Odense County Office has left a record series called militssager (militia cases) 1808-1831. It contains various documents, including correspondence about a soldier, who moved to another military levying area without reporting it to the authorities. Below is the letter from his captain to the county office.
- P. M. [pro memoriam]
- Jens Madsen Jylland, serving with H.M. [His Majesty] the King’s Regiment’s 3rd battalion, 2nd company listed in the [military levying] roll under [Vor] Frue Parish 18th military levying area serving at [the farm] Gillestedgaard: has without report left the district and is said to have gone to the area of Hindsgaul.
- Since the beforementioned [man] now has to immediately turn up for service with the company and the company does not have serving petty officers [available] to search for him, I take the liberty of requesting your Serene Highness to give orders to the parish bailiff for Hindgaul that he shall give notice to said Jens Madsen Jylland about reporting here with me in Vester Gade 280 [address] as soon as possible. Likewise, that the parish bailiff shall be obliged to request the documentation required by law from the people who arrive in the parish.
- Odense, on 15 May 1809.1
As a curiosity, the letter suggests that the captain was not familiar with Hindsgavl, because he asked the amtmand to contact the parish bailiff for Hindsgavl and Hindgavl was not a parish, but an area with several parishes.
If you lost track of a soldier, or you simply want to find all there is to find about him, then record series with miscellaneous letters can be worth researching. Also, remember that there is likely to be more relevant documents in the collection of the recipient of the letter from the county office.
Footnotes
- Leth, to Koefoed, pro memoriam letter, 15 May 1809, about Jens Madsen Jylland; filed in box F-18: 1808-1831 Militssager, collection AB004: Odense Amt; The Danish National Archives, Odense, Denmark. The image at the top of the blog post shows the back-side of the letter with the title, name and place of the addressee and the sender's seal.
