Family

Roland Christiansen

Sidsel's father

Baptised

7 June 1761, Lejrskov parish, Ribe Amt

Also called

Roland Christensen, Rolland Christian Møller

Soldier

So described by Sidsel's mother in 1792

Died

9 August 1807, in the town hall jail in Aalborg. Buried 11 August, Budolfi parish.

Roland was accused in 1802 of stealing a purse, and in February 1803 he was given a year in Viborg Tugthus for theft. He had children by at least three women: Zidsel Henrichsdatter, who died at Nors in 1797; Sidsel's mother, Anne Marie Hansdatter; and Johanne Isaacsdatter of Ørre, whose children were born between 1784 and 1800 across North and East Jutland. He died in custody in Aalborg in August 1807, a few weeks before Sidsel was sentenced to Viborg Tugthus.

Anne Marie Hansdatter

Sidsel's mother

Born

About 1744–49, said to be in Viborg Tugthus

From

Stautrup in Thy, by her own account

Died

Not known

Anne Marie came from a family that knew the prisons and workhouses from the inside. Before Roland she had a daughter, Juliane, born in 1776, by Axel Johansen. By 1792 she had been begging for eight or nine years, suffered from a serious eye disease, and was sent home to her parish by the court at Holstebro with her three daughters. Nothing is known of her after that.

Peder Olesen

Father of Ane Marie; probably my fourth great-grandfather

Named

As the father at Ane Marie's baptism in Aalborg, 1809, and again at her burial in Storring, 1874: "daughter of Peder Olesen of Aalborg"

Probably

Peter Wollesen, born 22 February 1784 at Ellum, Løgumkloster; glazier and watchmaker; died 1851, Løgumkloster

The records name Ane Marie's father only as Peder Olesen. He was very probably the man who was born Peter Wollesen in 1784 in the Duchy of Schleswig, the son of travelling peddlers, and who went through life as Peder Pedersen, Peder Olesen and Peter Wollesen. He was a glazier and watchmaker by trade, and a repeat thief.

He passed through Odense Tugthus as a young man, escaped from Nyborg fortress in 1805, and was in Viborg Tugthus from 1806 to 1807 and again from May 1808 to May 1809, overlapping with Sidsel's year there. Ane Marie was born in Aalborg six days after his release. In 1814 the Supreme Court sentenced him to life in Stokhuset in Copenhagen. He escaped before he could be taken there, was caught again in 1823, escaped three more times, and spent 27 years in all as a branded convict. He was released at last, and died in the poorhouse at Løgumkloster in 1851, soon after he came home.

He had children by at least five women between 1804 and 1822. His mother was called Anne Marie, the name Sidsel gave their daughter.

Ane Marie Pedersdatter

My third great-grandmother

Born

16 May 1809, Aalborg. Baptised at home 17 May.

Confirmed

1827, Storring

Married

Jens Poulsen, 26 April 1828, Storring

Died

26 April 1874, Storring, aged 64. Buried 3 May.

Ane Marie was born to a mother under arrest and a father who had just walked out of Viborg Tugthus. She grew up with Sidsel and Laus, first in Aarhus and then in Storring, where she was confirmed at eighteen. The next spring she married Jens Poulsen, born in Storring in 1803, the son of Poul Wognsen and Karen Jensdatter. Their first child was born three months before the wedding.

Her first five children all died young: Karen, two daughters named Sidsel Marie, Laurs, and Zidsel, who lived to two. Then came six who lived: Pouline (1840), Karen (1842), Thomas (1845), Niels (1848), Jensine (1850) and Sidsel Marie (1853). Four of her daughters were named after her mother, and one son after Laus.

In October 1836, the year of the Mørke affair, the Landsoverret in Viborg acquitted Ane Marie and Jens of complicity in a theft. Jens died in 1857. Ane Marie lived on as a widow in Storring, where her mother lay buried, and died there in 1874. The parish clerk wrote her down as the daughter of Peder Olesen of Aalborg, born in Aalborg.

Niels Jensen and Thrine Magrethe Leonhardsen Frank

My second great-grandparents

Niels

Born 2 February 1848, Storring. Miller's journeyman. Died 1 December 1924, Silkeborg.

Thrine

Born 11 January 1848, Kragelund. Died 8 July 1926, Silkeborg.

Married

25 July 1875, Funder church

Niels, Ane Marie's son, became a miller's journeyman and left Storring. On 25 July 1875 he married Thrine Frank in Funder church, west of Silkeborg. The register gives his birth date in Storring and names his parents as the cottager Jens Poulsen and his wife Ane Marie Pedersdatter, both dead by then.

Thrine came from a very different line. She was the daughter of Leonhard Frank, a smallholder at Ellingehede, and a descendant of the German colonists who were brought to settle the Jutland heath in 1760. Her family's story is told on kartoffeltysker.com.

Jensine Kristine Jensen and Jens Julius Hansen

My great-grandparents

Jensine

Born 26 April 1880, Søby parish

Jens Julius

Born 20 January 1879, Søvind parish. Electrician.

Married

24 October 1908, Silkeborg church

Jensine, Niels and Thrine's daughter, married Jens Julius Hansen in Silkeborg in 1908. He became an electrician and helped bring electricity to Denmark. Sidsel Rolandsdatter was Jensine's great-grandmother.

The line on this site stops here. Later generations are left out.