Bente Feldballe

(Genealogy)
Homepage

- the US connection

All of my ancestors were Danish. Therefore, not all sections of this page have been translated into English. However, a few sidelines branched out to the US of A, and, consequently, the single page about these US connections is in English. If you're decended from any of the people mentioned here, please get in touch.

The Feldballe connection:
My paternal grandfather, Jens Feldballe, had a brother who went to live in the USA sometime around 1912 or 1913. His name was Ole Sørensen Jensen Feldballe, b. 09.06.1873 in Handrup, Agri parish, Mols county, Denmark, and he used to work as a dockworker in Aarhus before he left. His wife Marie followed him to the USA a few years later, in 1916 or 1917. They have been found in the census records for Carroll in Iowa both 1920 and 1930.
My mother was in brief contact with Ole sometime around 1945-50 when he contacted his brother, my grandfather, who was then living with my parents.
At that time Ole was still living in Iowa. My mother doesn't know whether his wife was still alive at this time. From the information I've been able to gather it seems that Ole and Marie didn't have any children, but I'm still very interested in knowing when they died and any other information about their life in the USA. If you can help, please get in touch.

The Sorensen connection:
My maternal grandmother Agnes Andersen, had no less than 6 uncles and aunts who went to live in the USA. In fact only 2 of 8 siblings stayed behind in Denmark.

The 6 that went away were:

• Christen Sørensen, born 11 August 1879 in Brabrand parish west of Århus
• Søren Sørensen, born 14 October 1881 in Kolt parish south of Århus, died 25 November 1959 in Maywood, Chicago, Illinois
• Ane (Anna) Petrine Sørensen, born 14 December 1883 in Kolt parish south of Århus
• Karen Marie Sørensen, born 2 August 1885 in Kolt parish south of Århus
• Rasmine (Minnie) Sørensen, born 8 October 1888 in Kolt parish south of Århus, died 1963 in Polson, Montana, buried at the Lakeview Cemetery.
• Peter Sørensen, also born 8 October 1888 in Kolt parish south of Århus, died 1968 in Polson, Montana, buried at the Lakeview Cemetery.

With the help of the decendents that I've so far been able to trace the following information has been found:

Christen Sorensen and his wife Marie (from Hammelev by Haderslev, then in the occupied part of Southern Jutland) had two sons before leaving Denmark, Christen and Henry. After settling in Chicago they had two daughters, Mildred and Edith. Edith is still alive, living in California, and I have her address.

Soren Sorensen and his wife Anna also lived in Chicago, and they had one son, Harold, who supplied quite a few of the scraps of information that helped paint this picture. Harold was born in 1920, he now lives in Massachusetts.

Karen Sorensen married dane Jens Christian Jorgensen and had a total of three sons, of which two were born in Denmark, Robert and Thorvald (Toby). One son George was born in the USA. He later worked for Walt Disney. All three had children, and at least Toby and Robert also had grandchildren.

Anna Sorensen married Jens Fredericksen and they settled in Chicago. They had one son and one daughter, but I don't know their names.

Peter Sorensen went to Chicago, where he worked as a saddle maker for quite a number of years. When he retired, he went to live in Polson, Montana, where also Minnie lived. I've found him in the Social Security Death Index under the number: SSN 321-01-5456 Residence: 59860 Polson, Lake, MT. Peter died in 1968. He did not have any family of his own.

Rasmine (Minnie) Sorensen married dane Emil L. Hansen, born 18 September 1885, who came from the island of Ærø (Aeroe). Rasmine travelled to the USA in 1909, Emil in 1911.
Minna and Emil lived at 414 W. Granite St., Butte, Montana at some stage between 1913-17 and maybe after that, too. The address was found in my gg-grandfathers ledger for this period, so must have been valid then. Later on they moved to Polson, Montana.
Minna and Emil had 3 girls, Edna, Emily and Elsie. All three are still living in the Polson area.
Minnie's husband Emil died in 1971 and is also buried at the Lakeview Cemetery.

I have been able to collect some pictures of these Sorensens in the USA and have put them on a page for reference. For better recognition I've left the pictures fairly large, so please be patient, the page will take a while to load. Visit the Sorensen family gallery as seen from Denmark.

The page also contains some lists of reference to a few Danish church registers. If you see a parish you would like to inspect closer, these Danish words may come in handy: Døbte (hatches), trolovede og viede (matches) and begravede (dispatches). Also the words sogn (parish), herred (county) and kirkebog (church register). As numbers are international these few words will take you pretty far, I reckon.
Happy hunting!

Danish Index

updated on 9-1-05