While we focus on the children of Hans and Catharina Petersen who thrived and had documentable lives, here we'd like to remember the four children who died in infancy or very early childhood.
Hans and Catharina Petersen were typical parents of the time, welcoming children about every two years. In the 1880s, when they lived in Fillmore and Thayer Counties in Nebraska, Hans and Catharina had two daughters named after close family members.
Elise Christina Petersen was born on June 10, 1882. She was named for her maternal grandmother, a practice that followed traditional German/Danish naming conventions. She died of a brain inflammation on April 30, 1885 and was buried in Kiowa Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery. Her headstone at right identifies her as the daughter of H.P. and C. Petersen.
Elise Margaretha Petersen was born February 24, 1886 and died June 20, 1887, just over a year old. Her names reflect both her grandmothers. We have not yet found any documents explaining her death at such a young age, nor is there a headstone for her in the cemetery. She may have been buried with her sister in the same plot.
Hans and Catharina relocated to a suburb of Chicago Illinois called Lake in Ward 30 of the city. They had two more sons there. Johann Christian was born on May 3, 1890 and died just before his first birthday on April 6, 1891. Johann probably refers to his father, since Hans was a form of Johann. Christian could refer either to his maternal grandmother, Elise Christina Petersen, or an older stepbrother of Hans Petersen called Paul Christian, who appears not to have emigrated to the USA, or possibly Christian Nicolai Petersen, an older brother of Catharina who also didn't emigrate to the New World.
Edward Andreas was born May 7, 1892 and died May 30, 1893. We don't know the inspiration for the name Edward, but Andreas reflects the name of Catharina's younger brother Andreas, who had married in Illinois in 1889 and moved to Wisconsin.
The two young boys were buried at Mt. Greenwood Cemetery in Blue Island, a Chicago suburb, a resting place for many of Hans and Catharina's children over time. Catharina's granddaughter remembers visiting the cemetery with her grandmother often in the 1930s. Catharina would always take time to visit the infants section of Mt. Greenwood and stand in quiet contemplation at their graves.
