Peder Kristensen and Ane Johanne Sorensen – Lars Thomsen’s Grandparents
Peder Kristensen was born in Mesing, just west of Adslev,
on April 1, 1807. Ane Johanne Sorensen was born on July 30,
1811, in Jeksen, Denmark, at the farm called Melballe. She was the oldest of Soren
Rasmussen’s nine children.
Maren Pedersdatter (Lars Thomsen’s mother) was Peder and
Ane’s first child who was born on December 16, 1830. It was
customary at this time in Denmark that when a couple wished
to be engaged, it was officially recorded with the parish.
Ane was officially engaged in 1832 to Peder Kristensen. The
parish records report that Ane’s parents were opposed to the
engagement, so their marriage was stalled. Finally, Ane and
Peder were married on January 18, 1834, in the Adslev parish
church. This was just four months before the birth of their
second child and three years after the birth of their first
child. Soren Pedersen was born on May 7, 1834. From 1830 to
1853, Ane gave birth to fourteen children.
After getting married in 1834, the young couple moved to
Horn near Silkeborg. After three years, they returned to
Jeksen in the summer of 1837. Perhaps by now, Peder’s
relationship with Ane’s parents had healed. Peder became
responsible for a small farm in Jeksen. He later purchased a
larger farm in Jeksen. Their last child, Johannes Pedersen,
was born on May 24, 1853, in Jeksen. Two months later, Ane
died on July 19, 1853, at the age of forty-one in Jeksen.
Death may have been caused from complications from child
birth.
In November 1853, just four months after Ane’s death, Peder
married Ane Kirstine Hansen. They had four children from
1854 to 1859. Peder sired eighteen children over twenty-nine
years. In 1857, he and Ane Kirstine moved to Skanderborg
where he was a butcher. In 1859, he purchased a small home
that included a small acreage.
Peder was known for his happy personality, as a jolly
worker, sharing frequent jokes, as a singer, as a dancer who
liked lively music, as always positive, and as wise and
intelligent. When a poor neighbor needed help, he remembered
the first and second commandments, to love God and to love
one another. He provided services with little pay, often
taking only a square of cheese, allowing poor farmers to pay
him when they could. Neighbors called on him to look after a
sick horse or cow; his cure was normally a shot of
turpentine into both ends. He was devoted to drinking snaps
and frequently became intoxicated, providing remarkable
tales that were entertaining. In his old age, he moved back
to Jeksen where he died on January 25, 1878, at the age of
seventy.
Source:
Adslev-Slaegten Book 1981 and 1926
Translated by Richard W. Thomsen
Melballegaard (a farm called Melballe) is located in Jeksen and was where Ane Johanne was born.
Adslev and Jeksen lie southwest of Aarhus, Denmark and are located at the bottom left section of this map. Christian Peter Thomsen marked these locations with red “X’s”. In Adslev, the family organization (Adslev-Slaegten Organization) maintains a park that contains a monument located at the former site of the home of Peder Jensen (1766 to 1850) and Margrethe Rasmusdatters (1768 to 1856). The church and church yard in Adslev are where many of the family members were baptized, married, and buried. Jeksen is a beautiful valley located south of Adslev.