Who was MINNA?

My grandmother Kristine Rasmussen who always herself for Minna

My grandmother Kristine Rasmussen always called herself for MINNA. After 60 years of search I have finally found out where the name Minna came from.

My grandmothers birth record:

Nobody in the family ever really knew why she called herself Minna.

When I finally met my grandmother – at the age of 10 – I was told that I would be visiting my “Mormor Minna” = “Grandmother Minna”

I actually never really knew her real birth name before I started doing genealogy in the Copenhagen archives in 1960.

Mind you, in 2005 a researcher “Jørgen Green” tried to wake me up the fact, but I was not paying enough attention and it has taken me another 15 years to totally get it. Jørgen Green is totally convinced that my grandmother named herself “Minna” after the wife and daughter in this family.

Jørgen Green also is wondering “if Shoemaker Sørensen” was my grandfather????

= When my grandmother Kristine (Minna) was young she moved from Snesere, Præstø county to Copenhagen as a maid and cook etc. = “Pige I Huset”= “Girl in the house” as it was called in Denmark at that time, which meant you would be doing several things like cooking, cleaning, babysitting etc.

At one time Kristine (sometimes it is spelled Christine) served with a family called “Sørensen” – see GQ8J-R93 in familyserach.org =Arthur Sørensen born 1861.  My grandmother Kristine is K2HQ-8P in familyesearch.org

Arhur Sørensen’s wife was called Minna Sofie – born 1863 and they had a daughter called “Minna Marie” born 1899.

A still unsolved mystery = WHO WAS MY GRANDFATHER?

A total unsolved question that I have tried to find out for 60 years.  No luck so far.

Nevertheless, it was the Sørensen’s who helped Minna when she was pregnant with my mother Else Margrethe Gunhild Emmely Rasmussen and it is interesting that my mothers first name is Else, since the youngest daughter in the “Sørensen family” was named Else ( see census records for 1906 and 1911 – Vesterbrogade 70, 3^rd floor, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Sørensen’s also helped My grandmother Kristine when my mother Else Margrethe Gunhild Emmely Rasmussen was in the hospital as a small child.

As Jørgen Green said: Maybe my grandfather was a Sørensen?

Vibeke Lindhardt

2 February 2020

Vibekesonja.blogspot.com