Danish Immigration and Emigration

Hey everyone! How’s it going this week? Is everyone getting ready for your kids going back to school? I know I am! I know everyone who reads this post doesn’t have kids at home, however; we all have transitions seasons of our lives that we experience. That’s why I wanted to talk with you about Danish immigration because that was a major transition for our ancestors! Therefore, at this transition from summer to fall or from summer to school we might be able to relate to our ancestors and their transition.

Immigration

Danish immigration began in 1619 to America, however; there were very low numbers until after 1850. Then immigration to America peaked in the 1880s. Immigration records didn’t start until 1869. And at the Family History Library, they have the entire Danish passenger lists scanned and digitized on familysearch.org. So if you’re searching for your Danish immigrants, then I would start there first. Then move on to the other Danish websites.

Most immigrants to America arrived in the New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Quebec, and Montreal ports. The familysearch.org website has copies of these records for most of these ports. Again start with familysearch.org for all American immigration records, then work your way out with other websites.

Emigration

So once you’ve exhausted familysearch.org, then you can jump over to The Digital Danish Emigration Archives and go to the Emigration Protocols section of the homepage. Here is where you can research the emigration records from Denmark. Most people did leave from Copenhagen because it was the capital and it was a large city with a major port hub. Therefore, it was logical that people went there to emigrate. This website is really fun to use because it gets into more information about their lives in Denmark. It’s also a great stepping stone to finding their church records and census records in Denmark. This is my go-to website other than familysearch.org for Danish immigration and emigration records.

Here is an example of what it will look like when you find your ancestor on this website. It will be in Danish at first, but you can change it to English as I have done here.

Just remember to take your time and make sure that the record you found that matches your ancestor’s name really is that ancestor. There are many immigration records that have the same name, but are different people. Hang in there and you will find your immigrant ancestors. They are out there and one day or one moment you will find them.

In the meantime…good luck and happy hunting

Tiffany

P.S. Have you signed up for my Wednesday Wisdom email? New subscribers get a free download of all of the American and Scandinavian websites that I use in my business. Also, all subscribers will get a sneak peak at my new online course about Norwegian genealogy when it’s ready. Enjoy!