Tuesday, February 18, 2014

52 Ancestors: #7 Lauritz Christian Sorensen


52 Ancestors: #7 Lauritz Christian Sorensen


This year, Amy Johnson Crow has issues a new 52 weeks blogging challenge:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

on her No Story Too Small blog.

The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor. Not only should this get me blogging more, but also to take a deeper look at some of the people in my family tree.

My approach: I plan to make this a Tuesday Theme, and, use it to enhance my WikiTree ancestor profiles. That is, focus on a different ancestor on my WikiTree list of profiles, each week (include possibly adding new profiles), Great idea! Thanks to Randy Seaver's post for bringing this to my attention!

Top row, left to right: Christian Otto, Dorthy Christine, Dagmar Rebecca (Delma)
Front row, left to right: Jensene, Louise Mildred (Louise), Lauritz
Most likely taken in Denmark just before their departure for America


#7 Lauritz Christian Sorensen (1847-1922) is #14 on my Ancestor Name (Ahnentafel) List, and is my great-grandfather. He married #15 Jensene Marie Nielsen (1852-1906) my great-grandmother.
I am descended through:

* their daughter, #7 Dorthea (Dorothy) Kristine (Christine) Sorensen (1887-1982) who married
#6 Paul Harold Kinnick (1892-1968), through
* their daughter, #3 Mary Eileen Kinnick (1918 - 1999), who married #2 Delbert Leverne (Pete) Smith (1915 - 1977), to
* me, #1 William Leverne Smith (1939- …)

These are my Danish relatives, of course. They were both both in Denmark as was my grandmother, Dorothy, making me one-fourth Dane, by heritage!

We have had this wonderful family photograph for many years, but it was only in recent years that we learned very much about their lives in Denmark, and that is still pretty sketchy. Fortunately, we do know quite about them once they arrived in the United States, and came directly to Stuart, Iowa. Their oldest son, Morris, was already living in Des Moines as a pharmacist, I believe, so that provided some stability.

The wife of Lauritz, Jensene (more about her and her family next week), died within a couple of years of arrival so we know almost nothing about her life here.

All we really know about Laurtiz, really, is that he raised a good family who adapted to life in America very well. He was already nearly 60 when they arrived, and he lived to be 75.



Families are Forever! ;-)

4 comments:

  1. Fascinating family history.

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  2. Thanks for sharing. Many of my Danes also came to Iowa - the Storm Lake area - circa 1900. Are you familiar with the Danish immigrant museum in Elkhorn, Iowa?

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    1. Yes, it was a popular destination. Yes, I visited the museum a number of years ago. They've add quite a bit of stuff, since, I think.

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