♂Thomas Hinrich Thomsen

Thomas Hinrich Thomsen (about 1791 – 13 November 1850) was a farmer (Hufner) from Angeln in the Duchy of Schleswig who settled at Lundsgaard in Højst parish, North Schleswig, where two of his sons married two sisters of the Hansen family of Vesterhøjst. He was the third great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son Peter Nicolai Thomsen.

Early life and marriage

The census of 1845, in a published transcription, gives his birthplace as the parish of Süderbrarup in the district of Schleswig and his age as 54, which places his birth about 1791; the same transcription writes his middle name as “Hansen”, where both of his sons’ marriage entries give “Hinrich”. The Danish census of 1803 lists him in Süderbrarup, aged twelve, in his parents’ household in the Lindau parcel district, where his father is entered as a Parcelist, and gives his name as “Thomas Hinr. Thomsen”. His wife, Anna Christina Nissen, was born about 1794 at Brodersby, a few miles away. No record of their marriage has yet been found; it is not in the Højst register for 1810 to 1814, and it was probably held in her home parish about 1813.

Their eldest son, Claus Peter, was born at Brodersby about 1814. The children born from about 1818 on are recorded as born at Norderfahrenstedt, a village in Fahrenstedt parish in Angeln (now part of Böklund). Their son Peter Nicolai, born about 1816, was vaccinated in the town of Schleswig in June 1817, which fits a family still living in Angeln. None of the children appears in the Højst baptism registers for 1816 to 1818.

Lundsgaard

By 1840 the family was at Lundsgaard in Højst parish, near Løgumkloster. The 1845 census lists Thomas Hinrich there as a Hufner, with his wife and five children at home: Claus Peter, Margretha Dorothea, Peter Hinrich, Maria Christina and Jörgen Hinrich. A daughter, Cathrine Magrethe, born about 1821, and Peter Nicolai had left home by then.

Peter Nicolai married Anna Magdalena Hansen of Vesterhøjst at Højst on 2 December 1842. On 11 July 1845 his younger brother Peter Hinrich married her sister Ingeborg Hansen in the same church. The children of the two couples were therefore double first cousins. Both marriage entries name Thomas Hinrich Thomsen and his wife as the grooms’ parents, “auf Lundsgaarde”.

Death and parents

Thomas Hinrich Thomsen died on 13 November 1850 and was buried on 21 November. The Højst burial register gives his age as 59 years, 7 months and 18 days, which places his birth about 26 March 1791, and calls him a son of the late “Parcelist” Peter Thomsen and his wife Metta Catharina, born Friis, of Süderbrarup in Angeln. A Parcelist held a parcel of land split off from a larger farm. Süderbrarup agrees with the birthplace given for him in the 1845 census.

The entry also names his wife, Anna Christina, born Nissen, “from Nørre Fahrenstedt in Angeln”, the village where the younger children were born. It records that they had seven children, of whom six were living in 1850: Claus Peter, at Lundsgaarde; Peter Nicolai; Margretha Dorothea, married to Lorenz Jacobsen; Peter Hinrich, at Sønder-Lygum; Maria Christina, married to Nicolai Nicolaisen; and Jørgen Hinrich, at Lygumkloster. Anna was his widow, and the 1860 census index lists her as one at Højst. The entry does not name Cathrine Magrethe, the daughter born about 1821 who appears in the 1845 census household, and the records do not say what became of her.

Notes

A widower named Nicolai Thomsen was already living at Lundsgaarde in 1812, when he remarried at Højst. The burial register names Thomas Hinrich’s father as Peter, and no link between Nicolai and the family has been shown. The Højst baptism register for 1791 and 1792 does not record Thomas Hinrich’s birth, which fits a birth in Süderbrarup; his baptism there has not been found.