In this seventh and final full episode of Season Ten, host Andrew Martin meets Danish professional genealogist, Lene D. Kottal. He hears about how she got hooked on family history, why she turned professional, and how skills in researching patronymics are needed in Denmark.

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Life Story – Anna Maria Söderlund

Lene has chosen to tell the life story of her Great Grandmother – Anna Maria Söderlund, who was born in Finland in 1880. Lene has lots of photographs of Anna, and notes that she is always smiling, but she now knows that those smiles hide a hard life.

Lene discovered that Anna was one of the children of a factory glassworker, and that this work led the family to move around from factory to factory depending on the skills needed. Somewhat surprised, she discovered that Anna was actually born in Finland during the 1880s, rather than Denmark, but this was all part of their family’s travels.

When Anna’s father is fired for supporting a strike, the family fall upon harder times. Lene finds that Anna also worked in a glass factory too, but not within the glass blowing, but in the lesser skilled (and lower paid) jobs – much like her father had been forced into after being fired from his skilled job. 

The hardship continues as Anna marries and grows older, and with her husband, she ends up living in a convent. Lene likes to imagine that she lived here peacefully and in some comfort.

The Brick Wall – Frederik Dræby

There’s a family story in Lene’s ancestry, that says that her 2x Gt Grandfather Frederik, born outside of marriage in 1849, was the son of a Customs official named Frederik Dræby of Silkeborg, Denmark.

However, Lene is struggling to find documented evidence, or genetic evidence that either confirms this, or points to a different paternity.

Frederik Dræby senior has plenty of other children, and Lene has traced their descendants but has not found them in her matches, or after taking a FamilyTreeDNA test and uploading her DNA data to MyHeritage. She has yet to take an Ancestry test, but hopes that a paternal match for this branch will prove it was Dræby or will point elsewhere instead.

• Can you help Lene find evidence of Frederik Dræby, or do you have that name or genes in your ancestry?

Lene is also coordinating a Dræby Facebook group, for descendants from Frederik Draeby’s parents, in a bid to identify people who could take a DNA test to help her work out whether Frederik is her ancestor.

If you think that you can help Lene with a research clue or idea… or some saliva to DNA test with, then you can contact her at her website. Alternatively, you can send us a message and we’ll pass it along to her.

In the meantime, Lene is curious of Andrew’s offer of help, but they’re interrupted by an old friend… or are they?

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Episode credits

• Andrew Martin – Host and Producer
• Lene D. Kottal – Guest
• Peter Baker – Santa