Henrik Brandt's Genealogy Website

 
 
Welcome! I live in Odense, Denmark. This website mostly deals with the genealogy of my mother's family, the Danish-Italian Mazanti family. Most of it is written in Danish but you may find the Mazanti-pedigree ("Efterkommerne") useful. The first page of the pedigree describes the 1st and 2nd generation and includes several links to members of the 3rd generation and their offspring.

I have translated the page about the Italian Roots - it describes my theory about the origin of the Mazzanti name; I'm also trying to imagine how the Mazzantis lived in ancient Tuscany. The texts in the Mazanti Photo Album are also written in English.

I have made a concise list of my Danish ancestors. Another option is my database at WorldConnect, you'll find lots of Mazantis (and all my ancestors) there.

If you have any comments or questions concerning my website and/or the Mazantis, please send me a mail.


The Danish Mazanti Family

The following is a translation of some of the words found in the pedigree:

Danish født døbt død begr. sogn kirke kirkegård barn/børn ca 1758 samme sted
English born baptized died buried parish church cemetary child/children about 1758 same place

Probably the ancestor of the Danish Mazantis, Joseph Anthon Mazanti, was born at the sea port Livorno (Leghorn), Tuscany. He may be identical to Giuseppe Mazzanti, born 24th March 1767 at Livorno, son of Francesco Mazzanti and Maddalena Masini and grandson of Giuseppe Mazzanti. Young Giuseppe (Joseph) learnt the craft of fabricating barometers, a Tuscan invention, but he left Italy and married a Polish girl, Anna Dorothea Snechac. She gave birth to six children. They went to Stockholm, Sweden but settled down in Odense, Denmark about 1795-1796. Between 1801 and 1804 Joseph disappears. According to his children he died on his way to a fair but an old pedigree suggests that he went missing in Germany in 1804. The mystery is unsolved! His wife died 1810 in a poor condition. She was buried in a pauper's grave.

The children of Joseph Anthon Mazanti and Anna Dorothea Snechac were

  1. Ferdinand Anthon Mazanti (1789-1841), landowner in Jutland
  2. Marie Theresia Mazanti (ab. 1792-1860), married the farmer Hans Giørtz in Jutland
  3. Juditte Susanne Mazanti (ab. 1794-?), destiny unknown
  4. Alexander Bonaventura Mazanti (1796-1856), miller in Jutland
  5. Johan Joseph Mazanti (1798-1817), apprentice in Odense
  6. Carl Emanuel Mazanti (1800-1868), corporal, labourer in Odense
Ferdinand Anthon Mazanti - d. 1841 Carl Emanuel Mazanti and wife Johanne Pedersdatter Krogh, about 1860

The social promotion of the older sons is very surprising, considering the parents' poverty and the period. According to family tradition some of the children were fostered by wealthy people. Three of the children had children of their own and they have got a lot of descendants today. Most of the family, by several different surnames, lives in Denmark but some of our relatives live in the USA. You kan split the family in three branches:

  • Ferdinand's branch. This was the "distinguished" Mazantis, living on large farms in Jutland. Gradually most of them went to Copenhagen. But a single branch owns some Danish manors.
  • Theresia's branch. She is the ancestor of a large part of the Giørtz family.
  • Carl's branch. Most of his descendants stayed in Odense, Funen, working in different crafts.

Finally I'll inform you about some of the emigrants of the Mazanti family. Along with many hopeful Danes they left their family's new homeland and went to the USA. I don't know much about them but you might!

  • Heinrich Friedrich Mazanti, born 5th Oct 1853 at Karby, Schleswig-Holstein (once a part of Denmark), died April 1929, druggist in Cedar Falls, Iowa
  • Theodor Christian Vilhelm Mazanti, born 18th Dec 1854 at Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, emigrated 1877, settled in Racine, Wisconsin
  • Karl Ferdinand Julius Mazanti, born 13th Febr 1858 at Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, lived in New York
  • Maria Theresia Giørtz, born 2nd Dec 1855, died 1893 at Hulkunsen, Minnesota, married Søren Pedersen and emigrated in 1882
  • Heinrich Jacob Giørtz (Henry Giortz), born 21st Dec 1859 at Hvejsel, Denmark, married Agnes Ludovica Nielsen and settled in Racine, Wisconsin
  • Aage Edvard Rodskjer, born 23rd Dec 1879 in Vejle, Denmark, lived in the USA in 1905
  • Christian Peder Mazanti, born 15th Febr 1892 in Odense, Denmark, died about 1929 in California

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