Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research

Lene Dræby Kottal brings over 25 years of family history experience to her clients. Since transforming her passion into a profession in 2013, Lene has excelled in delivering genealogical reports and narrative family histories that portray both male and female ancestors from Denmark.

Besides family history research, Lene assists historians and authors with transcription of Danish handwriting, translation from Danish to English, and research of local and house history.

Here are five examples of client projects completed by Lene Dræby Kottal:

1. Document the birth town in Denmark of a US immigrant. The client's research of US records was thorough but left no information about the immigrant's date of birth or town of origin. Lene researched potential parents and siblings in Denmark and ultimately documented the immigrant's birth using both direct and indirect evidence from church records, census records, military levying rolls, and probate court records.
2. Identify the parents of a client's ancestor in nineteeth-century Denmark. In addition to research of church and census records, the project required critical analysis of court records from several jurisdictions, as well as prisoner files.
3. Determine today's address of a house rented in the 1800s by a client's Danish ancestors in a rural area in Denmark. No lease contract could be found, so Lene used historical maps and original records to reconstruct the neighborhood and determine which dwelling the client's ancestors rented.
4. Translate probate and real property records for several family members who lived in Denmark in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The probate records did not only state relationships, but included detailed inventories of the belongings of the deceased persons. The real property records included fire insurance records which described the buildings in detail, including the size and building materials.
5. Transcribe handwritten letters exchanged between members of the Danish resistance movement during World War II. The language was often cryptic and the handwriting rushed.

By becoming the first-ever and only Certified Genealogist® in Denmark, Lene has shown her determination to provide her clients with high-quality services.

Connect with Lene Dræby Kottal, if you need expert assistance with research, transcription, or translation of Danish historical sources.

For information in Danish, please visit Lene Dræby Kottal's Danish website.

Geographic Specialities

• Denmark
• Northern Schleswig
• The Danish West Indies, now the Virgin Islands

Testimonials
For reviews and testimonials, visit Lene Dræby Kottal's Google Business profile and her website.

Additional specialities or search keywords
Emigration, immigration, military levying rolls, house history, descendants, living relatives.

Repositories

• The Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet).
• Local and city archives throughout Denmark.
• Arkivalieronline - Digitized sources from the Danish National Archives.
• FamilySearch - Digitized Danish records, including many not at Arkivalieronline.
• MyHeritage - Digitized and indexed Danish records, including the 1940 census.
• Ancestry.com - Digitized and indexed Danish records, including Danish church records.
• Mediestream - Digitized Danish Newspapers.
• Danskernes Historie Online - Danish digitized books, periodicals, journals, diaries, memoirs, etc.
• Many other online repositiories with sources for Danish family history.

Research Time Periods

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century
• 17th Century

Languages

• English
• Danish
• German
• Norwegian
• Swedish

Honorifics/Credentials
Certified Genealogist®