History and genealogy of the Hansen family

The Hansens are a family of farmers (and soldiers, though, I suspect, not always voluntarily) from Luxembourg, or the French Empire, or Prussia, or.... Okay, the area changed hands a lot. The town they are most associated with, Obersgegen , is in modern Germany and is located a couple of kilometers east of the Luxembourg border. When Michael Hansen Sr. was a young man, the area was part of the French Empire and he fought in Napoleon's army. When his son, Michael Hansen Jr. was a young man, the area was part of Prussia and he was an engineer in the Prussian army. The family considers itself to have originated in Luxembourg. Michael Hansen Jr. was the great-grandfather of my mother, Margaret Hansen Connors.

We know quite a lot about the Hansens. They settled in a small town, Rockville, in central Minnesota (just down the road a few miles from Lake Wobegon) which seems to produce a Hansen geneology about once a generation. I am using From Sturdy Roots by Bernadette Hansen Boue and Joyce Hansen as my principal source of information. I hope to add extensively to this page in the coming months.

Hansens, Beatons, and Roberts all lived in Minnesota during the 1850s. I have posted a page about conditions at Fort Snelling during the winter of 1851-52.