My great-grandmother Ane Jensen Roed was named Buch by marriage - and for the record, I will call her Anne Buch, which was the name she used herself. From my grandmother I have long known that before the WWII Anne Buch went to the United States to visit some of her children over there, that she was stranded there because of the war, and that she died over there in 1944.

Eventually I find more details describing her last years after she left her hometown Egtved in Denmark in March 1939.

THE JOURNEY TO USA

Here is is a copy of a page in the Register of Emigrants from 1938, Copenhagen Police, 3. Police Inspectorate. From this you see that on 8 May 1939 my great-grandmother announced her departure to the Copenhagen Police, and it also tells that via Aalborg in Denmark she reached Liverpool, from where she departed on May 12 heading for Canada, but her final goal was Minneapolis in the United States. I can see that the ship must have arrived in Quebec, Canada, by May 20, when her immigration from Canada to the United States is registered.

The ship manifest (too large to show here) states that Anne Buch had listed a person she wanted to visit: "Son: ½Ralph Buch, 3408, 31st Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.", but I have no idea what is meant by "½Ralph". She was 5 feet tall, which is equivalent to about 152-153 cm.

She sailed with the steamship S/S Athenia, and this particular ship has a bit of a dramatic history. Less than four months after my great-grandmother's voyage, the ship was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, just hours after Britain declared war on Germany. This was the first British ship lost in WWII.

It is fortunate that before her departure from Denmark, my great-grandmother apparently received a scrapbook with blank pages from her daughter Ane Buch. Today, it provides, among other things, a good impression of Anne Buch's sailing across the Atlantic. It appears (also from the birthday folder mentioned below) that she traveled with Mrs. Elizabeth Lundsgaard and her daughter Ann.

Study the scrap book yourself => Click here.

It seems that after arriving in Quebec, my great-grandmother traveled a relatively short distance in Canada before crossing the border into the United States at St. Albans, Vermont. Unfortunately, I cannot uncover her exact route from there and to Minneapolis with the available sources of information.  However, according to the ship manifest, she planned to travel through Hardin, Iowa.

EXTENDED INVOLUNTARY STAY IN USA

The outbreak of World War II meant that Anne Buch could not go home after the visit to her family in the United States. She had to stay in Minneapolis and hope for more peaceful times, but more later.

By the way, the census in November 1940 shows that my great-grandmother kept her home in "Egtvedgaard" in Egtved, Denmark. She definitely planned to return home after her visit to the United States. In the census, signed by neighbor Johanne Hviid, the following comment was added: "absent in the U.S.A.".

Unfortunately, the fury of the war prevented the great-grandmother from returning home to Egtved.  Therefore, we see a brief announcement / greeting in the “Social-Demokraten” newspaper on February 12, 1941 with the wording: "Greetings and Merry Christmas to all my children as well as other Family and Friends, - Anne Buch, Minneapolis." - It must have been incredibly difficult to get an announcement out at that time. This greeting has certainly been about 2 months on its way.

Anne Buch's involuntary extended stay was probably with her daughter Kjerstine Buch, now Christine Buch Pedersen, and the address was 3408 31st Avenue  in Minneapolis. At the outbreak of the war in Europe, Christine lived with her husband Jørgen Emanuel and the children Harry and Ella.

The picture on the left shows the house, which today is located at the address, but of course it may well be more recent than the one in 1940.

A part of her stay may also have been with her son Aage and daughter-in-law Selma, who lived in another part of the state of Minnesota. I know she also visited a third child and son Anders (later: Andrew) who lived in the same area as Christine.

75 YEARS BIRTHDAY

On February 20, 1941, Anne Buch turned 75, and although it was her great wish to be able to return home, she was duly celebrated with the family in the United States.

Fortunately, my great-grandmother leaves behind a birthday folder with memories from the birthday immortalized in a collection that I can browse through today and thus gain insight into the festivities. Anyway, please be aware of that the text is a mix og English and (mostly) Danish. Open the Birthday Folder => Click here.

Inside the birthday folder you find the introductory page as shown to the left. It tells that the folder was created by Anne Buch's grandchildren, Christine Buch Pedersen's children, Harry and Ella. Sadly, the latter child, Harry, was shot down in his aircraft in France on 18 June 1944 - just three months after the death of his grandmother.

GOODBYE TO MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER

Anne Buch had to stay in Minneapolis, where she died of stomach cancer on March 17, 1944, at Asbury Hospital. Subsequently on March 20, she was cremated and provisionally laid to rest at Sunset Memorial Park cemetery. One of the signatures on the death certificate is by Christine (Buch) Pedersen. She signed that the factual personal information was, to the best of her knowledge, correct. Today I can reveal that some inaccuracies must have crept into her memory.

Anne Buch's daughter, Christine, has created a folder named "In Memoriam" which is still preserved. Here is a copy of the folder => Click here. Most of the following clippings are taken from "In Memoriam".

On March 20, 1944, a funeral service was held in Minneapolis. Then, on 23 March 1944, the following article could be read in the Danish Weekly Magazine [in Minneapolis]:

”It did not come entirely unexpected when it was announced on Friday night among friends of Emanuel Pedersen on Fifth Street S.E. that Mrs. Pedersen's mother, Mrs. Anna Buch, had passed away at the hospital, where she had stayed for some weeks. She reached the old age of 79 years and had basically been well on the extended visit which she, despite age, paid to her children in America and which would last much longer than intended.

Although Mrs. Anna Buch had three children here in Minnesota, Andrew, Aage and Mrs. Emanuel Pedersen, she was also longing for the home in Denmark, where even sex other children outlive her. Over the past few years, she had made three attempts to get back to her homeland, even there was the opportunity that she could fly via Lisbon; but something always got in the way and the journey via Lisbon had to be considered difficult because of Mrs. Buch's age.

During her stay here, the Deceased gained a large circle of friends among friendly compatriots, who then gathered on Monday around the coffin in the St. Peder's Danish Church, where there was spoken and sung in the mother tongue of one, whom so many of Minneapolis' Danes had come to care about. A large wealth of flowers testified to the reputation that the deceased and her children enjoy among friends, and Pastor Aaberg spoke heartwarming words at the coffin. Ingeborg Kirkegaard played at the Organ and Mr. Tusen from St. Paul performed a Solo just as Pastor Herrin from the Hospital spoke some cordial words.

Surrounded by many good Danish friends, the body was then taken to a crematorium, and the deceased woman's ashes will be taken to Denmark after the war.”

Because of the war, it took a few months for the family in Denmark to be notified of the death. We see this among other things in the obituary, which for example was published in the “Vejle Amts Folkeblad” paper on 22 June 1944:

"On the occasion of Mother's Death, a Memorial Service will be held in Egtved Church On Wednesday 28 June at 15:30 [3:30 p.m.]."

A few days earlier, the same newspaper published an obituary notice written by my grandmother: "Death in America.

We have received:
In a time like this, there are daily sad messages to many a home about the deaths of loved ones.
Thus we received the message the other day that our dear little mother, Anne Buch, Egtved, found her death over there in the distance, to which she traveled five years ago at the age of 74 to visit three children and to return home again after four months, to live on the memories of everything she experienced over there in the foreign; but she was not allowed to do so, even though it was her greatest wish. She died in March - of Pneumonia, and only now - three months later - the announcement has come about.
Although Mother was now more than 79 years old, it was our heartfelt hope, that she would live until the circumstances would make it possible to bring her home to us, so that we could have shared her experiences with her. Now we have only the memory of a mother who has raised a large family, an exceptionally diligent and sacrificial mother.
Over there in America, she won herself many friends, as from that time, when we could exchange letters with each other, we got a lot of evidence from over there, and we are grateful when recalling it.
Honored be her memory!
Marie Larsen, b. Buch, [my grandmother] Grindsted."

After the end of World War II, an opportunity opened up to transport the urn home to Egtved in Denmark. So, Christine, her husband Jørgen Emanuel and daughter Ella travelled to Denmark on 20 July 1946, participated in the funeral service number 2 from Egtved Church on 11 August and did not return home until October.