♂Hans Wollesen

Hans Wollesen (born 24 February 1773) was a farm servant and later a day-labourer at Rørkær, in Hostrup parish near Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig, whose family used two surnames, Wollesen and Frösig, so that his own baptism is entered under the second. He was the fourth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son Anders Hansen (1794–1861).

Early life

Hans was born at Rørkær on 24 February 1773 and baptized in Hostrup church four days later. The German-language register calls him Hans Frösig, the son of Wolle Frösig, an Inste (a cottager without land) at Rørkær, and his wife Kirstin, daughter of Hans. His father appears elsewhere as Wolle Wollesen, “son of Wolle”, and as Wolle Wollesen Frösig: Wollesen was the patronymic, and Frösig a by-name the family carried from his grandfather, who had come to Schleswig from Varde in Jutland. The name Hans had been given before: an elder brother, born in February 1770, died at nine weeks old. The godparents at the 1773 baptism were three men of Rørkær, Christian Godesen, Nis Pedersen and Gunder Peters.

His father died in 1792, and the burial register names Hans among the six children left behind.

Marriage and family

On 26 April 1794 Hans, then an unmarried farm servant at Rørkær, married Karen Andersen in Hostrup church. The marriage entry names his parents as the late cottager Wolle Wollesen and Kirsten Hansen of Rørkær, and hers as the late smallholder Anders and Johanna Peters of a place the register spells Hünnerup. Their son Anders was born at Rørkær on 3 August 1794 and baptized as Anders Wollesen.

The census of 1803, as transcribed, lists the household at Rørkær: Hans Wollesen, aged 33, a lodger and day-laborer who received alms from the parish, his wife Caren Andersen, also 33, and two sons, Andreas, aged 9, and Hans, aged 6. By 1861 the couple were remembered as living at Jejsing, the village next to Rørkær. He died at Jejsing on 4 February 1830, aged 57, and was buried at Hostrup on 10 February. Two of his three children were still living then: Anders Hansen (1794–1861), written Andreas in the register, of Vesterhøjst, and Hans Hansen of Rørkær.

Notes

The census gave his age as 33 in 1803, which would place his birth about 1770; the baptism register shows 1773. Two earlier children had carried the name: a Hans born in 1770 died at nine weeks, and a second, born in April 1771, was buried in April 1772 aged one - the burial calls him Hans and a son, though his baptism entry reads “daughter”. His burial entry of 1830 gives his birth as 24 February 1770 and his age at death as 57; the 1773 baptism date used here would make him 56.