leegrd., 78 år."

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Family information from LDS Archive record. Record originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy, Utah. James Christian Westergard shown as 2ggson. Indicates information is from church and census records for Sønderhå by Eva M. Gregersen.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

3. Film 8848: Census Paper: 2787, 1801; Copenhagen, Denmark.

4. May 21, 1999 correspondence of Jens Praestgaard at "jens-v-p@post5.tele.dk".

5. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

Peder married Else Jensdatter on 9 Sep 1766 in Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. Else (daughter of Jens Olufsen Mørkes or Mørch) was born in in Dover, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; was christened in From 1 Jan 1742 to 17 Mar 1742 in Ydby, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 29 Oct 1815 in Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

CAUTION:
1. The parentage of Else Jensdatter is problematic and not 100% definitive. Traditionally, Else has been linked to two families - one set of parents being Jens Foged (2Q1M-STF) and Kirsten Pedersdatter of Sønderhå and the other being Jens Olufsen Mørkes or Mørch MK81-Z6B and an unknown wife of Dover in Ydby Parish. The two locations are roughly 23 kilometers apart. Elements of both families have often been erroneously intermixed by past LDS researchers; however, both sets of church records clearly show the family relationships and the errors were easily corrected by myself in Familysearch's Family Tree 21 Aug 2013.
Jens Foged had all of his children christened in Sønderhå except for his last three, Christen, Oluf and Thomas; Oluf and Thomas were christened in Ydby in 1746 and 1751 respectively at which time Jens lived in the Ydby hamlet of Dover. He also had a son Christen who was not christened in either place but was buried in Dover 11 Oct 1744; this dates Jens Foged's move from Sønderhå to Dover from about Aug 1744 to Oct 1744. In Sønderhå he lived in the hamlet or farmstead of Degnbol as noted in the children's christenings. His daughter Else was the last child christened in Sønderhå 20 Jan 1742. In all of the christenings, the parents are always identified as Jens Foged and Kirsten Pedersdatter. Jens and Kirsten are buried in Ydby in 1782 and 1780 respectively and from their ages at the time of their burials we can estimate both of their birth years as 1707.
Jens Olufsen Mørkes had all of his children christened in Ydby including a daughter Else chr. from 1 Jan 1742 to 17 Mar 1742 (the priest forgot to write down the day and month). Four of the children have similar names to the children of Jens Foged (Jens, Oluf, Else, and Thomas), but they are not the same persons. The family is identified in the christening records as living in the Ydby hamlet of Dover also, which has led to some confusion with past researchers since the other Jens was also living there from about 1744. The father is always identified in the chr. records as either Jens Olufsen or Jens Mørkes; the mother is never identified. Jens is buried in Ydby in 20 Apr 1767.
Our Else Jensdatter's marriage record is found in the Sønderhå church record on 9 Sep 1766 (FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1696 - 1787, book 1, p 140). The groom is identified as Peder Andersen Leegaard and the bride as Else Jensdatter Mørch, both of the nearby hamlet of Jestrup. The two witnesses are identified as Anders Leegaard of Jestrup and Povel Jensen of Kiestrup. Since it was customary to generally have the fathers as witnesses, we can assume Anders is the groom's father; however, the relationship of Povel Jensen to Else Jensdatter is not certain but could possibly be a brother. One problem is that neither of the two Elses from either of the two families has a brother named Poul/Povel as ascertained from the christening records of Ydby and Sønderhå. Interestingly, some past family researcher added a son name Poul Jensen to the Jens Olufsen Mørkes of Ydby family with a birth of about 1743; however, the Ydby records do not support the same even after a reasonable search of dates surrounding 1743. Another interesting aspect is why would Poul of Kiestrup and Else of Jestrup have differing residences at the time of marriage in Sønderhå? Also why was Else's father not a witness since one Jens does not die until 1767 and the other in 1782?
We know that Jens Foged had a relationship with both Sønderhå and Dover in Ydby parish, but that was not the case with Jens Olufsen who only remained in Dover in Ydby parish.
FHL film 41815, Refs Herred Probate Records (the civil jurisdiction having the main source of probate records), shows no probate for either of the two Jens who both died in Ydby. I also reviewed all the Estate ("Gods") probate films listed in the FHL catalog pertaining to Ydby without finding any probate for either of the two Jens.
I also looked at FHL film 53193 (Sønderhå church records) and 53030 (Ydby church records) for other Jensen marriages for the years 1750 to 1776 without sucess with these two particular families except for two children of Jens Olufsen: (1) Karen Jensdatter Morch who married Lars Christen Barslef 8 Nov 1754 Ydby and (2) Thomas Jensen Mørch who married Dorthe Pedersen 3 Dec 1767 Ydby. There were other Jensens and Jendatters not clearly identified as children of our two Jensens (some had generic names such as Anne Jensdatter but with no mention of a Dover location), but there definitely were no Else Jensdatters even though the two of them would have been residing there at the same time assuming both survived to adulthood. I did check the Sønderhå burial records to confirm that Jens Foged's Else did not die prior to the family's move to Dover in Ydby parish.
I also looked at FHL film 53030 (Ydby church records) for other Jensen marriages for the years 1750 to 1776 without sucess of finding siblings for Else Jensdatter residing in Sønderhå especially in the Jestrup hamlet. I found no other Jensens or Jensdatters associated with a location Jestrup in Sønderhå as provided in our Else's marriage record.
1781 and 1801 censuses show the age of our Else as being born in about 1741; however, Else's burial record shows a birth of approximately 1744. Since this variation in birth years easily brackets 1742, which is the christening year of either of the two Else options, the ages in these records do not assist us.
Summary:
1. Our Else Jensdatter identified in the Sønderhå marriage record is clearly shown with the additional surname Mørch. There are no other Mørchs in Sønderhå. There are no marriages of any Fogeds in Sønderhå - only Foged christenings for Jens Foged's children before they moved to Ydby ca. 1744.
2. Else appears to be a temporary resident of Jestrup in Sønderhå. Neither family had any Sønderhå records showing this hamlet. She is most likely originally from somewhere else outside of Sønderhå.
3. Of the two Elses in Ydby, neither show with a Ydby marriage or Ydby or Sønderhå burial prior to the marriage date. No probate record exists for the fathers.
4. Census and burial records indicate that our Else fits nicely with the christening of either of the two Elses under consideration.
Conclusion: The double surname of Jensdatter Mørch in the marriage record is the most reliable indication that we have that Else was most likely the daughter of Jens Olufsen Mørkes/Mørch. This surname was not so common. There is always the slighter possibility that she could be another Else besides one of our two candidates.
For reference purposes, I include the following corrected information on the family of Jens Christensen Foged and Kirsten Pedersdatter. Note that in the first two chr. records the father appears as Jens de Foged and the rest as Jens Foged. The mother Kirsten Pedersdatter generally appears in most of the same chr. records. Jens Foged's christening record provides us with his parents Christen Christensen Foged and Inger Jensdatter. The surname Foged is common and multigenerational in the Ydby Church records for this time period. Sources are FHL films 53030 Ydby Church Records and 53193 Sønderhå Church Records. All children born in Degnbol, Sønderhå, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark and chr. in Sønderhå Church except as noted:
Peder Jensen, chr. 14 August 1729, bur. Sønderhå 18 December 1729.
Maren Jensdatter, chr. 29 October 1730.
Jens Jensen, chr. 28 May 1732.
Kirsten Jensdatter, chr. 6 November 1734.
Christen Jensen, chr. 25 November 1736.
Peder Jensen, ch. 10 August 1738.
Else Jensdatter, chr. 20 January 1742.
Christen Jensen, d. Dover, Ydby, Refs, Thisted, Denmark, bur. 11 October 1744 in Ydby Churchyard aged 7 weeks. No chr. record in Sønderhå or Ydby.
The following two children were born in Dover, Ydby, Refs, Thisted, Denmark and chr. in Ydby Church:
Oluf Jensen, chr. 30 October 1746.
Thomas Jensen, chr. 2 February 1751.

RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Censuses:
1787 for Sønderhå parish:
Anders Legaard, Husband, 50 years old, farmer
Else Jensdatter, Wife, 46
Inger Pedersdatter, 14
Laurids Pedersen, 10
Frederik Pedersen, 7
Jens Pedersen, 4
Caroline Pedersdatter, 2

1801 Sønderhå parish:
Peder Leegaard, 66, in first marriage, parish bailiff and "gaardbeboer"
Else Jensdatter, 60, his wife
Laurs, 22
Frederica Louise, 21, unmarried,
Caroline, 15, unmarried.

CHRISTENING:
1. Christening record for Ydby Church is on FHL film 53030. The priest neglected to write the day and month even though he noted the year of 1742. Following entry is 17 Mar.

MARRIAGE:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record, 1696 - 1787, book 1, p 140. Confirmed the record below. Note that both witnesses signed. Anders Leegaard may be the father of Peder since it was customary to generally have the fathers as witnesses. The relationship of Povel Jensen to Else Jensdatter is not given, but could possibly be a brother.
Per research of genealogist Bent Pilsgård of Viborg, Denmark; Viborg Regional Archives microfiche C114.1 page 140 Sønderhå parish records; Witnesses: Povel Jensen of Kiestrup and Anders Leegaard of Jestrup, they were engaged 31 Jul 1766. The couple is Peder Andersen Leegaard and Else Jensdatter Mørch, both of Jestrup.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053193; Sønderhå Parish Record. Per Joyce Cupit: "Sønderhå kirkebog 1815: begravet okt 29 Else Jensdatter, Peder Leedfrs enke [widow], 71 år."

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Family Group Sheet for Peder Andersen from LDS Archive record. Record originally submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651B, Sandy, Utah. James Christian Westergard shown as 2ggson. Indicates information is from church and census records for Sonderhaa by Eva M. Gregersen.

2. Family Group Sheet for Jens Olufsen Morch from LDS Archive Record submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave. Ogden, UT. 84401. Lists himself as 3ggson to Else. Information varies slightly.

3. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

4. Per records dated 9 Mar 1999 of Fred H. Westergard, 1940 Laird Dr., Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 (801)-583-4405; fwestergard@juno.com

5. May 21, 1999 correspondence of Jens Praestgaard at "jens-v-p@post5.tele.dk".

6. Joyce Cupit's website 25 May 2002.

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Last name also known as Smed (blacksmith). Occupation also smallholder.

CHRISTENING:
1. FHL film # 053030; Ydby Parish Record, 1733-1809, book 2, p.151. Gives the name of Michel, child of Jacob Smed of Ydby. Mother's name not mentioned. No birth given.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Ydby parish records; microfiche C123.A plate 3 page 151; Sponsors: Jens Christensen, Lars ?, ? Andersen, Else Hedgard, Maren Andersdatter.

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053030; Ydby Parish Record, 1733-1809, book 2, p. 309.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Ydby parish records; microfiche C123.A2 plate 6 page 308b.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Information for family group from Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651 B, Sandy Utah. She states information is from church records of Ydby, Hurup by Eva M. Gregersen. James Christian Westergard is listed as 2ggson.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

3. Film 8112; census paper 1787-1801.

ACTION:
1. Michel Jacobsen Smed: Look to see if there was a son named Ivar Mikkelsen chr. abt. 1770 Ydby (L643-T18). Verify per FHL film #053030; Ydby Parish Record.

Michel married Margrethe Andersdatter about 1766 in , , Thisted, Denmark. Margrethe (daughter of Anders) was born about 1742 in of Ydby, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; died on 19 Feb 1824 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 29 Feb 1824 in Bedsted, Hassing, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DEATH:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Record.

2. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Bedsted parish records; microfiche C119.3 plate 7 page 210; notes: Magrethe Andersdatter, widow of Michel Smed and lived by copyholder Jens Nielsen of Horsfeld; age 82, died 19 Feb 1824, buried 29 Feb 1824.

BURIAL:
1. FHL film # 053026; Bedsted Parish Record

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Information for family group from Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Mrs. Wanda Roos, R.D. 1 Box 651 B, Sandy Utah. She states information is from church records of Ydby, Hurup by Eva M. Gregersen. James Christian Westergard is listed as 2ggson.

2. Per gedcom dated 6 Jan 1999 of Wayne Westergard, 785 W 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah 84087, phone 801-295-2906.

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Also known as Jens Jensen Brentoft or Brandtoft.

2. Census for Hurup parish 1801: #19 family, Jens Brentoft 60 years married first time smallholder, Anne Villadsdatter his wife married first time.

DEATH:
1. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Hurup Parish Records; Microfiche C122.1 plate 2 page 71; notes buried Jes Brentoft of Refs age 66 years.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. From Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden, Utah 84403 (lists himself as 3ggson). References Film 8438 Census Paper; 1787 Par. reg. no 1731-84, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2. Per gedcom from Wayne Westergard, 785 W. 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah, 84087, (801)-295-2906 dated 6 Jan 1999.

Jens married Anne Villadsdatter about 1767 in of Hurup, Refs, Thisted, Denmark. Anne (daughter of Willads Poulsen and Anne Knudsdatter) was christened on 11 Jul 1728 in Sonderbjerg, Thisted, Denmark; died in in Refs, Hurup, Refs, Thisted, Denmark; was buried on 22 Jan 1795 in Hurup, Refs, Thisted, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
1. Her estate probate: Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives: B34.280 page 1, Refs District.

DEATH:
1. Viborg, Denmark Regional Archives; Hurup Parish Records; microfiche C122.2 plate 2 page 71b; notes buried the widow of Jens Brentoft age 63 years.

SOURCES_MISC:
1. Per gedcom from Wayne Westergard, 785 W. 1300 South, Woods Cross, Utah, 84087, (801)-295-2906 dated 6 Jan 1999.

2. From Archive Record family group sheet submitted by Fermen J. Westergard, 2059 Van Buren Ave., Ogden, Utah 84403 (lists himself as 3ggson). References Film 8438 Census Paper; 1787 Par. reg. no 1731-84, Copenhagen, Denmark.