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By Ulla Hadar
 KIBBUTZ RUHAMA, Israel—More than a decade ago I was introduced by Sybil and Tom Hodge, z"l, of Bristol, England—the parents of my very good friend Deborah Manor— to the fascinating field of genealogy. They had together researched their English family roots and shared the experience with me. Getting hooked on the subject, on my visits to my parents in Denmark I started to do my own research of family roots.
I was born in 1958, a Christian Dane, and came to Israel in 1982 as a volunteer. I married Rafi in Denmark in a civil ceremony because of our different religions, and then immigrated to Israel in the summer of 1984. I started lessons in Judaism in 1986, through a Reform congregation, and converted in the Spring of 1987, going through the mikvah as part of the ceremony. As an Israeli and a Jew I am interested in many aspects of this culture. At the same time, I am interested in learning more about my own Danish Christian roots.
In Denmark, the main registration is through the church books - birth, confirmation, marriage and death. Each small town, village or city has a local church situated in the area, and this church maintains records on the vital statistics of life. It is possible to find church books in some areas all the way back to the 16th century.
Even as Jewish names in the far distant past were different than they are today--with people being known as so-and-so, son or daughter of their parents (for example, Isaac ben Avraham)— so too are ancient Danish names a challenge for genealogical researchers.
If a father was named Niels Jensen, he would give his son a first name but the surname would be Nielsen (the son of Niels, not Jensen) and his daughter would get Nielsdatter (the daughter of Niels) as a surname. The father himself was a son of Jens because his surname is Jensen.
Over the years and changing of generations, the surnames would continue to alternate. In the late 1800s this method was eliminated and the surnames of the families did not change any more. Whoever was a Nielsen, Jensen or Andersen would give this Surname to their children.
There are several archives located in Denmark. The archives are public, but to protect living individuals' privacy, records do not become available until those records are at least 80 years old.
Most of my family has for centuries been concentrated in the area of middle and northeastern Jutland, so I focused my research in the archives of the city of Viborg. Good sources of information are the censuses that Denmark conducts every 10 years. The census-takers would count and register the people according to their living quarters and members of household. In these archives you can usually find some details on the breadwinner's trade, the name of the street on which the family lived, where they were born, their ages and more.
When my genealogical quest started it was like looking into a big black hole not knowing where to begin or end. Most of the time I felt very pressured. In the 1990's one had to sit physically at the archives in order to do research, so I could only do my work on visits from Israel to see my parents. This left me with little time this job, mostly because the purpose of my visits was to be together with my family.
To get into the archives people used to line up early in the morning, together with the large number of other genealogy enthusiasts, in order to claim one of the limited number of seats at the archives. Once claiming a seat, you are allowed to stay there all day, but in the event of no seat--no information. Typically, no one leaves the archives before closing time.
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After several years of visiting the archives, I reached dead ends on multiple lines of my family and my research halted. It stayed dormant for some years.
Lately I started to prepare a photo book for my mother who will celebrate her 80th birthday in November. This brought me back to my family tree, which I intend to place at the beginning of the book.
Going over different notes from years back, a thought came to my mind: "It can not do any harm to check if something has changed on the Danish archives website."
To my big surprise data storage has entered the archives and I was now able to get into the scanned and stored church books and censuses from my small portable computer in my home in Israel.
I was more than thrilled, all my excitement concerning genealogy research returned to me.
To enter the data base, you receive a free password enabling you to go through photocopied recordes of years, villages, births, marriages and whatever information you may be looking for. Some of the registrations are most difficult to read because of time, the ink has faded and some of the writings are not the nicest and easiest to read. The Gothic writing does not make it easier. But soon you get the hang of it and get familiar with the different terminology.
In the last few weeks I have made immense progress on my family tree and I am actually very proud of myself. My immediate family thinks that I have completely lost "it." What can be so exciting to find the name of a far away relative long gone from this world?
I do not know how to explain this, maybe you might need some kind of love for history. Some kind of curiosity to know more about what happened before you entered this world. Longing to know the roots of your family.
When I go through the church book of a small village where
some of my ancestors have been living for years and years, the local daily life plays in front of my eyes. You become cognizant of the names of the different families, how many children were born, the large infant mortality that existed in those years, who the survivors married and what their occupations were.
Most of the families, mainly those connected to farming, stayed on for generations in their local communities.
One has to look out for disinformation given by parents and grandparents, perhaps because they forgot or were told something not correct. You end up becoming a true Sherlock Holmes, to find exactly what you are looking for.
I can kick myself for not asking my grandparents and even my parents for more details. Where did they used to live? How many sisters and brothers did they have? What were the occupations of their parents? How were the times they grew up in? Where did they go to school, if at all? Etc.
As a child you don’t pay attention to these details and once in search of them, it usually is too late to ask the questions.
I have decided to do my best to construct the family tree for my future generations in as complete a way as possible. I shall attempt to write a small story about each nuclear family, for the next generations to learn and not forget.
My advice to everyone younger than me is: Ask the questions when the people who can answer them are still around. It might not seem important at the moment, but you will treasure it later on in life. To those of us a little bit older, write the stories of your life and save them in your house for your children and grandchildren.
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