The Colorado Jeppson Crew: March 2013

Malmo, Sweden

Well, you know us, we can't pass up a good travel opportunity. And we were faced with just that on our way home from Copenhagen! We decided to take a 30 minute detour and cross the bridge that connects Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmo, Sweden. We wanted to cross one more country off our list!

In reality we only spent about an hour walking around a pedestrian shopping square in Malmo called "lille torg"

Don't you love the timbered structures and sweet store signs hanging from the buildings!

It's cold mom! And it was!!!

ahhh! Cheese...I will take one cheese wheel to go please!

Why did we choose to walk around a shopping square in Sweden you might ask. Well, Matt's all time favorite candy is swedish fish...so we decided to find some swedish fish in Sweden to buy.

And we did...here is Hannah scooping some out now! This batch was made in Malmo...it was stamped right on the fish, and they come in a variety of colors and flavors. The red are still the best!

Before we made the long trek back home, we snapped a quick picture of this magnificent building. It is actually just a bunch of business offices, and our parking lot was in front of it, but what a place to go to work every day! Absolutely stunning!

We made it to Sweden!

Copenhagen, Denmark

The rest of our trip in Denmark we took off our genealogy caps and became tourists.

We decided we wanted to get off the Jutland (where our family is from) and visit the islands, where Copenhagen is. Along the way we stopped in Roskilde, which used to be the capital of Denmark in medeval times, and toured a viking ship museum.

Here we are in front of a replicated viking ship. In the background you can see all the different sheds where they show you and allow you to try out the different methods that go into making a viking ship.

Inside the museum you can see 5 preserved viking ships. They found these at the bottom of the fjords that lead into Roskilde. They were deliberately sunk at strategic junctures to prevent enemies from traveling up the fjord and attacking without warning. They were discovered about 20 years ago, and excavated and preserved. They were pretty neat to see.

They found two small fishing ships, two war ships and a large trader ship.

Can you imagine sailing in such confined quarters with 30 some odd other people for days on end. It would take them 3 days to reach England from Roskilde.

There was a kid section where the kids could dress in traditional viking attire and play around on mock viking ships. They had a blast! We almost couldn't get them to leave!

Finally, we made it to Copenhagen!

This is Amalienborg Palace, where the Queen lives and her son the Crown Prince and Heir to the throne lives with his family.

The flag is flying so she was in residence!

Trying to get a picture with a danish guard outside the palace.

Unlike England, Scotland and Prague...they don't stand still...so it was a bit difficult.

Anya's future apartment...what a cool dragon sculptor on the outside!

The tradition of large ship ancor's in the town squares was soo cool!

Copenhagen's main harbor and shopping district

In the visitor's center of the L.D.S. Salt Lake Temple there is a massive statue we call the "Christus".

It is actually a replica of the Resurrected Christ sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen.

I have always wanted to see the original, and so we went to the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen and there He was. It was so majestic.

He sits in the alter, along the sides of the perimeter of the church stand statues of the 12 apostles, all sculpted by Thorvaldsen as well.

You can sort of see the Apostles in this picture...

Here is the outside of the church, it has a very greek feel to it's architecture. A lot of neoclassical touches.

We had to stop in a Lego store, after all, Lego's were created in Denmark. Lego's were first created in the wood toy shop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in Billund Denmark. His company later came to be called Lego, which comes from the Danish phrase "leg godt" which means play well. The company headquarters are still there today.

To finish off our day, before we found a dinner of some delicious open faced sandwiches (which are each like works of art!), we stopped to see the Little Mermaid Statue from the Hans Christian Andersen tale. It was a perfect way to end the day, now off to warm up with some Hot cocoa... tomato soup and some Smorrebrod.

Hals, Denmark

Most of the Jeppson line comes from the tip of the Jutland of Denmark, stretching from Aalborg to Hjorring and Skallerup. We were limited on time, so we only picked two towns to look around. Next in our line up was Hals, Denmark...on the coast due East of Aalborg.

Here is where Pedar's great-grandpa and grandpa were born. Jeppe Thomasen was born, married and died here, and Christian Jeppesen was born here then married outside of town a ways. We found the church where Jeppe and Anna Christensdatter were most likely married. It was the only church for 30 miles, and the center of Hals. It was built in 1741, so a year before Jeppe was born. It is the church he grew up with. We thought that was really neat.

Unfortunately, they recycle cemetery's in Denmark (most of Europe actually) A common practice is to keep the plot for a generation, then if the family is no longer there to pay the "rent", it is given to another family. Jeppe Thomasen and Christen Jeppesen, were no longer there. The danes would bury individuals in wood boxes, so everything would disolve and a new casket could be buried when the time came. We did find evidence of the Jeppesen family all over the cemetery though...it is a very common name in this area, so probably distant cousins. We even found a marker for an Aksel Jeppesen...which was a nick name we used for Hunter (baby A for Axil) in the womb before he was born...spelled differently though. But we laughed when we saw it...it's a family name, who knew?! I took a picture...but I can't find it, so it must be on Matt's phone.

There were a lot of thatched roofed cottages in this town. It really was very charming!

Another Thatched roof!

The town square had this huge ancor and ship mast in the center.

It was cold!

This, obviously, was a fishing village, and probably an old whaling village. We can surmise that our ancestors were fishermen. These whale bones are in the center of town, and were there in 1752, so Jeppe and Christen saw these as part of their day to day life.

I love this sign...don't drive off the dock!

Hals, fishing town

A Lobster boat.

It was neat to see where Matt and my children "come" from. It was so cold, we didn't stay out much. We had checked the weather before we left and it was supposed to be 0% precipitation ..but would you believe it snowed off and on pretty much our whole trip!

Still it was such a unique experience! I am glad we went!

Aalborg, Denmark

When we first moved to Germany, we devised a mission for our family: see as many countries in Europe as possible. Our time here in Germany is waining, so when Matt had a four day weekend we decided to not waste it. We took the kids out of school and headed up for a quick trip to Denmark. This is about as far into Scandinavia as will get into, but it was still extremely enlightening.

A lot of the Jeppson line is from Denmark, in fact most of it is until Pedar Jeppson immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800's. and settled and died in Pleasant Grove, Utah. So we are not exactly sure why the spelling of the Jeppson name switched from the danish sen to the english son...most danish in America still use sen at the end and never switched it. For some reason Pedar changed his spelling from Jeppesen to Jeppson when he passed through Ellis Island, but his father, Jeppe Christiansen kept his sen spelling. I find it fascinating...but it probably bores you :)

So this trip we are exploring some roots. We went to Aalborg, Denmark, where most of the Jeppson line is from, there abouts. Pedar was born there, along with his father Jeppe. So was his mother, Ane. Aalborg is a big city now, split up into a bunch of different neighborhoods, with different names then in the 1700 and 1800's, so it was difficult to track down the exact area. Some were very outlying farming communities too, that no longer exist. We did find Nere Sundry, which, as best we can tell, is now NorreSundby. This is where Pedar was born.

An old castle, now public offices, in downtown Aalborg

Typical wood timber architecture...you see this, along with stucco and brick all through Denmark.

A preserved row of city homes. The dates ranged from late 1500's to early 1600's

Front view of some of the homes...I thought they were so cute!

They are now shops, no one really lives in them anymore.

Matt by the sign of the neighborhood where the man who brought our Jeppson name to America was born.

Nothing was preserved in that neighborhood...it is very built up now with apartment buildings and shops. The church isn't even there anymore...it is a community square now. So we weren't able to find much, no gravestones or possible dwellings. It was still a neat experience to walk where ancestors have walked. And it was cold!