Randis history

I have always taken a great interest in my family history. Both of my parents grew up under very poor conditions, as they have described. Such as my grandfather, who was a woodcutter/lumberjack in the Frijsenborg forests. When his wife (my grandmother) died, he was left alone with 7 children, the youngest was only 1 year old (my father )

Especially my mother has told me about our family from Lolland. How their lives were characterized by poverty, despite hard physical work. Most of them worked as farmworkers, milkmaids and caretakers of the livestock on the farms in the parish. Because there was no prospect that they could change their way of living for the better, some of them chose to immigrate to America, in hope of a better life.

I have always been fascinated by the fact, that 2 of my great-great-grandparents and all of their children, except for my great-grandmother, chose to immigrate. They did it over 2 times. In 1891 the younger ones left for America, and in 1904 my great-grandparents followed with their grandchild Arthur, who was my grandmother’s cousin.

My grandmother stayed in contact with Arthur in America, and they kept in touch throughout their entire life. A few years before they both died, one of his grandsons visited my grandmother at Lolland. This is the reason why i have contact with the family in the United States today.

Several of the family stories has been passed from generation to generation. I have written them down, to make sure, that they will not be forgotten. All of the stories has been compared with information from parish registers and census, and it has opened a wonderful world.

My plan is, to gather all of the stories and information in a book about my family, which will hopefully be for the benefit of our descendants.