Looking for info of my father in Cuba around 1957-58 and Heidelberg (died 2001)

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

I am looking for ideas how to get more information about my Danish father's time in Cuba. He died in 2001 as did his wife and I am the only child.

This is the story as I know it:

He was working as a waiter on a big cruise ship. While he was ashore in Havana, he heard a woman scream, knocked out the man trying to rape her and discovered it was one of Batista's people. The woman was a prostitute and brought him to the brothel to hide as he was blond and blue-eyed and easily recognizable. The ship left without him and being stuck on Cuba he was helped to join Castro's guerillas. At first he was just supposed to hide there but he ended up fighting along side them.

At some point he decided to escape and made it back to Florida. When I wanted to go to college in the US in early 1980'ies, he said I would not be able to get a visa as he had been interrogated by the FBI upon his return to Florida, and they didn't believe him when he said Castro was a communist so he was blacklistet.

The Folkeregister states he moved to Helsingør April 17. 1956 and moved back to Frederiksberg Oct. 24. 1959.

As it turned out I had no problems getting a visa in 1982 and when I began researching his information I contacted the FBI but was told they have no records of him.

The story of Cuba can sound like a man trying to impress his daughter but he suffered from severe shell shock and had definately seen action.

He left Denmark again in the summer of 1961, emigrating to Sweden on June 6. 1961, to spend a year working at the Thule Airbase. I have been trying to find information about his time there. I have contacted the Thule forums but found no one who knew him. He was hospitalized for severe frost bite but the medical service at Thule has not answered my letter about access to the records.

From Thule he moved to Heidelberg to work at the military base. This is where he met my (Danish) mother and moved back to Denmark with her.

His full name was Jess Albert Jessen, born Oct. 16. 1934. There is a photo of him from 1963 here: http://www.neweraenergyinstitute.com/my_father.html

I will be greatful for any suggestions of where to look for information confirming/adding details to his whereabouts before he met my mother.

Kind regards
Karin Ott Kristensen

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Hi,
I can't help you with Cuba but with Sweden. If your father ever lived in Sweden he must have got a civic number. At the time it consisted of year of birth + number of month+day+three figures. Numbers given should still be saved in the computer of the Swedish tax office. If he is not there he has not lived in Sweden and been working there.

Eva M

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

Hi Eva,

Do you know when they started that in Sweden? In Denmark is wasn't until 1968. Also, does anyone know where to find my dad's possible Swedish data?

Kind regards
Karin

[Kaj Arne Jørgensen]

Some information and possible help in your research about the time in Greenland.

http://www.greenlandcontractors.dk/en/pages/gc_a_history 

http://www.sondrestrom.com/dac.html

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

Thank you, Kaj! Unfortunately it seems that DAC didn't service Thule until 1971.

Kind regards
Karin

[Kaj Arne Jørgensen]

Am I misunderstanding you ?

I read this

In 1961, DAC won the first major service contract on "Food Service" and "Transportation" at Sondrestrom Air Base. Subsequently, the scope of the contract was extended and DAC/GC continued to carry out the service contract until the base was handed over to the Greenland Home Rule in October 1992.

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

i see what you mean, but that was Sønderstrømfjord. The next paragraph is: "In 1971, DAC won the tender of the service contract at the Thule Air Base" (http://www.greenlandcontractors.dk/en/pages/gc_a_history). But I thank you for finding the link!

Kind regards
Karin

[Kaj Arne Jørgensen]

Yes, thats correct, I made a mistake.

[Nancy Vana]

Karin

I don't know if you have this information on your father from Ancestry.com.


New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1973 about Jess Albert Jessen

Name:   Jess Albert Jessen
Age:   17
Birth Date:   abt 1935
Arrival Date:   21 Jan 1952
Port of Arrival:   New York
Ship Name:   Anna

This entry has his middle name spelled incorrectly


New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 about Jess Altoert Jessen

Name:   Jess Altoert Jessen
Arrival Date:   19 Jan 1952
Birth Date:   abt 1935
Age:   17
Gender:   Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality:   Scandinavian
Port of Departure:   Genoa, Italy
Port of Arrival:   New York, New York
Ship Name:   Oluf Maersk

Nancy V

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

No, I hadn't found that, Nancy. I did try a search, wanting to know if there was any information before joining, but I looked for his real birth year, 1934. Thank you.

Most likely he is the person on the first listing.

This mathes the information that he went to sea at an earlier point as a deck hand. I remember him telling the story of how he was run over by a car, in New York I think, and pulled to the curb with his broken leg until the municipal ambulance came on its round and picked him up. At the hospital he was lying in a room with many other people who also had no money. At intervals a host of nurses would enter, doing each of their chores until the head nurse blew her whistle. Then they would move on to the next. When he got word through to the Danish embassy he was moved into his own private room at the hospital.

Curious, though, that his journey back to Denmark is not registered but perhaps only entrance into the US is registered.

[Eva Morfiadakis]

"Personnumret infördes 1947 och då som ett system med födelsetid plus ett tresiffrigt födelsenummer. År 1967 gjordes en ändring som innebar att man införde en kontrollsiffra som fjärde siffra i personnumret."

You have to call the Swedish tax office. In 1991 the tax office took over the registration of the citizens from the church.

All civic numbers of those people who were alive in 1991 are in the database of the tax office and the numbers of those they didn't know if they were dead or alive like foreigners who had left Sweden without informing the authorities. Some of them are just a name and the number. In some cases they entered additional information for instance if the person had children here.

I think you will just get the confirmation that your father lived here but not where and for how long.

Eva M

[Karin Ott Kristensen]

Thank you, Eva!