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Preface

I have always been interested in my Danish ancestry but had not really spent much effort in research. Having been raised in a Danish-American community I was very aware of being Danish. The H. C. Anderson farm where I grew up was about 15 miles west of Racine. When we went on a shopping trip to Racine it was West Racine where we shopped. West Racine was nick named "Daneville" and had the highest percentage of Danish-Americans of any town in the United States. It had Danish bakeries, Danish meat markets, and stores that specialized in Danish goods. All but a couple Danish bakeries have long since gone out of business but West Racine still has a significant Danish influence. When I was young my grandparents spoke only Danish and my parents would speak Danish when they didn't want my sister and me to know what they were saying. My family has always felt very Danish and when I was dating my to-be husband my mother once said; "Evan is a nice boy but I wish he was the same race."

Both my Anderson and Nelson grandparents immigrated in the late 1800's.My Aunt Clara Anderson was a single nurse in Chicago who had invested well and made several trips to Denmark between the 1960's and her last trip in 1995 when she celebrated her 90th birthday in Denmark. My sister Avis and her husband and my husband and I went with her on that trip. Avis and Dwaine had been there once before and Evan and I have been there four times. Getting to know my 2nd and 3rd Anderson cousins has been a wonderful experience. We correspond frequently and several of my cousins have also visited us in Texas and Wisconsin.

In March of 2006 my sister Avis received an email from Kevin Kittilson, a distant cousin, indicating that he had been in touch with Pia Viscor in Demark regarding our families immigration to America. Pia is a writer and was in the process of writing a book about people that had worked on the Skjoldenæsholm estate (Figure 1) in Denmark and then immigrated to America. Avis forwarded the email to me and I have since corresponded frequently with Pia. Over a hundred years back most land in Europe was owned by a few rich people and most everyone had to work for them as tenant farmers or day laborers. By coincidence, ancestors from both my father and mothers side worked on the Skjoldenæsholm estate and immigrated to Wisconsin. I gave Pia information and pictures for her book and she gave me information about my family. That correspondence revived my interest in my family's genealogy and I have documented the information I have to-date in this booklet.

Note, the "sen" (son in Danish) name ending was changed to "son" by immigration for most Scandinavian immigrants. Therefore, you may see "sen" for pre-immigration references and "son" for post-immigration references. Also, "Nielsen" was change to "Nelson" for most immigrants.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has provided me information. Most of the pre-immigration dates were provided by Pia Viscor and Kevin Kittilson and the post-immigration dates are from information I had and from other descendants. I hope they are all correct but it is possible that some are not correct. Please let me know if you discover that corrections are needed.

Carol Cottrell, 412 Bremen Dr., Hurst, TX 76054, 817-788-2545