Dorothea Christine Madsen

Her headstone reads, "We've said goodbye to Mother Dear. She's gone to dwell above. She left a noble record here, but took with her our love." Thanks to Leslie Ann Ballou for sending this to me. She volunteers for Find A Grave.com and has her own blog entitled, "Ancestors Live Here." Dorothea was our third great grandmother. The following excerpt from a diary kept by my great grandmother, Dortha Roxanna Madsen Rollins McKinney, talks about her grandmother, Dorothea Kirstine Madsen: ".....My grandmother on father's side was an expert seamstress and tailor. She made men's suits out of cloth she wove on her own loom which was as fine as any sold from stores. Another thing my grandmother did was make beer to serve to the farm hands in summer time. I have watched her take the sprouted grain, brown it in the oven, add water and yeast and put in the wooden kegs."

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jensen-184

According to a record on Family Search.org for her daughter, Eliza Madsen Welker (1849-1910), when Eliza was christened in Denmark, Dorothea's name was listed as Dorthe Kirstine Hansdotter. Eliza's name was listed as Lise Jacobsen, and her father (and Dorthe Kirstine's husband) was listed as Jacob Christensen. He did not adopt the Madsen name until after he came to America from Denmark in 1857. His father's name was Christin Madsen. They followed the patronymic naming system of Denmark when they lived there but not after coming to America.

In the 1880 census for Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, "Dorathy" Madsen, 63, was living with her son Jacob, 20, a farmer, and she was keeping house. She was born in Denmark as were both of her parents. Jacob, her last child, was the only one born in America. Dorothea's husband Jacob had passed away the year before in 1879 and was buried in the Bloomington Cemetery, and she joined him there 13 years later in 1891.

Note:

For some reason Dorothea is listed with the middle name of Maria in the 1845 and 1850 census records.

I found the following codicil to her will on the website FamilySearch.org, and page 2 reads as follows: I hereby add the following codicil to my will and make the following changes therein: Article 2 of my will giving $300 each to my children named therein I hereby revoke and substitute for it the following bequests: To my daughter, Eliza (Madsen) Welker, I give and bequeath at my death $300, to my daughter Anna (Madsen) Salisbury $250, to my daughter, Inger (Madsen) Welker, $200, to my son Hans $250, to my son Christian, $250, and to my son Nels, $75, and to my son Anton, $200, and to my granddaugter, Dorothey, the remainder of the money that may be in Zion Savings Bank of Salt Lake City at the time of my death.

I bequest to my daughter Eliza Welker also $125 in capital stock in Bloomington Coop Mercantile Institution and to my daughter Inger $125 dollars capital stock in said Institution and my wardrobe and clothing cupboard and dishes, stands, bedding, carpets and residue of my household goods not otherwise disposed of. To my son Nels one 3 year old mare, cook stove, lounge arm chair and two small ones. To my son Anton one 5-year old horse, larger rocking chair and two small ones and to my daughter Inger 125 bushels of wheat. To my daughter Eliza I give and bequeath nine acres of land more or less that I own outside of the homestead and which I recently purchased of my son Nels. I also hereby appoint and constitute George Osmond of Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho, as executor to my last will and testament to serve without bonds in connection with my two sons heretofore appointed.

Signed: Dorthe C. Madsen