Surname Saturday - MORTENSDATTER

Surname Saturday

MORTENSDATTER

My mother's mother's mother was Jensene Marie Nielsen, born in Denmark. As I reported in that Dec 2009 post, "This is my 'shortest line.'" That has now been modified, as first reported recently in this July 31 Sentimental Sunday post. Following a series of discussion with our new found cousins in Denmark, we now have the names of both the parents of Jensene and of her husband, Lauritz SORENSEN, including maiden names in each case. Last week we talked of her father, Niels CHRISTENSEN.

Today, we will share the brief information obtained on Jensene's mother, Maren Kristine MORTENSDATTER.

Last week we began our discussion of Scandinavian family name etymology. We noted that heritable family names (surnames) were generally adopted rather late within Scandinavia. In Denmark, the most common Danish family name surnames are patronymic and end in -sen. The other 'naming convention' they use is, per the cousins: "A child got its father's first name as its surname. Boys got -sen and girls got -datter (daughter)." Therefore, it would appear that Maren's father's first name was Morten!

Also, note Maren's middle name, Kristine. Her granddaughter by Jensene, my grandmother, had Christine as a middle name: Dorothy Christine. My wife and I gave it, Christine, as a middle name to our oldest daughter, Annette Christine. And, our youngest daughter, Arrion, gave it as a middle name to our only granddaughter, Kaylee Christine. She knew it came from four generations back. Now we know it goes six generations back.

Maren Kristine Mortensdatter. She was born 26 Jan 1823, Hvorup parish, Aalborg, Denmark and died 29 Mar 1915, Hvorup parish, Aalborg, Denmark.

She married Niels Christiensen, born 19 Sep 1817, Hvorup parish, Aalborg, Denmark, and died 24 Mar 1867, Hvorup parish, Aalborg, Denmark.

They had 7 children (with known information), each surname Nielsen, of course:

1. Christen, b. 19 Dec 1846; d. 10 Nov 1865
2. Morten, b. 9 Sep 1848; d. 3 Dec 1931 - ancestor of my cousin in Denmark
3. Karen, b. 4 Aug 1850; d. unk
4. Jensene Marie, b. 20 Aug 1852; d. 1906 - my g-grandmother
5. Rebekka, b. 3 Apr 1856; d. 2 Dec 18676
6. Caroline, b. 23 Nov 1858; d. unk
7. Else Marie, b. 23 Jan 1864; d. 1924


Families are Forever!  ;-)