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- Niels J?rgensen Gunders?e in the 1801 census of Odense township:
Vester Gade, 246: Josias Holst, 33, Ugift, huusbonde, Skoemager; Dorthea S?rrensdatter, 77, Enke, hans moder; Hans Peter Ahrentzen, 24, Ugift, tienestefolk, Skoemagersvende; Hans Maybaum, 25, Ugift, tienestefolk, Skoemagersvende; Hans Christian, 17, Ugift, tienestefolk, L?redrenge; Niels J?rgensen, 15, Ugift, tienestefolk, L?redrenge; Maren Nielsdatter, 35, Enke, tienestefolk; Anne Margrethe Jespersdatter, 77, Enke, huusmoder, Jordmoder; Anne Cathrine Rasmusdatter, 40, Ugift, hendes datter.
From the St. Knud kirkebog, Odense township:
1818: No. 1; Brudgommens navn, alder, haandtering og opholdsted: Niels J?rgensen Gundersen, Frie-Skomagermester, 31 aar; Brudens navn, alder, haandtering og opholdsted: Maria Andersen, Skomager-Enke, 49 aar; Hvem foloverne ere: Peder Wittroch, Skomagermester, Mielmberg Maler; Vielsesdagen: 1818 den 8 Juli; Vielsen forrettet i Kirken.
1822: No. 170; D?dsdagen: 1822 den 4 Juni; Begravelsesdagen: 1822 den 6 Juni; Den d?des for- og tilnavne: Niels J?rgensen Gundersen; Stand, haandtering og opholdsted: Skomagermester; Alder: 36 aar; Register: 185-23; Anm?rkninger: 187, her i Jord.
Two years after the death of his father, Hans Christian Andersen's widowed mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, remarried on July 8th, 1818 to the 31 year old shoemaker Niels J?rgensen Gunderse (1787-1822). H.C. Andersen would later write the following about his step-father: "He was rather different from my father and was more of a match in character and spiritual development to my mother. He treated me well, but would not involve himself in my education, people should not say he was a bad step-father, for he allow me to lay my own foundations, as my father had previously."
On April 18th, 1819 H.C. Andersen was confirmed by Archdeacon Tetens in Saint Knuds Church. He had elbowed himself into this situation, despite the fact that the archdeacon otherwise only confirmed children of wealthier citizens. Amongst these children of the upper classes, with whom Hans Christian attends preparation for confirmation, was Laura T?nder-Lund (the daughter of the deceased Niels T?nder-Lund, titular Councillor of State), who thus becomes a personal acquaintance and whom he would later seek out in Copenhagen. In the ledger of the children confirmed, Archdeacon Tetens has made the first written observations of H.C. Andersen: "Has very good abilities and good religious knowledge. Although his diligence can not be praised, he must not be judged on the basis of his social standing in life." Later that month, on the 21st of April, the tenants of the house were given notice, and the family moved to a small house with a garden, further down the street, closest to the river.
It may be assumed that the new marriage meant that the boy no longer had the full attention of his mother and that this was instrumental in H.C. Andersen's departure from Odense, his childhood town. In cramped quarters, the experience of witnessing his mother as a sexual being in the company of a strange man may have been one of the factors which laid the foundation for his later tendency to avoid sexual contact with women. On September 4th 1819, when he was only 14 years old, H.C. Andersen left home to seek his fortune in Copenhagen. Laura T?nder-Lund moved to Copenhagen the same year as Hans Christian; she helped him establish contacts within the higher circles of Copenhagen society.
Niels J?rgensen Gunderse's death in 1822 left his widow in extreme poverty, forcing her to sell tools and clothes to obtain the money for his burial. Anne Marie Andersdatter would later descend into alcoholism and poverty, forcing her to apply for a room in "Doctors Boder" - a home for the destitute. When he became able to do so, H.C. Andersen regularly sent his mother money and clothes.
Information on Niels J?rgensen Gunderse from the autobiography of Hans Christian Andersen:
My mother married a second time, to a young handicraftsman; but his family, who also belonged to the handicraft class, thought that he had married below himself, and neither my mother nor myself were permitted to visit them. My stepfather was a young, grave man, with lively, brown eyes, and was good-tempered as a rule. He said he would not interfere in my education, and he did indeed allow me to follow my own inclinations. . . My parents moved to a street out of the Monk-Mill's (Munkem?lle) gate, and there we had a garden; it was a very little and narrow one, containing only one long garden-bed with currant and gooseberry bushes, and the path that led down to the river behind the monk-mill.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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1787 - 1822 (35 år)
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