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Now, of course, I became very interested in getting a portrait of the suspected father, and in documents which might give some indications on that price, as another family rumour has it that the mother visited Krengerup each year to collect money.    

I visited the administrator of the manor (Krengerup on Funen) where it all must have happened, and asked about pictures there and the whereabouts of the estate's archives. I had a feeling that that price might have been administrated out of the manor's resources, instead of out of private ditto. No pictures though, and my knowledge of archaic Danish writing was not up to the difficulties in the manor's raw documents.

Some time later, when I had added a lot more Rantzau's to my files, I visited the administrator again. He was interested and informed the present count. He proved to be interested too, and I got invited!   A beautiful chance to get access to the private archives, I thought. Alas, there were not any!

The suspect, at the time, had been with the Funen's Light Dragoons since 1826, In 1830 he joined the King's Life-Guards. When I visited their Historical Collection in Copenhagen, surprise, I found a picture of him! As he died in 1846, at the age of 37, that photograph must have been one of the first! Ordinary Danish soldiers are mustered by numbers, however, Life Guard soldiers form a representation of the population. They are recruited from all over the country and are mustered by the name of their birthplace. The addition of "Ørsted" might be a hint (by the priest!) that the baby belonged to the Life Guard from birth!

When compared with the old family picture of Jens Pedersen Ørsted, taken around 1864, when he was a soldier too, and some 32 years old, it showed some similarities:

* a high forehead

* high temples

* deep-laying eyes

* identical form of the head

Oddly enough, though both soldiers at the time, they had their pictures taken in civil clothing.

All these are just too many coincidences, so now I am presuming that the family rumour is true. Some further facts may show up in the future. When reading, in Eastman's genealogical newsletter, a story on the Thomas Jefferson DNA investigation about his possible descendants by a slave girl, I saw the similarity! There is a male line in the bastard descendants, there even is a male line for his half-brothers, as a control. I had been thinking about DNA earlier, but did not know anything about the technical details presented by Eastman.   (See PERSONAL)

(I added a picture of Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, a great name in Danish music. He played with Oscar Peterson! Sadly he died unexpectedly a few years ago. Oddly enough, his gravestone was made by a descendant in one of my other families.)      

 

Frederik Sigfred Rantzau

Jens Pedersen (Ørsted)

Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen (NHØP)
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