A lot of temple work for my Danish ancestors was done in the Salt Lake Temple in the 1920’s and 1930’s. In the past five years, because of the many old Danish records that have been digitized and put online, I have been able to find spouses, children, grandchildren, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. for many of my Danish ancestors whose temple work was done over 90 years ago. In the past five years, I have found about 300 of my Danish ancestors that have needed their temple work done. As my husband and I and other family members have taken these Danish family names through the temple, we have felt a closeness to them. I and many members of my family have had so many wonderful experiences in the temple that have confirmed to us that these wonderful Danish people have been waiting to have their temple ordinances done for them.
One of these wonderful experiences was with Lizzie Kardt Sørensen, my 2nd cousin once removed. I have two very old pictures of Lizzie’s grandmother and father that I have been able to post on FamilySearch so that other family members can see this beautiful Danish family. Just 5 years ago, the only immediate member of this Danish family that was on Family Search was Lizzie’s grandmother Marie Kirstine Frederikke Jensen (1855-1907). With all of the Danish records that are now online, I have been able to add Marie Jensen’s husband, Carl Valdemar Sørensen, and her 4 children to her. Marie Kirstine Frederikke Jensen Sørensen’s 4 children are Marie, Thorvald, Carl, and Anna Sørensen. Marie, Carl, and Anna Sørensen all died when they were infants. Thorvald is my Great Aunt Marie Jensen Sørensen’s only child who lived to be an adult. About 4 years ago I was able to find Thorvald Sørensen’s wife, Dagmar Magnussen, and their 3 children, Emmy, Ellen and Lizzie Kardt Sørensen. I added these 4 Danish family members to FamilySearch so that I would be able to do their temple work. Since Lizzie Kardt Sørensen was born in the fall of 1909, I had to wait until the fall of 2019 to start on her temple work.
I have a married daughter named Aubrey who lives near Sacramento, California. My single daughter, McCall, who lives in Provo, decided to go and visit her in the fall of 2019. As part of McCall’s trip to California, she and Aubrey went to the Sacramento temple and did baptisms and confirmations for 10 of their Danish female ancestors. Lizzie Kardt Sørensen was one of the 10 Danish female family names that my daughters baptized and confirmed in the Sacramento temple that day. Below is a picture of McCall and Aubrey in front of the Sacramento temple just after they finished the baptisms and confirmations for 10 of their female Danish ancestors.
McCall VanLeeuwen and Aubrey Cookson in front of the Sacramento Temple, Sept. 19, 2019.
I was able to do Lizzie Kardt Sorensen’s initiatory in the Draper Temple on December 13, 2020. I had about 40 other female family names that needed their endowments done before I could do Lizzie’s endowment, so when the temples were closed because of Covid-19, in March of 2020, I had not completed Lizzie’s temple endowment. So Lizzie Sørensen had to wait a long time until her temple endowment could be completed. But finally, in July of 2021, the temples were reopened for proxy temple ordinances, so my husband and I were able to again start to go back to attending the temple once a week.
On February 15, 2022, my husband and I had an evening endowment appointment at the Mount Timpanogos temple and the ancestor that I would be doing their proxy endowment for was Lizzie Kardt Sørensen. What a wonderful endowment session my husband and I were able to be part of that night. We were chosen as the witness couple for that endowment session. Both my husband and I truly felt the presence of the two ancestors that we were doing proxy temple work for that evening.
While we were driving home from the Mount Timpanogos Temple, I got the strongest impression that I needed to find another member of Lizzie’s family and do their temple work. I had completed the temple work for Lizzie’s parents and 2 older sisters, so I guessed that I was being prompted to find Lizzie’s husband. Lizzie was born on October 19, 1909 in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark. I had found 5 census records on this family going all the way up to 1930 so I thought that I had found all the members of this Sørensen family. So I assumed that it must be Lizzie’s husband that I needed to find and do temple work for.
This impression from Lizzie was so strong that I opened FamilySearch as soon as I got home from the temple and began searching for Lizzie’s husband. I searched through many records for several hours and I could not find Lizzie’s husband. But then I found what I thought was a birth and baptism record for Lizzie on Ancestry. Lizzie’s parents, Thorvald Sørensen and Dagmar Magnusen, were listed on this record from Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark, but the dates on the record were 10 Nov. 1909 and 14 Nov. 1909. Lizzie’s birth date was 19 October 1909 so at first, I thought maybe I had the wrong birth date for Lizzie. But then I looked at the top of the record and it said, “Døde Kvindekøn,” which, translated, means, “Dead Females.” I was looking at a death record and as I looked closer at the record, I realized that it said Inge Kardt Sørensen, not Lizzie Kardt Sørensen. In this record, it said that Inge Kardt Sørensen was born on 19 October 1909, the exact same day that Lizzie Kardt Sørensen was born. But then listed on the record by Inge Kardt Sørensen’s name was “3 Uger,” which translated is “3 Weeks.” Then by Inge Kardt Sørensen’s name the death date of 10 November 1909 was listed and then the burial date of 14 November 1909 was listed and the burial place of Assistens Cemetery in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
I realized that I was looking at the death record of Lizzie Sørensen’s twin sister, Inge Sørensen, who had died at 3 weeks. Lizzie wanted me to find her twin sister, Inge, so that these twin sisters could both be sealed to their parents at the same time. I quickly added Inge Kardt Sørensen to FamilySearch and then printed off both Lizzie Kardt Sørensen’s and Inge Kardt Sørensen’s “Sealing to Parent” temple family ordinance cards.
My husband and I had a sealing appointment at the Jordan River Temple that next week, so among the sealing cards that we took to the temple that evening, were the two twin girls, Lizzie and Inge Sørensen. While my husband and I were at the altar doing family sealings, the sealer looked down at the 2 next cards that I had given him and he said, “These 2 girls are sisters. I would like to seal them to their parents at the same time so I would like to do a family sealing if that is okay with you.” I said that that would be wonderful and then I explained that these 2 girls were twins and one girl had died when she was just 3 weeks old, and the other girl had lived to be an adult. The sealer then asked 2 more women in our group to come to the altar and be proxies for Lizzie and Inge. My husband and I were the proxies for their father, Thorvald Sørensen and their mother, Dagmar Magnussen. The spirit was so strong during this sealing that all four of us that were at the altar had tears in our eyes. So because I had listened to the prompting from Lizzie the night that I had completed her endowment, Lizzie and her twin sister, Inge, were able to be sealed to their parents at the same time and were even able to be sealed as a family, which was the first family sealing that our temple sealer had done that evening.
Advances in technology have truly led to family history miracles and miracles in the temple.
-Alison VanLeeuwen, Consultant, Granite Family History