Elise Margrethe Rasmussen 1870-1891

No matter how old we are, there is always More Of US than we think.

Here is a story about my grandmother’s sister Elise Margrethe Rasmussen, who WAS FORCED TO BE MORE OF HERSELF.

ELISE'S CHALLENGE

The writer Joyce Carol Oats said: “Children know nothing factual about their parents or about their own lives. The fact is that by the time you learn about your parents or grandparents you are no longer a child.

So true, and the fact is that I knew hardly anything about my family on my Mother’s side of the family before 1960 when I started to search my ancestors.

I would go to Royal Danish archives in Copenhagen off and on for an hour – beside the government building “Børsen” – where I worked as a bookkeeper in the Ministry of Finance.

Børsen, Copenhagen

I still remember opening those huge church books and how I felt when I saw my grandmother’s and great grandparent’s names for the first time. Right away I felt a connection.

I want to tell a bit about my grandmothers sister Elise Margrethe Rasmussen, because I “think” that my mom Else Margrethe Gunhild Emmely Rasmussen was named after her. Just a theory.

Elise Margrethe was born 16th of May 1870 in Bredeshave, Snesere, Baarse, Proestø, Denmark. She was the 3rd child of 11 children.

This Statue which is standing on just outside Snesere Church yard

 is carved out of a tree.

Her mother – Ane Katrine Jacobsdatter (my great-grandmother) passed away 21 December 1884 when Elise was fourteen years old.

One of Elise’s older siblings: Ane Kirstine Rasmussen had already passed away at the age of three. 1868-1871.

She had another sister which was named the same Ane Kirstine in 1872. It was very common at that time that children died. Parents knew that was a part of LIFE. To lose a child; and many times they had several children after that they gave the same name as the child who had died.

After Elise’s mother passed away it became her task - together with her Father Hans Peter Rasmussen and two older brothers Jacob and Jens Christian - to raise eight younger siblings. The youngest sibling of the eight - the Baby, Kristine Rasmussen. was my grandmother.

My grandmother Kristine Rasmussen (nicknamed Minna)

Elise Margrethe instantly had to become an adult with adult responsibilities. It was common in Denmark – then – and also when I grew up in Denmark – that when a child got confirmed – at the age of 14 that the parents would EXPECT you to be an adult. As a matter of fact, it was a common saying when you were confirmed: “Now that you have been confirmed (in the Lutheran State Church) you “are an adult, and we expect you to behave like an adult”.


I personally refused to be confirmed when I was fourteen, but was still expected to “act like an adult with adult responsibilities when I was fourteen”.

So Elise and her Father Hans Peter Rasmussen was left with: Jacob age 15, Jens Christian, 13 Ane Kirstine age 12, Sidse Marie age 10, Kirsten Sofie age 9,, Anders age seven , Karen age four, Dorthea age three and the 1.5 year old girl - and then my grandmother Kristine age 1.5 - who that later was always nicknamed Minna.

Can you imagine the life she had? No electric washing machine nor dryer. No Electric light. No vacuum cleaner. No TV. No phone. No computer.

One thing she was lucky about though was that my great grandfather Hans Peter Rasmussen was NOT without money. He was a Blacksmith and the wealthiest person in the small town of Snesere. Several young men worked for him as Blacksmith trainees.


Nevertheless – already the next year in 1885 deaths were striking again in the little family. First her sister Kirsten Sofie – died at the age of 10 in March 1885 and then her sister Sidse Marie die at the age of eleven - of tuberculosis - in October 1885.

At such a young age she had experienced deaths and burials of her mother and two siblings. I wonder how she felt having lost her Mother and two siblings within 1.5 year?

I had to dress my daughter Sussie Linda Neumann Johansen, for burial in September 2005 and I was a grown-up person and found it hard to lose a child even though my daughter was 48 when she passed away.

On top of that, Elise’s’ oldest brother Jacob Peder Rasmussen - who did not get along with their Father Hans Peter Rasmussen - together with the younger brother Jens Christian Rasmussen decided to immigrate to Minden, Nebraska, USA. They left on the boat Hekla 1887.

I am sure that was difficult to lose the help of two brothers and now be the oldest child to look after the younger children.

From knowing my grandmother a little – I did not meet her before I was 10 years old - that she looked up to Elise Margrethe and I can see why. Elise was “the only Mom my grandmother ever knew”.

When Elise Margrethe was 21 years old when she got pregnant. She married the father of her child Jens Kristiansen on the 13 November 1891 - a month before she gave birth to a stillborn little girl 18 November 1891. Another death and another burial of her own child.

Elise died three days after she gave birth to her first born on 22 December 1891


Written by Vibeke Lindhardt.