Ancestry

The older I become, the more I enjoy hearing about family history.

So, when I was handed a handwritten account named the 'Autobiography of Jorgen Andersen Raun, I was anxious to read it.

Jorgen was Ellen's grandfather living in Denmark who, in 1823, married Kjesten. The next year, they welcomed daughter Marie into the family.

One year later, twin daughters were born and in the next month their mother died. She was 26 years, 5 months. Nine weeks later, one of the twins died. The next year, the second twin died. She was 1 year, 12 days.

Jorgen married another Kjesten that year. Twin sons appeared one year later and sadly their mother died in 'her confinement bed'. Her age was 33 years, 8 days. 15 day old Anders died followed by his brother the next year. His age: 1 year, 3 months, 10 days.

In 1827, Jorgen married Ellen Marie. A small son was born later that year.  Ellen Marie died the next year and was 'taken to her resting place on November 22nd'.

Elsebet became Jorgen's wife in 1829. A daughter was born in 1830 only to die in January of 1831. Krestina's age was 9 months, 10 days.

In October of 1831, another daughter was born, named Ellen Marie. She died in 1832.

In 1833, Ellen's father, Hans Raun was born. A new daughter joined the family in 1835 only to die 10 months later on May 30, 1836.

Three more children were born in the next 5 years. They survived infancy and childhood. (One brother died when the boat he was on, bound for America, sunk in the harbor. His suitcase, floating amongst other debris, was retrieved and Ellen remembers her dad telling about a carved animal figurine, retrieved from the suitcase, that became a keepsake of the family's.)

What tragic events - losing 3 wives and seven children in 12 years! I cannot even begin to comprehend personal loss of this magnitude. 

We romanticize the 'olden' days, perhaps dreaming of simpler times. No cell phones or traffic jams or or random drive-by shootings. 

We forget, though, about the hard work; so hard that life expectancy was little more than half of what we experience in our pampered lifetime. 

Famine, scarlet fever, diphtheria, high childbirth mortality, crop failure, poverty with no safety-net government programs, few woman's rights, the list of hardships is long. This was Jorgen's reality.

Hans, Ellen's dad, came to America as a young boy and was married at the age of 15. His wife died giving birth to their third child. Ellen's mom, Amelia,  was hired on as a housekeeper and eventually  married Hans. He and Amelia went on to have 9 more children. Ellen is the last living child of their union.