It’s been quite a while since I’ve written about the Danish branch of my family tree so today’s post is about my 4X great grandparents, Niels Thomsen Bruun and Ana Amalie Christensdatter Muller.

This part of my Danish family lived in what today is part of the Frederikshavn suburbs, just to the south of the city.

Frederikshavn and Flade are slightly southwest of Gothenburg, Sweden, just across the water.

I often wondered how my 2X great grandparents met, as Frits Wille Oscar Emil Jensen was born and raised in Copenhagen and his wife, Margrethe Bruun was from Frederikshavn.

Once I learned the Frits’ military career father, Johannes Jensen, retired and moved the family to Saeby – which can be seen at the very bottom of the Frederikshavn & Bangobostrand map, I understood. At that point they lived in close by neighborhoods.

The life story of Niels Thomsen Bruun is short. He was baptized on 22 January 1809 in Flade, Hjorring, Denmark, the son of Thomas Madsen Bruun and Margrethe Nielsdatter.

Living in a coastal village, most made their livelihoods at sea and Niels was no exception. He was a boat captain and, I imagine, worked a fishing boat.

Niels married Ana Amalie Christensdatter Moller on 1 November 1842, also in Flade. She was the daughter of Christen Andersen Moller and Marie Katrine Jensdatter and was baptized on 10 January 1823, again in Flade.

They had two children:

1. Margrethe, baptized 1 May 1843, Flade, Hjorring, Denmark; died 10 November 1890, Calais, Washington, Maine; married Frits Wille Oscar Emil Jensen, 12 October 1866, Flade, Hjorring, Denmark
2. Peter, baptized 13 April 1845, Flade, Hjorring, Denmark; married Lovise Christine Sofie Jensen, c1879. They were living in Reberbangsgade, Aalborg, Denmark in 1880. Also in the home were Peter’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

1880 Census, Source: MyHeritage

1890 Census, Source: MyHeritage

 

Niels promptly disappears from Flade records and, although I’ve looked more than once to make sure I didn’t miss it, no burial record has been found for him.

Given that he was a mariner, I suspect that he died at sea.

On 24 October 1847, in Flade, widow Ana Amalie Christensdatter Moller married (2) Jens Marinus Hansen, born 19 January 1815 in Budolfi, Aalborg, Denmark.

Margrethe and Peter had four half siblings, the first three born in Flade:

1. Niels Christian Hansen, baptized 13 September 1848; died after 1860
2. Bolette Marie Hansen, baptized 17 August 1851; married Jens Frederik Alfred Borentzen, 5 May 1876, Skt. Hans and St. Olai, Hjorring, Denmark.
3. Julie Hansine Amalie Hansen, baptized 28 June 1853; married Julius Emil Petersen, 12 March 1882, Skt. Jakobs Church, Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Ernest Alfred Hansen, baptized 18 September 1859, Voer, Dronninglund, Hjorring, Denmark; died March 1934, Fresno, California; married Anna Christensen, 22 May 1896, Marshall County, Iowa

The blended family is all enumerated as the Hansen family in the 1855 census of Flade:

Source: MyHeritage

By 1860, they had moved to Voer, Dronninglund, still in Hjorring County:

Source: MyHeritage

Ernest Hansen eventually immigrated to the United States and is found in the 1908 California Great Register.

Source: Family Search

He was living in Fresno and, more importantly, the voting register notes that he was naturalized in Marshall County, Iowa District Court on 29 May 1892!

A further look at Ernest Alfred Hansen turned up the following information:

Anna Christensen Hansen was born c1871 in Denmark and died 14 May 1934 in Fresno, Fresno, California, surviving Earnest by only two months, as he died in Fresno in March 1934.

Earnest and Anna had two children:

1. Christian C., born 23 March 1897, Iowa; died 24 March 1954, Santa Cruz, California. He married Angeline Sawyer. She was born 18 September 1896, California and died 5 October 1979, Santa Cruz, California. They had two children – Jean Elizabeth, born 12 November 1920, California; died 1 December 1965, Santa Clara, California; married Mr. Bull and Robert Chris, born 11 May 1922, California; died 27 April 2000.
2. Eulia Margaret, born 2 August 1899, Marshall County, Iowa; died May 1978, Fresno, California; married John William Coughlin. He was born 21 August 1900, New York, New York; died 23 August 1971, Fresno, California. They had one daughter, Dorothy Ann, born 8 June 1925, Fresno, California. Dorothy married (1) Mr. Wilson (2) Louis A. Freitas, 1 January 1949, Santa Cruz, California.

Next, I’ll share information about Niels Thomsen Bruun’s parents and siblings.