This piece of their family was a puzzle. Jens Knudsen is not listed with the family on the 1911 or 1916 census records. I would constantly come back to him, and search and search. But I would never uncover anything. Not only was I coming up blank in the Danish records, but it was also a name that my dad and his brother had never heard. Jens Knudsen was their uncle. It was a mystery. Who was this boy? Where did he disappear to? And why had no one in the family ever heard of him?
My parents suggested I contact my dad's cousin, Gladys, and ask her if she knew anything of this other brother. Gladys' mother was Emma, my grandmother's sister. Emma would have been old enough to remember having an older brother. So I called Gladys and told her I had been researching the family tree. She asked what I had found, and I told her that I was hoping she could help solve a mystery. She said she would try, but didn't know what help she could be. I shared what I had found about this boy, Jens Knudsen. She sighed and said, "Yes, he was the oldest boy. Grandpa and Grandma called him Knud." The puzzle began to take shape!
Gladys shared with me that Knud was mentally disabled, and that they put him in a special school/home. She told me that they would bring him home on the weekends, but he would cry and cry that he "wanted to go home". His siblings and parents missed him while he was away at the school all week, but he would be homesick when he stayed with them. He didn't have any understanding that they were his family. Gladys told me that when they made the decision to come to America, they did so with the knowledge that they would be leaving Knud behind. That told me a number of things, most notably, that the decision to emigrate was for significant reasons, and it also told me that Knud was disabled enough that he would have not passed immigration restrictions to stay in the US. As Gladys was sharing the story, and the realization of what it meant for my great-grandparents to leave their home began to sink in, I found myself in tears.
Also during this time, I began posting the Pedersen family tree on a site called My Heritage. The site is set up so that, as you post entries on your family tree, it shows you matches to other trees...similar to what Ancestry.com does. I was seeing a handful of matches to other trees, but nothing much closer than the late 1700's and early 1800's. I was looking for the closest generation I could get, which would be the descendants of either of Jens' sisters or of Johanne's sisters. Finally, I saw a significant number of matches on someone's family tree in Denmark, so I made contact. Initially, we had to overcome the language barrier. Jenny spoke very little English and I know next to no Danish. Upon investigation into her tree, I worked out the common line. Her great-grandmother, Ane Marie Jensen, and my dad's great-grandmother, Ane Catherine Jensen, were sisters! Amazing! I could only get us one generation closer than that!
Being as language was a barrier for communication, Jenny suggested that her son, Peter, could act as translator. What we didn't realize at the time was that Facebook offers the option to "See Translation" on posts and comments by friends who write in another language. We've been able to communicate directly that way, but, in the meantime, Peter and I have become penpal cousins. Both of us were excited to "meet"! Finally, a direct contact to family still in Denmark!
Making this contact proved to be not only beneficial for connecting with family still in the mother country, but finding more information about family. Knowing someone who speaks Danish, can interpret the Danish records, and is also interested in genealogy was a HUGE bonus! Jenny's help has been invaluable!
I didn't know how much Jenny could help in solving the puzzle of Knud, but I decided to enlist her help. I emailed her the story, and shared what records I had already found. I also shared with her the story Gladys told me. She emailed me in reply and said that she knew immediately where to look for the records.
A couple of days later, she emailed me that she had found him on census records and sent me the information for finding them online. She also said that she talked to someone in the Archives office about the institution where Knud lived. This person was able to find his death record, and some information about the institution, which is now a museum. It's within just a couple of km from where Jenny's husband grew up! The person in the Archives office told Jenny that, being as Knud lived to be about 60, it was likely that there would be a picture of him at the museum. Jenny told me that she was going to make a trip the following week and would send whatever information she could find. That was a long week of waiting!
The following week, I received a message from her...and a picture! The man working at the museum was elderly and actually remembered Knud! In fact, he was the person who took the photo of him! He told her to pass along to us that Knud was a quiet, pleasant and gentle person. He loved horses, so he was put to work in the stables. He also made the daily dairy trip to town for the institution. I could not express to Jenny how much her trip meant to our entire family. Finally, my dad's Uncle Knud would have his rightful place in the family.
To be continued...
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