Comments welcome: see address on Home page
Comments welcome: see address on Home page | HOME | Bohn/Pedersen | from Jens O.A.Kofoed bio |
New August 2010 :more about this Kofoed family history, please click here.
| Jens Otto August Kofod/Kofoed, was our immigrant "Koford" ancestor (great-grandfather to my generation). He was born in 1852 on the 8th of August, which in Danish is something like "otto august"--why his parents named him for his birthdate I don't know! |
 |
Jens O.A. Kofoed lived in eastern Bornholm, (Svaneke and Øster-marie). Erik Gornitzka of Bornholm created a pedigree chart of his parents and grandparents that was researched using the church book (kirkebøg) of Østermarie, Bornholm. He was son of Jens Frederik Kofoed (b. Sep 1812, Østerlars)and Petrea Johanne Mortensen Skovgaard (b. 10 Mar 1816, Klemensker), per this research. The Kofoed surname is very common, and rather illustrious, on the island of Bornholm. Jens' direct ancestor, Jens Pedersen Kofoed, was "Bornholm's Liberator", successfully leading the charge against Swedish domination in 1658. He has NOT been forgotten...! Around age 19, he left home, emigrating to Jamestown, NY, where he stayed with his older brother, Frederik (Fred) Kristian Kofoed. (Kofoed is also spelled "Kofod" in various records.) Eventually he went West, ending up in Oakland, California, working as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. |
 |
| Newly wed Kofords |
His older sister, Signe, was living in Pennsylvania, working as a domestic. She befriended another Bornholm girl, Caroline, and the two of them headed West, stopping in California on their way to Australia. In California, Signe introduced her friend to her brother, Jens, and the trip to Australia was forgotten.
Jens and Caroline were married in Oakland in 1879.
(For more on Jens, see what his daughter, Carrie, wrote about him in an autobiography.)
 |
| Jens' brother, Fred Kofod & wife Lena, Jamestown (?), New York |
