Lisa's Home Page:Information about Anders Jensen
Anders Jensen (d. date unknown)
Notes for Anders Jensen:
The Jensens were from the county of Odense on the island of Funen in Denmark.
An article from a newspaper:
"A loss of identity in Denmark"
Copenhagen (AP) = "What's in a name?" is a good question not to ask in Denmark. The answer is "not much," especially if you're a bill collector, a postmen, or heaven help you, looking for someone named Jensen. Consider these national bursts of nominal originality:
- Half this nation of five million share fourteen family names.
- Sixty percent of Danish names end in "sen."
- There are only 85,000 family names in the whole country.
The Copenhagen telephone book is of enormous help. Let's say you wanted to look up a Jensen, Hansen or Nielsen. There are 32,000 of each. It's a national problem the government has been trying to solve since the late 19th century, when there were 9,000 family names for 2.5 million Danes. Problems arise. The mailman in a small Jutland village could not possibly know which of the five Carl Petersens the sender meant. So the postmaster forced the villagers to name the streets and assign house numbers for the first time. It's also led to some inventive titles that have followed their bearers to the graves. Tombstones mark the final resting place of "Mr. Managing Director Jensen," lest he be confused with "Mr. Unskilled Worker Jensen." But the computer has got their number - if not their names -straight. All Danes now have a personal registration number, without which one cannot open a bank account or see a doctor. The irony of all this is that the Danes became the Jensens, Nielsens more or less by mistake.Originally, they had a rich tradition of individualized Viking surnames, many unfit for translation. But for those with only a smattering of Anglo-Saxon, meet Harold Bluetooth, Magnus Wagarse and good old Ragnvald Longtwadddle. But the Danes were slower than other Europeans in establishing regular family names and took to convenient patronymics, making the son of Jens an Jensen, and the Neil kid a Neilsen. The the bureaucrats took over to bring administrative order to a growing mess of surnames that everybody was inventing. A royal baptismal ordinance in 1828 made it compulsory for all children to be given a lasting family name. Trouble was, most rural vicars got that all wrong. They insisted on patronymics - the "sens" - although any name was eligible. Nobody cared much, however, since the unofficial name - the inventive one - was still what counted in the villages. In 1856, a government decree said all family names given since 1823 must be lasting for all future generations. Suddenly, tens of thousands of Danes were stuck with what they had considered inconsequential patronymics. The Danes had becme Jensens and Nielsens for good.
Gordon Alboege of the Name Research Institute of the University of Copenhagen is lobbying for a name - law reform that would allow Danes to take any name adready borne by more than 100 living Danes or the name of any Danish place. But he's doubtful it would do much good.
"The enormousness of the project rules out an investigation intowhy so few Danes use the opportunities to individualize their names," Alboege said, "My own suspician is that many would like to but fear that friends and relatives would call them snobs."
But Georg Soendergaard, a University of Odense lecturer and a Danish name expert, is not expecting much change. In fact, he says, based on his computer analysis, things will get worse. Soendergard's computer says there are now 270,000 Jensens, 350,000 Hansens, 200,000 Pedersens and Andersens. Toss in Christensens, Larsens, Soerensens, Petersens, Rasmussens, Joergensens, Madsens, Olsens and Kirstensens, and there's half the population. But why worry? The prime minister is a plain Joergensen and in a 20 member cabinet he has two Hansens and two Jensens, along with an Andersen, an Olsen, a Christiansen, a Jacobsen, a Matthiasen, and a Heinsen.
More About Anders Jensen and Laurine Larsen:
Marriage: October 04, 1851, Gamtofte, Denmark.
Children of Anders Jensen and Laurine Larsen are:
- Jens Lars Andersen, b. November 09, 1851, Gamtofte, Denmark, d. date unknown.
- +Jensine Jensen, b. September 01, 1860, Kaerum, Denmark, d. December 23, 1938, Allegan, MI.
- +Bendt Jensen, b. May 29, 1863, Kaerum, Denmark, d. January 26, 1921, Grand Rapids, MI.