The Beginning of the Pedersen Journey to America

In 1901, Jens and Johanne were married.  Jens was working as a blacksmith, and they were living in Jetsmark parish in Northern Jutland.  The following October, they had their first son, Jens Knudsen.  Johanne was only 18 years old.  In 1905 and 1906, they had two more sons, Ofelt and Herluf Meyer.

Sometime between 1906 and 1909, the family moved to Tylstrup, about 13 miles east of their home at the time.  While I was researching this, I found it strange that they would move so far away from "home" and from their families.  By modern measurements, 13 miles is only a 15 minute drive away.  But, in the early part of the 20th century, it was a significant distance.  Based on everything else I had found up to this point, it was  very uncommon for families to make major moves for no significant reason.  Once a couple married and started a family, they stayed where they were.  So, as I uncovered more and more records, I also had more questions.

In 1909 and 1910, Jens and Johanne welcomed two little girls to their growing brood of boys.  Emma Henrietta and Erma Gudrun were welcomed into the family.  Being a mom, I can only imagine how delighted Johanne was to have a couple of little girls to cuddle after having rough-and-tumble boys.  A couple of years later in 1913, they had another boy, Erik Randlen.  And just over a year later, they welcomed another girl, Helga Ragate.  The family was growing by leaps and bounds!

Around this timeframe is when I stumbled onto a mystery.  Jens' and Johanne's oldest son, Jens Knudsen, disappeared from the 1911 census.  He was also not present on the 1916 census.  I scoured the census records around the area looking for him, thinking he might have been living with another family and working as an apprentice somewhere.  When I still didn't find him, I began looking through the death records with some trepidation.  I really didn't want to find him there.  That search turned up nothing too.  So, for the time being, I had his name with a birth date and a big question mark setting in a folder on my desk.

In September 1916, Jens and Johanne, along with 6 of their 7 children, arrived in the Port of New York at Ellis Island.  It's still unclear why they emigrated to the United States.  While talking to their grandkids and collecting family information, it can only be speculated that, because the economic climate was changing in Denmark and the population was increasing, they decided to try their luck in America.  And, as it turned out, Jens' youngest sister, Ane Christine, had already been in the States for 14 years.  They wouldn't be coming to a country and starting anew alone.

At this point in my search, there were so many revelations.  Every day, I seemed to find more and more that just amazed me.  Up to this point, I was operating solely on a "maybe" from my dad and uncle that their grandfather had a sister here already.  No one knew for sure her full married name or even where she lived.  When I found Jens and Johanne on a passenger manifest, it told me her husband's name and their location.  I finally had something to go on.  So, after a bit of searching, I could confidently state that Ane Christine Pedersen emigrated to the USA in 1902.

But that's a different story...for later.  The biggest question I had at this point in my research was, "What happened to Jens Knudsen Pedersen?"

To be continued...