Laurs and Gedskas sixth child (whew!)

Vester Velling Parish registry, page 22. Carl Frederik Laursen born December 2, 1852. He is the 7th child born that year in Vester Velling. Interestingly in all of our family records as well as his death certificate his birth year is listed as 1853. As dad would say....WRONG! Other names in the right hand columns include Elle Laursdatter of Vinge parish, Soren Lysgaard and Frederik Nielsen of Liltorup. Carl, in the United States, takes the name of Charles Nelson. The last name Nielsen was given to Laurs's family when they emigrated to the US because that was the last name of his father Rasmus. The name Nielsen was "Americanized" to Nelson by Laurs several years after emigrating. Imagine that though, we could have been Larsens or Rasmusens. Interestingly the last name of Nielsen was likely not even a family name as I'll show you later.