Civilization.ca - Christian Bennedsen - Scrapbook of a Life in Letters

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Spandet

Chris Bennedsen's Family

Chris’s parents were Frederik and Anna Bennedsen.

Frederik Bennedsen and Anna Johannesson's family's trees.
(Background information from Sigvard Bennetzen, illustration by Denis Deslauriers)

Frederik's father Ole was born in 1866, and married Stinne (Christine) Lorentzen in 1893. They had five children; Frederik was born in 1899.

Ole and Stinne Bennedsen.
(CMC, Christian Bennedsen Collection, P35-8.E2-27.001, E2007-00433)

Frederik Bennedsen escaped the draft by crossing over the Danish border. On the island of Fyn, Frederik trained to be a butcher, a profession he practised for many years. In Spandet he came to be known as “Frederik Slawter,” or Frederik the Butcher.

Chris’s mother, Anna Johannesson, was born in 1906 to Else Thomsen and Adam Johannesson. Adam Johannesson was a Swedish sailor and missionary. In Spandet, he met Else Thomsen, who was living alone with her son Alfred. Alfred was the son of a farmer in a neighbouring district, born to Else out of wedlock while she was still in her teens.

Chris Bennedsen's Family

Else and Adam married, bought a farm behind Spandet's church, and soon had four children: Martha, who died when she was a baby, Thomas, Magnus, and Anna. Adam died of tuberculosis in 1913.

Adam Johannesson, ca 1893. Note the bible in his left hand: Adam was a Swedish missionary.
(Private Collection)

Else Johannesson's children, ca 1910. Left to right: Alfred, Martha, Thomas, Magnus, and Anna, Chris's mother.
(CMC, Christian Bennedsen Collection,
P35-8.E2-20.001,
E2007-00431)

Top: Else Johannesson and her four children, ca 1916. Bottom: Else and Adam Johanneson's farm.
(Private Collection)

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