My full name is Eilif Herbert Gordon Braverman Mikkelsen.

As you can see, I have a lot of names, but every one of them is for a good reason. I carry my geneology in my name - each one is special, and has its own story.

• Eilif is for my cousin (twice removed) Eilif Kroager (perhaps spelled Krogager). My grandfather, Carl Mikkelsen (senior), and my dad (Carl Mikkelsen, Jr.) both met Eilif at his home in Denmark. He had some interesting jobs. Before World-War-2, he was the Lutheran Priest for the Danish town of Tjaerborg.

  During the war, his home was occupied by Nazi soldiers. He worked against the Nazis during the night, while entertaining them and making them comfortable in his home during the day. They left a large Nazi eagle painted on the wall, which Eilif never painted over, so that he would always remember.

  Before the war ended, he fled to Sweden to join his wife Gorma, who was already living there.

  After the war, he was curious what Europe looked like, and figured that many other people would be as well. He bought a tour bus, and began to conduct tours. This grew into a very large travel agency, Tjaerborg Travel. Soon, he needed airplanes, so he made his only trip to the US to visit Boeing in Seatle and purchase 747's. Here is a surviving picture of a Tjaerborg airplane from http://www.avphotos.co.uk.

  To quote from an article published several places on the web: (such as here and here)

  A "revolution" of the Danish travel market took place on July
  3rd, 1950, when the Danish priest Eilif Krogager sent two busses
  with travelers to Spain the same week the border was opened for
  tourists.  The story of the priest, who had been longing to go
  abroad and gathered 33 persons to go by bus to Segovia in Spain,
  soon resulted in the creation of an air charter travel giant
  (Tjaereborg Travel named after of his parsonage).  The concept
  still remains the recipee of how the average Dane can afford to
  travel aboard once or twice a year.
  

  

  My dad liked Eilif and Gorma, but only visited once before Eilif died. I was born while Gorma still lived, and my dad sent her a letter letting her know I was born. I hope she got it.

• Herbert is for my father's mother's mother's father, Herbert Leroy Sargent of North Danville, New Hampshire. He was a printer, tinkerer, inventor, and inspiration to my father.

• Gordon is for my father's mother's father, Gordon Wayne. He died when my grandmother was a baby, so my dad didn't get to meet him. He did, however, go to MIT in the twenties, and was indirectly influential in my father's life path into technology.

• Braverman is my mother's last name. She was the oldest child of Abraham Braverman, the youngest of eleven, and Rose Lang.

• Mikkelsen is my dad's last name, and it is also mine and my sister's.

There are some wonderful animations of my name produced by a gentleman in Denmark. Please visit his site to see more of his work.

That's it for now. Maybe my dad will write more later. In the mean time, you can find lots of pictures of me on the family photo album.

As an experiment, here is an AVI file of me playing basketball last winter. Back to the family page.

Update: