Copenhagen Police Records of Emigrants
You’ve reached a brickwall in your Danish research, because
the names are so similar. This is where genealogy becomes hard. What were our ancestors thinking? Sarcasm: Did our Denmark ancestors have
only a limited pool of names to choose from?
How can you determine which “Cathrine [aka Catharina] Nielsen”
is yours? You have an approximate birthdate, and maybe even a place of origin or immigration date from various sources
- census records, death record, children’s death records, etc. But, there are too many Cathrine Nielsen
options on the shipping manifests. What
to do next?
Have you tried the Copenhagen
Police Records of Emigrants?
What are Copenhagen
Police Records of Emigrants?
The Copenhagen Chief of Police approved and monitored all
emigration agents in Denmark and authorized all overseas tickets for Denmark passengers
traveling directly from Copenhagen to the United States or indirectly via
another European harbor for destinations overseas. These records are stored in the
Dansk Data Arkiv.
Emigration lists were compiled by the Copenhagen Police from
1869 to 1940. The lists resulted in 394,000 emigrants being recorded and give
the name, last residence, age, year of emigration and first destination of the
emigrant from Denmark during those years. So gather all the information you can
from the USA records, and now it’s time to be patient and begin collaborating data.
Step 1 Denmark,
Emigration Index
Begin with Ancestry.com: Denmark, Emigration Index,
1868-1908. This third party database abstracts data from the Dansk Demografisk
Database . You can find this information also in Dutch on the Data Arkiv
Emigration Database
Name:
|
Nielsen, Cathrine
|
Occupation:
|
Jomfru
|
Age:
|
30
|
Destination:
|
N.Y.
|
Contract no.:
|
173900
|
Registration date:
|
17-07-1889
|
Birth place:
|
?
|
Birth place:
|
?
|
Last res. parish:
|
København
|
Last res. county:
|
København
|
Last residence:
|
Kjbhnv.
|
Destination country:
|
USA
|
Destination city:
|
New York City
|
Destination state:
|
New York State
|
Name of ship:
|
Thingvalla
|
||
IDcode:
|
D8789N4401
|
Tips: Check parish
information, occupation, age above. Our
example only mentions occupation as Jomfru (“virgin/single woman”), but it does
provide us with her age allowing us to estimate her year of birth, and last resident.
Often researchers will find a birth place that will lead us to easily verifying
the correct person.
It is possible you don’t have the birth place, but you may
have verified a residence in the US records. Either way, the next step is to find out ship
information.
Step 2 Ship Research
Each traveler recorded has the name of the ship. You will
want to extract all possible ship records. This Catherine Nielsen travelled 17
Jul 1889 on the Thingvalla, Norway Heritage Ship Lines. This ship most often began voyage from
Copenhagen. Ship information can be found on the Norway
Heritage website.
Step 3 Contract
Number and Ledger
With a list of ancestors that meet your qualifications, it’s
time to work. I gathered 4 Cathrine
Nielsen’s that were possible candidates. Again, in this case, I needed two
research questions answered. My
abbreviated research questions were 1) Who were the relatives of my Cathrine Nielsen? 2) From which parish can
I find more information for my Cathrine Nielsen.
The key to confirming my Cathrine Nielsen was via
identifying her travelling companions.
Who travelled with her helped identify her USA family group and
determine their first point of entry. The Danish parish allowed me to narrow
additional archives available for research.
So you will want to take special note of the Contract Number specified on the Denmark,
Emigration Index, 1868-1908. Often it leads you to the birth place or at least
the last parish/residence. Plus, the Contract Number and the ID Code will lead the clerk at
the Police Archives to the original copies.
Contract no.:
|
173900
|
Researchers can contact the Dansk Data Arkiv and request an
original copy of the ledger: Write to: emiarch@emiarch.dk
More Information:
Dansk Demografisk Database
For more information, visit Using
the Danish Demographic Database for an overview (in English) of other
databases that may assist you with your Danish research.
Kathleen Brandt
Accurate, accessible answers
