Friday, July 15, 2011

Hazel Isabel Jensen 1908-1994


My grandmother, Hazel Jensen was born July 25, 1908, the youngest of eight children born to Martin Jensen and Laura Frances Toombs.  She was born in Sinnott township, Marshall County, Minnesota.  This is in the upper northwest corner of Minnesota.  Her father homestead here and she was raised here.  She attended school in Stephen and went onto Teacher's College in Bemidji.  There are not a lot of pictues of Hazel when she was young, as there was a fire in her home and most of the pictures were lost.  What we do have is all the more precious because of it.  I'm not sure if the car pictured is a Model T or a Model A Ford.  The Model T was last produced in 1927 and the Model A started production in 1928.  I'm thinking it's a Model T because of the front grill.  This is the same car with her father Martin Jensen.
Martin Jensen was one of seven children born to Neils Jensen and Maren Sorensdatter in Vrensted, Denmark on 26 Apr 1868.  All but Martin and his older brother Soren died before they emigrated to the United States in 1874, when Martin was 6 years old.  The Danish, and probably other Scandinavian familes had the tradition of no last names, as we know them.  Rather they took on the title of their father's son or daughter.  So Martin's father, Neils, was Jen's sen(son) and his mother Maren, was Soren's datter (daughter).  Going back another generation Neils father's name was Jens Neilsen and his mother was Kjersten Thomsdatter.  Once I became aware of this, it was easier to follow the family lines back in Denmark.  Again because Jens Neilsen (Martin's grandfather) had a sister (or  great aunt to Martin) named Bodil Marie Jensdatter.  Easy when its written down on paper!

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