Esther Margit Bergenhammer (née Jensen)
(1917 - 2002)
Profile
Esther Margit Bergenhammer was employed emigrated to Canada in 1938. In 1944, she was employed as a civilian in the Royal Norwegian Air Force in Toronto, Canada.
Esther Margit Jensen was born in Copenhagen on 10 March 1917, to farmer Niels Peter Jensen and Hansine Mariane Jensen (née Petersen).[1] Her mother died in January 1919, when she was only nearly two years old.[2] Her father married Rigmor Buch and the family moved to Stenmagle near Sorø, where his father took over and formed the estate Marienlund (today Nyrupgaard).[3] She attended the Stenlille Private Realskole—a local privately run primary and middle school—from 1924 to 1933.[4]
Emigrating to Canada
At some point during the mid-1930s she moved to Copenhagen and took up a position as house maid. She met Jørgen Bergenhammer, who was thirty years her senior, and the married in Copenhagen 3 March 1938.[5] Two months later, in late April, the couple emigrated to Canada via United Kingdom.[6] Her husband, who had been married twice before, had moved to Canada, in 1929, with his second wife and earned his living as a farmer.[7] He had returned from Canada in late 1936.[8]
They settled in Saskatchewan living in Holbern from May 1938 before moving to Prince Albert in May 1941. Following a couple of years as housewife, in July 1942 she was employed by M & C Aviation Co., initially in the carpentry department and later as a shipping clerk. Meanwhile she was educated in typing, shorthand and English in night school.[9]
Stenographer for the Norwegians
Bergenhammer was employed as a civilian (stenographer) in the Royal Norwegian Air Force in Toronto from 5 June 1944. She worked there until May 1945.[10] At this point, the Norwegian training activities had moved to the United Kingdom.[11] She lived in Toronto at the time.[12]
Bergenhammer did not follow when the Norwegian Air Force transferred their activities to the United Kingdom in the spring of 1945. She travelled from Canada to the United States on 3 May 1945. Her destination was the Danish Consulate in New York.[13]
Bergenhammer returned to Denmark after the war. It is not clear if she returned immediately after the war or taler. Jørgen Bergenhammer returned to Denmark in 1962, but as the couple seems to have separated at some point, it is not clear if she returned with him. In 1974 she lived in Hørsholm north of Copenhagen.[14] Bergenhammer died in 2002.
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Helligånds sogn.
[2] DNA: Parish register, Ballerup sogn.
[3] DNA: 1925 and 1930 Census of Denmark.
[4] NNA: RAFA - 4079 Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0049/0014.
[5] Copenhagen Municipal Archive: Giftefoged Duplikat af ægteskabsbog, nr 791.
[6] Ancestry: UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
[7] Ancestry: UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
[8] Ancestry: UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-196.
[9] NNA: RAFA - 4079 Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0049/0014.
[10] NNA: RAFA - 4079 Forsvarets overkommando/Luftforsvarsstaben/P/Pa/L0049/0014.
[11] NNA: Forsvaret, Flyvåpnenes treningsleir 1940-1945, V/L0017: Regnskaper.
[12] NNA: Forsvaret, Flyvåpnenes treningsleir 1940-1945, V/L0002: General File., 1940-1945.
[13] Ancestry: U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960.
[14] A-bogen 1974-75, Hørsholm Kommune.