Births in Danish Church Books: Information About the Parents

Parish registers are the most used source for Denmark genealogy. Language barriers and old Danish handwriting may make it difficult to read the information about the child's parents. This blog post describes how the information about the parents was typically recorded in the Danish church books at a child's birth and baptism.

The blog post does not cover Danish parish registers older than 1813, as they are generally less predictable in their structure.

Danish Church Book: The Birth and Baptism of Anna Clausine Hansen of Odense

The image above is from the parish register for Odense Vor Frue Parish. It shows the birth and baptism of my great-great-grandmother Anna Clausine Hansen. She was born on 11 November 1855 in Odense and baptized in Vor Frue Church on 20 March 1856. When we want to trace another generation of ancestors, the best place to start is to make a note of the information about the child's parents.

Anna Clausine Hansen's parents are described as follows: 

"Cooper Hans Christian Hansen and wife Anne Marie Clausen, Grynhusene, 31 years old."¹

Danish Parish Registers: The Sequence of the Information About the Child's Parents

The Most Common Order

The description of Anna Clausine Hansen’s parents follows the most common order in birth records in 19th-century parish registers of Denmark:

1. The father's occupation
2. The father's full name
3. The words "og Hustru" (meaning "and wife")
4. The mother's full name
5. The parents' residence
6. The mother's age (recorded from about 1850)

When trying to decipher the text in a Danish parish register, you may find it helpful to consider whether the difficult word could be a job title, a boy's name, a girl's name, or a place name. The order of the information can help you hypothesize about the type of word to expect.

Of course, it's not always that simple. Three variations commonly occur.

Variation 1: The Parents' Residence

Anna Clausine Hansen's father, my great-great-great-grandfather, was Hans Kristian Hansen, born on 5 July 1824 in Øster Hæsinge. Above is a snippet from the church book with his birth and baptism.²

The column with the information about his parents begins as follows:

"Lodger in Østerhæsinge Hans Jørgen Pedersen"

This sacristan recorded the residence before the father's name. Other ministers and sacristans recorded the residence immediately after the father's name, but before the information about the mother.

Most often, each minister or sacristan wrote the information in the same sequence for all births and baptisms. If you are unsure about the text for your ancestor's birth, you might be able to decipher the birth listed just below or above. If you can figure out the order of the information that way, it might help you decipher your ancestor's birth record.

Variation 2: The Father's Occupation

We'll stick with the parish register with Hans Kristian Hansen's birth and baptism a bit longer. All the information in the section about his parents reads as follows:

"Lodger in Østerhæsinge Hans Jørgen Pedersen, Cooper, and Karen Nielsdatter."

The father's occupation as a cooper is written after his name. This is a typical variation, and it can lead to misunderstandings, particularly because nouns were capitalized until 1948. In this case, the comma clarifies that "Cooper" was his profession, but without the comma, it could be interpreted as either his occupation or an unofficial surname. Therefore, it's important to correlate information from the church books with other sources before drawing any conclusions.

Variation 3: Children Born Out of Wedlock

The first two variations are not too difficult to figure out, but the third one can be challenging.

The snippet above is from the parish register of Ubberud Parish and shows the birth and baptism of my great-great-grandmother’s eldest brother, Hans Peter Christian Hansen. He was born out of wedlock on 11 September 1850.

The parents are described in the typical manner for unmarried parents: 

"Unmarried Anne Marie Klausdatter with the father farmer Klaus Madsen Veirup and alleged father of the child Junior Corporal of the 6th Dragoon Regiment Hans Chr. Hansen Østerhæsinge."³

The sequence of the information for parents of a child born out of wedlock is typically as follows:

1. The word "Ugift" (unmarried) or "Fruentimmeret" (a derogatory term for a woman) 
2. The mother's full name
3. The mother's residence, often described by the head of household's occupation, full name, and residence
4. The words "og udlagt Barnefader" (meaning "and alleged father of the child")
5. The alleged father's occupation
6. The alleged father's full name
7. The alleged father's residence

The amount of information in such a small space is somewhat overwhelming, but it's to our advantage. This record provided the name, occupation, and residence of my great-great-grandmother's father – and it's fair to assume that Klaus Madsen was still alive in September 1851. If he had passed away, the record would have said something like "Gmd Klaus Madsens Enke i Veirup" (Farmer Klaus Madsen's widow in Veirup).

Thus, the information about the unwed mother and father is typically switched. Furthermore, another person's name often comes in between. This sequence frequently causes problems when the church books are indexed by a computer or a person who doesn't understand Danish. Often, the indexing shows an incorrect name for the child's father, namely that of the person where the mother resided. Therefore, it's a good idea to omit the father's name when searching indexed records for a child born out of wedlock.

Conclusion

Danish parish registers with births and baptisms provide us with a wealth of information about the child's parents, and the information often follows the same sequence. Variations may occur, especially if the child was born out of wedlock.

Never trust an index – always read the original source yourself! If you remember the typical sequence of the information, it can help you decipher the minister's or sacristan's scrawls.

Footnotes

The image at the top of the page is from my baptism.

1. Odense Vor Frue Parish (Odense City and County), parish register of births and general index 1852-62, sacristan's copy, folio 184 verso to 185 recto, Female Births, 1855: no. 55; image copy, the Danish National Archives, Arkivalieronline (https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=458423#458423,81770426).
2. Øster Hæsinge Parish (Svendborg County), parish register 1813-42, sacristan's copy, page 11, Male Births, 1824: no. 4; image copy, the Danish National Archives, Arkivalieronline (https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=450063#450063,80710838).
3. Ubberud Parish (Odense County), parish register 1847-70, sacristan's copy, page 10, Male Births, 1850: no. 13; image copy, the Danish National Archives, Arkivalieronline (https://arkivalieronline.rigsarkivet.dk/da/billedviser?bsid=458096#458096,81755130).