Hans Christian Anderson Connection?
Research Question: Are we (and our Carstens ancestors on the Suess line) related to Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s tutor Herr Carstens?
Family lore has always noted the possibility of this relationship to Beverly Suess’s Carstens ancestors (Beverly Suess interview), as well as that there have been many teachers in past generations. (Gloria Suess family history) But, there are lots of Carstens - does this shared name mean there is a shared connection to Hans Christian Andersen (HCA, for short)? To investigate this question, I needed to know:
Who are our Carstens ancestors?
What are the basic facts about HCA?
Did HCA have a tutor named Herr Carstens?
When/where did Carstens live and what happened to his descendants?
Are any Carstens descendants our ancestors?
Our Carstens Ancestors
Beverly (Suess) Barton’s mother’s maiden name was Frankie Marie Carstens. Her father was Henry Frank Carstens (1869-1941) and his father was Ulrich Anton Carstens (1839-after 1907). Anton was born in Oldenburg, Germany (1880 census) or Prussia (1870 census).
The photo on the right shows Anton Carsten’s family in about 1895. Anton and his wife are in the front row, with their youngest son between. Their three older sons and their families are in the back row. Henry Frank is at the left, holding his son (Frankie Marie’s older brother Nelson) next to his wife Clara Delilah.
Hans Christian Andersen (HCA) Facts
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. His father died in 1816 and his mother remarried in 1818. He moved to Copenhagen at age 14 (about 1819).
Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his fairy tales including "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Mermaid,” "The Princess and the Pea," "The Ugly Duckling," and "Thumbelina." (Wikipedia)
1869 Photo by Thora Hallager (1821–1884)
Did HCA have a tutor named Carstens?
Yes. HCA attended a Jewish boy’s school headed by a Fedder Carstens when he was young. Herr is the German title for a male teacher, so he likely would have been called “Herr Carstens”. Below are a few relevant excerpts from books.
HCA first attended a school in Odense starting at about age 5 and then changed to a school for Jewish boys where Fedder Carstens was the headmaster, and that Mr. Carstens took extraordinary care of Hans Christian during his years at his school. The Jewish school closed in 1811 and Andersen was then sent to the Charity School. (Johnson, 1999)
[Hans] “asked [his mother] to send him to another school, which she accordingly did. This other school was a boy’s school kept by a Herr Carstens,”. (Bain 189, page 13) “For the rest Andersen, by his own confession, idled or rather dreamed away most of his time at Herr Carstens’ school, to the frequent disgust of that pedagogue, whom he tried, not always successfully, to propitiate with bouquets of wild flowers.” (Bain 189, page 14)
HCA’s mother “placed him in a regular boys’ school in charge of a Mr. Carstens. This man looked after his new pupil with fatherly kindness. He had instantly taken a fancy to the little curly haired fellow, and saw to it that none of the other boys annoyed or bullied him. At recess he would take Hans by the hand and walk the playground with him, or watch the games of the other children. Oftentimes he presented the cobbler’s child with cakes or flowers. Later, this kind teacher became manager of a telegraph station in another town, and Hans saw no more of him. But Mr. Carstens always remembered with ever-growing pride that he had been the first man-teacher of the celebrated story teller.” (Harboe 1907, page 29-30)
Where/when did Carstens live and who are his descendents?
Fedder Carstens was born in 1784 in Almdorf, in Tonder County Denmark, and in 1806 came to Odense (where HCA had been born in 1805). Almdorf was in the German Empire (Schleswig Duchy) but was a Danish population and later reunified with Denmark. Pictured above is Fedder Carstens and his wife labeled as Botille.
The HC Andersen Homepage is an amateur Danish HCA history/information page run by Lars Bjørnsten of Odense, which seems quite comprehensive, with several thousand pages. He says: “Fedder Carstens was born on 11/7 1784 in Almdorf in Tønder County. Fedder Carstens came to Odense in 1806 in and was clerk with Postmaster Laursen in Odense until 1809. Due to a failing health, he established a private school for Jewish children, which due to the Jewish feud could not commit with the children who belonged to the church. However, he also had a few of these in his school, and among these the later so famous HC Andersen. However, this school ceases in 1811, as there is now real order in the city's school system.”
The wikipedia entry for Tonder County details its history as part of German lands and Denmark.
The Geni Website (whose data is publicly added and therefore likely less reliable) lists male children of Fedder Carstens (born 1784, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) and wives Johanned Cathrine and Bottilla) as Hans Frederik Christian August, Magnus Fedder, Christian, Fridrich Ludvig, Fedder Julius Magnus, Hein, Hans Henrik, and Carl—born between 1809 and 1837.
Are any Carstens descendants our ancestors?
We are not descended from Fedder Carstens, and it is very unlikely that we have a distant shared relative.
Our ancestor, Ulrich Anton Carstens (grandfather of Beverly and Gloria Suess), was born in 1839 in Germany (Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany according to the 1880 census or Prussia according to 1870 census (much of Prussia became Germany, but Oldenburg was not part of Prussia). The age is about right to be a child or nephew of Fedder Carstens. If Fedder Carstens was born in 1784, then he would likely have been having children anywhere between 1804 (age 20) and 1844 (age 60), in Denmark. (He died at age 90.)
According to others’ research shown on the Geni website and ancestry.com, Fedder Carstens’ parents and grandparents were born in Schleiswig-Holstein, Germany. Our ancestor was born in Oldenburg, Germany (about 220 miles away) to Ulrich Carstens (also born in Oldenburg). It is possible that Ulrich Carstens and Fedder Carstens have a common ancestor, but if so, it is likely distant. I don’t know anything about Ulrich Carstens’ parents in Germany, but since Fedder Carstens’ parents, grandparents, and great grandparents were all born in what is now Denmark, Ulrich’s parents (if also originally from the same area) would have later moved to Germany.
Also, it seems that Fedder Carstens’ parents used patronymics Although I read online that it was decreed in 1828 that all should have a family name instead of using patronymics, it took a little while for rural areas to catch up. So Fedder Carstens’ father’s surname name was Carstensen and his grandfather was Hansen. So the name Carstens as a surname was not likely handed down to Fedder as the surname from a common ancestor with Ulrich Carstens.
Answer: No, we are not descended from Herr Carstens, teacher of Hans Christian Andersen.
It is also very unlikely that we have a common ancestor, but I could not rule it out since I do not know enough generations back in our line. However, with Fedder Carstens and Anton Carstens being from areas over 200 miles apart, and with the use of patronymics in Denmark in previous generations, it is unlikely that the surname Carstens was passed to both of them from a common ancestor.
Sources:
1869 Hans Christian Andersen Photo. By Thora Hallager (1821–1884) - http://museum.odense.dk/viden-om/hc-andersen/publikationer/jeg-sad-i-dag-for-photographen.aspx, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11819411
Bain, R. Nisbet. Hans Christian Andersen, A Biography. London, Lawrence and Bullen. 1895. Scan from Library of Congress website accessed 9/4/2020. http://memory.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2005/20052004005ha/20052004005ha.pdf
Johnson, Kristi Planck: "H. C. Andersen's Educational Roots Through His Own Eyes" , In: Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen and Viggo Hjørnager Pedersen (ed.): Hans Christian Andersen. A Poet in Time. Papers from the Second International Hans Christian Andersen Conference 29 July to 2 August 1996. The Hans Christian Andersen Center, Odense University, Odense University Press. 576 pages, Odense, Denmark 1999. As cited on the Hans Christian Andersen Centre’s website, accessed 9/4/2020. https://andersen.sdu.dk/forskning/konference/tekst_e.html?id=10921
Harboe, Paul. A Child’s Story of Hans Christian Andersen. New York : Duffield & Co., 1907. http://archive.org/details/childsstoryofhan00harb.
HCAndersen Homepage, https://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/?page_id=3027. Website accessed 8/15/2022.
Wikipedia, Tonder County, accessed 9/4/2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B8nder_County
Geni.com. Website accessed 8/15/2022. https://www.geni.com/people/Fedder-Carstens/6000000002211478548
Ancestry.com. 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Township 3, Range 2, Washington, Illinois. Antone Carstens entry. Accessed 9/5/2020. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4263279_00210?pId=16240472
Ancestry.com. 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Nashville, Washington, Illinois. Anton Carstens entry. Accessed 9/5/2020. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4240565-00055?pId=30899983