DENMARK-L Archives

Archiver > DENMARK > 2002-09 > 1030892350


From: Paula Goodfellow <>
Subject: Re: [DK] Professional researchers
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2002 07:59:10 -0700
In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20020901040937.00849600@earthlink.net>


Well, I spent last night wading through a bunch of stuff that a distant
cousin in Utah (maybe everyone of Danish descent has a cousin in Utah and a
cousin in Wisconsin) sent me, and comparing it to Ancestral File. I have no
research of my own on that line, so I was just looking at it in anticipation
of getting the original parish records to try to check them myself. There
are a lot of obvious mistakes in Ancestral File. The stuff that my relative
sent me was much better for at least being plausible, but names had all been
anglicized, and all the "datters" had been changed to "sens". I was able to
check a lot of that with the census online, and found that it looks pretty
well-done despite the changes in names. She said that a lot of it had been
done by a man who worked for the FHL in Salt Lake in the 60's and 70's.

Your response sums up why I'm cautious about using a researcher-- I went to
hear a woman speak here in California about Danish research, who runs her
own business and has a lot of publications about Danish research, and I was
very unimpressed. She didn't seem to have a great command of Danish-- and
she said that the internet wasn't of much help for Danish research!

But I'm getting back far enough that I am going to be running out of parish
records. There's one line that I think could be extended through some of the
tax records, maybe, but I don't think I could do it, and I'd also like to
have someone look over what I've done for errors. And there's still that one
line where I'm stuck, not able to find an ancestor born only in 1803--but
I'm still working on that. Thanks, Paula

on 9/1/02 4:09 AM, Rockne Johnson at wrote:

> Hi Paula,
>
> I am sure that professional genealogists in Denmark are well intentioned
> and will often do good work. But, like you and me, they can also make
> mistakes. If you find one, regard him not as an authority but as a
> colleague. Check out anything that he reports and look for alternatives.
>
> In 1995 I found that a previously unknown half-second-cousin in Utah had
> placed my grandmother and her ancestors in the Mormon Ancestral File. They
> had employed a researcher in Denmark to do the work in the Danish records.
> The work was generally accurate but he had make one mistake. He had worked
> from the churchbook only and had not compared his results with the 1787 and
> 1801 censuses. The mistake was due to the fact that the parish priest in
> Vejstrup sogn, Svendborg amt, actually had two parishes and kept the
> records for both in the same book. He found a marriage for Iver Rasmussen
> in the book and assumed it to be the Iver Rasmussen in Vejstrup althought
> the marriage was performed in the other parish. But the census showed that
> there was an Iver Rasmussen in each parish, that the one in the other
> parish had married Karen Jørgensdatter but the one in Vejstrup had married
> Ursele Jørgensdatter.
>
> Rock
>
> At 11:06 AM 8/26/02 -0700, Paula Goodfellow wrote:
>> Have any of you used a professional genealogy researcher for Danish
>> research? I'd be particularly interested in someone in Denmark who knows
>> Ringkøbing well. There's so much to the context and culture that help you
>> out if you understand it well. Do any of you have access to a list of
>> researchers in Denmark, or recommendations or horror stories? I'm going to
>> work on the problem of Kristene Marie Laursdatter myself more, but may have
>> to give up and see about hiring someone-- especially if probate records are
>> available there that aren't available here. Paula
>>


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