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Genealogy Tour - Denmark

I'm interested in a tour of Denmark that is more than Copenhagen, Aero and Aarhus.
I'd like to visit the small towns and villages in Jutland where my ancestors lived. See the churches where they were baptized, confirmed, married and buried. Get a sense of history from where they lived and worked.
Does the train service stop in the smaller towns or just the major cities? Would I have to rent a car to travel to the various towns and villages?
I've seen websites offering tours by locals that looks promising. Has anyone used such a service for this type of trip?
Organized tours of Denmark seem to be Copenhagen then off the Sweden and Norway for the majority of the trip.

Posted by
6175 posts

Trains stop in many small towns, but there are other that are outside the rail network, in which case there is usually a bus service to the nearest railway station. But a car can be useful in some areas. It all depends on which small towns and villages your ancestors lived in.

Posted by
131 posts

Generally speaking, you don’t need a car when you’re travelling around Denmark. However, in rural areas it can become slow and tiresome to travel to the smallest villages by public transport if they’re not served that frequently. A car is rarely a need to have, but in some rural areas it can be a nice to have. That depends entirely on your style of travel and where you’re going.

You can take a look at this map from DSB to get an overview of the rail network in Denmark: https://www.dsb.dk/globalassets/pdf/trafikinformation/50x50-dsb-linjekort-k21.pdf
Note that the map does not show all stations on some of the local railways.

Your best friend when travelling around Denmark by public transport is www.journeyplanner.dk. It contain timetable information for all types of public transportation in all of Denmark.

Posted by
23178 posts

The bigger question is how much do you know as to exact dates, locations, names, etc. The more precise information that you personally know the better experience you can have. If you are doing some recording digging that the records will be in the language of the ruling country at the time recording. You will need local expect help if you are doing that. There will be local genealogical society that can help. And, yes, and there is local transportation to nearly every village. The locals have to get around also.

Posted by
1443 posts

I do enjoy doing genealogy and following the trees of my family and my husband's family. You might find this site useful as it links you to lists of Cemeteries in Denmark and Find a Grave for ancestor's location there. www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Denmark_Cemeteries . You can also use a call-up car service from the train station. I would encourage driving if you plan to visit out of the way sites, that way your time is your own.

Posted by
222 posts

Thanks for the quick responses everyone.
I've gotten the genealogy information from the Danish National Archives website and one called Danish Family Search. They have all the parish registers and censuses available and have forums for help reading the gothic hand and translating or explaining where Google fails. I highly recommend Danish Family Search for any others researching Danish ancestors. So I'm not looking to hire a Danish genealogist.
My trip would cover Vejle, Ribe and Sonderjyllands Amts. Perhaps a trip over the border to Slesvig & Holstein as well. I mostly want to see Denmark, and learn the history of the places. I think I can get most of the names/dates research done from the on-line sources I mentioned.
Using the trains with an occasional car rental might be the way to go. As was mentioned, that way my time is my own.

I just wish there were organized tours available for Denmark that were Denmark, not a day in Copenhagen and the rest in Sweden and Norway. I would take that type of tour for the beginning to get a feel for the place and then stay on to see my ancestral homes on my own.

Posted by
6175 posts

Vejle and Ribe are easy to reach by train. Vejle is on the mainline from Copenhagen to Århus, Ribe is on a smaller branch line. Getting to other parts of southern Jutland as well as Schleswig-Holstein is also pretty easy.