Sorensen Family Winter Fun—
The painting at the left, "Skaters" shows a variety of Scandinavian winter fun on the local ice. The exact location of this scene, is unknown but it is typical to the time and period we are interested in. Perhaps we could imagine it is the Nicolai Sorensen family out for the day on one of the small lakes near their home at Haverup, Sorø amt., Denmark. Information of this type from the family journals is very rare, if it even exists at all, but as all families will, represents a fun time spent on a sunny day over the frozen homeland ice.
Still it is fun to view a 1850's Danish sceen, and to placce our family in it. For more or less, what happened to one happened to all, and we would not have been different enough to not have had such a day on the frozen pond near Nicolai's home in Haverup, Sorø, Denmark. So that must be little Stine on the sled, being pushed by her older brother Peter, or Abraham.
The climate in Denmark is a full four season one. If anything, I believe Mendon, Utah, is colder that what they were used to in Denmark. But otherwise I believe the two climates are not so different. Of course the Mendon Mountains are quite a bit taller, and sea air is, well it is a tad further away. Anyway the Sorensen family knew of snow and ice, of beautiful spring mornings and the colors of fall. In this regard things were more alike than different for them.
Children the world over seem to know how to have fun, regardless of the season. You can bet that Abraham, Peter and Isaac, and perhaps the older girls, knew how to skate and had been on more than one sleigh ride. Wagons and sleighs were part of the items that were made in the carpenter shop Nicolai ran with the help of local young apprentices. One of whom it would seem married his oldest daughter, Katherine Sophie Sorensen, Andrew Andersen.
Andrew Andersen's brother Niels Otto Jorgensen (This is during thee time when Patronymics were ending and family last names were being fixed. Thus with their fathers name being Jorgen Christian Andersen, either name, Jorgensen or Andersen could and would be correct.) came to Utah with the Nicolai Sorensen family in 1857 and Katherine Sophie came with her new husband, Andrew and the Andersen family in 1858.
