♂Anders Jespersen

Anders Jespersen (dates unknown) lived at Rørkær, a hamlet in the parish of Hostrup near Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig^W, and is known only as the father named in the burial entries of two of his children. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son Jacob Andersen (1712–1775).

Family

He married Anna Jespersen, who appears in her children’s records under her married name, Anna Andersen. Their daughter Trincke Andersen was born about 1701 and their son Jacob Andersen about November 1712, so the couple were raising children for at least eleven years. Both children ended their lives in the nearby parish of Højst. Jacob became a Bohlbesitzer, the holder of a bol farm, at Vesterhøjst, and died there on 13 May 1775, aged 62 and a half. Trincke married Sören Hansen, a quarter-Hufner (the holder of a quarter farm) at Østerhøjst, and was buried at Højst on 3 February 1782 as his widow, aged nearly 81.

The two burial entries, written in German, agree on the parents: Jacob’s in 1775 names his father as Anders Jespersen and his mother as Anna Andersen of Rørkær, and Trincke’s in 1782 names the same couple of the same place, adding that the mother was born Jespersen. Both speak of the parents in the past tense (“ist gewesen”, “was”), which suggests they had died by 1775. Nothing else is known of Anders: the dates of his birth, marriage and death and the names of his parents are all unknown.

Notes

• The register writes the place “Rohkarr”; it is Rørkær, in Hostrup parish.
• The surname Andersen that both children carry in later accounts is a patronymic formed from their father’s given name. The 1782 entry writes the daughter as Trincke Sörens: in this register a married woman or widow is named with her husband’s given name, here Sören Hansen’s, not her father’s.
• The children’s dates come from their ages at burial: 62 and a half in May 1775 for Jacob, and just under 81 in February 1782 for Trincke.