Need a hand?

[Skjaldemjøden]

You can hit a lot of walls in your paper trail research. Why not ask forum members for help? Feel welcome to do so here.

I'll happily try to help anyone researching Danish ancestry. :smilie_flagge14: I read Gothic handwriting and would be more than happy to translate for you or show you around the available sources. I can also help with research of Ashkenazi ancestry, although it's slightly more tricky.

[Smitty]

Great idea for a thread, Skjaldemjoden. I have ancestors from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, who were said to be Danish (surname Nissen). Any idea how far I'd have to go back in Germany before I got to Denmark? Or have there always been ethnic Danes in that area?

[Skjaldemjøden]

There have pretty much always been ethnic Danes in the area, but a couple of large population exchanges occurred over the past two centuries with the border moving.
You'll find the transcribed Danish census data for Schleswig-Holstein here: http://www.ddd.dda.dk/soeg_person.asp The site is also available in English, but the results are in Danish or German. Go to Advanced Search - place suggestion and select 'Sydslesvig' or 'Holsten' under county. You can leave the other fields blank. The records date between 1769 and 1860, but not all censuses included the area. The original microfilm for 1835, 1840, 1855 and 1860 is accessible here (ctrl+f Slesvig): https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/da/rif/rif-collection/7
The church records are kept in Germany http://www.archivnordkirche.de/index.php

[Smitty]

There have pretty much always been ethnic Danes in the area, but a couple of large population exchanges occurred over the past two centuries with the border moving.
You'll find the transcribed Danish census data for Schleswig-Holstein here: http://www.ddd.dda.dk/soeg_person.asp The site is also available in English, but the results are in Danish or German. Go to Advanced Search - place suggestion and select 'Sydslesvig' or 'Holsten' under county. You can leave the other fields blank. The records date between 1769 and 1860, but not all censuses included the area. The original microfilm for 1835, 1840, 1855 and 1860 is accessible here (ctrl+f Slesvig): https://www.sa.dk/ao-soegesider/da/rif/rif-collection/7
The church records are kept in Germany http://www.archivnordkirche.de/index.php

Hey, that's really awesome. I'll definitely be checking out those links. Thanks, man.

[Skjaldemjøden]

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