Can you identify living relatives?
It may not be possible to identify living, Danish relatives of your immigrant ancestor, because there may not be any living relatives in Denmark. Furthermore, identifying living relatives is typically more difficult than identifying ancestors, because various laws protect information about the living.
The Danish archive law regulates access to records. Some of the restrictions influence the ability to identify living relatives. For instance, parish registers listing births and marriages must be more than 50 years old to be accessed without special permission.
As an example, Genealogist Lene Dræby Kottal might be able to document the birth of a relative born in the 1950s, but possibly not the births of that relative's children, because they are likely to be born in the 1970s or 1980s. If the relative from the 1950s is deceased, the list of descendants therefore ends with a deceased relative. On the other hand, if the relative born in the 1950s is not deceased, chances of finding him/her are high, because in Denmark there is a nationwide civil registry from which addresses of most Danish residents can be obtained when the person's name and birthdate is known.
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