Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Emil Norgaard and Alfred Nelson's mother, Denmark, date unknown

This is Emil Norgaard's mother. After a long time researching, we finally found her name thanks to FamilySearch.org. She is Mary Jenson from Denmark. Her husband is Jen Nelson from Denmark. This is all we know about them.


We do know some about her son's Emil and Alfred, both also from Denmark. Here it is: 

Emil immigrated to the USA in 1907 from Denmark. His father's and mother's place of birth is Denmark. The ship name Emil arrived on was called the Carmania. The ship departed Liverpool on 4/9/1907 and arrived in New York on 4/18/1907. He was age 26 and listed as a farmer laborer. Danish is listed as his nationality and race is listed as Scandinavian. His destination was listed as Albert Lea, MN to join his brother Alfred Nielson in Geneva, Freeborn County, MN.

This information comes up when searching on ancestry.com: 
Data from DDD Emigration Database
Name: Emil Nørgaard
Birth Year: abt 1881
Age: 26
Birth Place: Taars
Registration Date: 27 Mar 1907
Residence Year: 1907
Residence Place: Vrejlev, Hjørring
Destination Place: Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA
Occupation: Arbejder
Ship: Indirekte

 Some family oral history regarding them. Emil and Alfred both lived in Blooming Prairie later in life/time of death. They told people they came over together on the same ship, but we now know this is not true- so perhaps other brothers came over with them that we aren't aware of? Or perhaps they just meant the same ship, but at different times? Emil said he changed his last name when he came over because everyone was saying their last name was Nelson and no one said Norgaard. However, given records, we also question this. Alfred has a different last name from Emil, so it would be possible (the reason we question it is because of the DDD Emigration Database- why would his name be listed over there as Norgaard, but not change when at the USA despite that being the family story)- anyways, Alfred's last name is listed as Nielsen per immigration record of Emil. 


What we know of Alfred Nelson:

We recently tracked down an obit about Alfred thanks for FamilySearch.org. Alfred's nickname was "Happy". We know he immigrated in 1904 from Denmark. He was not married per Norgaard family oral history. He committed suicide in 1935 in the West Hotel in Blooming Prairie. He had been in a car accident in February 1935, resulting in head trauma and other issues (this likely contributing to his death).
We have not been able to track down much more than that at this point.

To read more of his story:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=n&GSiman=1&GScid=2191047&GRid=157140489&





We are hoping that as we continue our search, we can find out more about their relatives, specifically Jen and Mary Nelson of Denmark. We know he settled in Albert Lea prior to Blooming Prairie, despite his obit stating Blooming Prairie was the only place he settled.












For more of our unknown Danish relatives, visit the page dedicated to them:
http://loststoriesandphotos.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html

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