Finding the Bøgh Farm

The name Bøgh

What it means. Bøgh is an old spelling of bøg, the Danish word for the beech tree, from Old Danish bøk. The silent h is a spelling habit of the 1700s and 1800s, kept as many families froze their names on paper. As a surname it usually comes from a place: a farm called Bøgen or Bøgholt, a house by a beech, or a beech wood.

The law that made it possible. For centuries country people in Denmark carried patronymics. Christen, son of Thomas, was Christen Thomsen, and his son was a Christensen. A royal decree of 1828 required each child's surname to be fixed at baptism, but in the countryside patronymics carried on for decades. The name law of 1904 changed things. It let any family take a new, distinctive surname cheaply by a simple application, to thin out the endless Jensens and Hansens. Many families took the name of their farm or their district in the years that followed. A Thomsen who became Bøgh, keeping Thomsen as a middle name, fits that pattern exactly. The date is on record: in the margin of Marinus's 1903 baptism the priest later struck out Thomsen, wrote Bøgh, and noted "Navnet Bøgh i Henhold til Navnebevilling af 26/2 1906". The family took the name by name licence on 26 February 1906.

Where the name came from.

• A foster father named Bøgh: confirmed. The 1876 baptism writes Severin's godfather as "Jens Kr. Pedersen Bøg". Bøg was already his byname, decades before the 1904 law. Severin inherited the house and made the byname a surname. Where old Jens got it is the remaining question, and the next two possibilities apply to him.
• The farm Bøgen. An old farm of that name lies about 4 km west-south-west of Klæstrup, toward Brønderslev. The Jerslev herred court books already name Bøgen and Nørre Bøgen in the 1600s. A family member born or in service there could have brought the name.
• Beech trees at the house. Parcel 22a is heavily wooded today, unusually so for open Vendsyssel farmland. A spring aerial photo can't tell beech from other trees, though. A winter visit would, because young beech keeps its copper-brown leaves until spring. It would be a fitting origin, but for now it is a guess.

Klæstrup as Marinus knew it

The village green and its ponds. Old Klæstrup was a forte village: farms set round a common green, with lanes leading out to the fields like spokes. The 1806 survey draws two ponds on the green. One of them is Marinus's Osdam, right beside house 20. On the 1884 map a small watercourse runs from the ponds toward the north-east, and blue ditches drain a wet meadow on the north-west side of the village. Most of that water has since been drained. Switch the slider to the lidar terrain to look for the hollows it left.

The school. Klæstrup Gamle Skole stood on the main road at Klæstrupvej 82, a number that no longer exists. The 1884 map labels "Skole" on the north side of the road, at today's Klæstrupvej 80. A village school was the only one most children attended, usually from age seven to fourteen. It is where the family learned to read the catechism and write their names.

The smithy and the shop. In Marinus's day the smithy was at Klæstrupvej 72 and Alfred Christensen's shop next door at no. 70. In 1884 the map shows a smithy, "Smedi", about 150 m further west, close to today's Klæstrupvej 56. It may have moved, or there may have been two.

The mill. Klæstrup Mølle stood at the east end of the village, Marinus's no. 37, "Thea, widow". The 1884 map marks it with an M beside the road.

Koldnaae. The farm Marinus calls Koldnaae, no. 3, is labelled "Kolnaa" on the 1884 map, south of the road by the school. Its old farmhouse was pulled down when the farm moved out into its fields, which happened to many village farms after enclosure. The wood south of the village is still called Koldnaae Skov on his map.