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Pioneer Database

1847–1868

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Date Unknown

Date Unknown

Birth Date
5 March 1819
Death Date
29 December 1894
Gender
Male
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Soren Christoffersen


Alternate Names

    Soren Christoffer Hansen

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Search for this pioneer on Early Mormon Missionaries Find this person in FamilySearch Find this person in Mormon Migration
  • Soren was born in Denmark, and joined the church there.  According to his writings, he was greatly determined to go to America, but his wife was strongly opposed to it.  After having tried to persuade her for four years, they divided up their five sons and their property.  The judge decided to divide the children by their age.  Soren received Christian and Hans. 

    In 1856, Soren and his two sons left Denmark to gather with the Saints.  They sailed on the ship “John J. Boyd” and left Liverpool on 12 December 1855.  The ship manifest shows their surname as "Christopherson."  During their voyage, his son Hans Sorensen Christoffersen died of measles.  Soren and Christian initially traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Canute Peterson Company in 1856.

    According to Soren’s obituary, he returned three times to Denmark to serve missions.  In April 1860, Soren traveled to Denmark to serve a mission for two years and seven months.  At the end of that mission in 1862, he led a company of 337 Scandinavian Saints to Zion.  They sailed from Hamburg on the ship “The Electric” on 18 April 1862, and landed in New York on 5 June. 

    At Florence, he was appointed as long as there were any Dances there, and then he joined the John R. Murdock company in 1862 and traveled home.  He served as an interpreter for the Scandinavians along the way. 

    Then, in 1864, he traveled as the Captain of the Soren Christoffersen Freight Train in 1864.

    In some sources his surname is "Hansen."

Canute Peterson Company (1856)

  • Age at Departure: 37
  • Head of Household

Traveled with

  • Christian Sorensen Christoffersen (Age: 11)

John Riggs Murdock Company (1862)

  • Age at Departure: 43
  • Head of Household

Soren Christoffersen Freight Train (1864)

  • Age at Departure: 44
  • Company Captain

Sources

  • Anthon H. Lund, Scandinavian Jubilee Album (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1900).
  • Biographical Events of Jens Christian Larsen
  • Breinholt, J. C. L., Life of J.C.L. Breinholt, 1891-1898.
  • Find a Grave (Website)
  • Hansen, Soren Christoffersen, "Saviors in the Ministry," New FamilySearch.
  • "Immigration to Utah," Deseret News, 15 October 1856, 254.
  • Jenson, Andrew, History of the Scandinavian Mission [1927], p. 294
  • Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 20 September 1856, 2.
  • Lever, W. H. History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah: With Sketches of Cities, Towns, and Villages; Chronology of Important Events; Records of Indian Wars; Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens (Salt Lake City: Tribune Job Printing Co, 1898), 127
  • Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860-1959, Volume 1.
  • Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company general files, 1850-1887.
  • Perpetual Emigrating Fund Ledger Index, [1992, 2013].
  • Saints By Sea: Latter-day Saint Immigration to America
  • "Soren Christoffer Hansen," Deseret Evening News , 3 Jan. 1895, 2.
  • "Soren Christoffer Hansen," Deseret News [Weekly], 12 Jan. 1895, 128.