scandinavian ancestry

For many, many years I was looking for my maternal grandmothers brother. His name was Nils Peter Ahlström and he emigrated in 1888. I could did not find him in the US. No matter what I did I could not trace him down. Still today I believe he eventually ended up in Canada or some rural area that was forgotten in the 1900 census. I don't have the answer and maybe I will never know. But thanks to a note in the household examinations I could find him in the Swedish court records from 1935 when he was declared dead (postum date 31/12 1908) by his family.

I still don't know why they had to declare him as dead, they simply said he was not heard from since 1908 and that's how his family decided that he must have died that year. He had nearly 4000 SEK in his Swedish bank account. That was a good sum of cash in those days.

From this piece of paper, a very simple piece of paper, I read that also his younger brother Per emigrated! And so did his half brother (I did not even know he existed!) Jöns. That was a surprise.

Maybe they both tried to find him? And on this piece of paper they were both listed as 'not heard from' and 'address in Amerika unknown'. I started another research and I soon found that Per and his wife Clara left Sweden in 1906, headed for Bloomington. Why Bloomington if there was no connection? I could not see a clear connection. And I later found them, Per & Clara , living in Delawan, Tazewell, IL. I found them in the 1910, 1920 and 1930's census, in the same place. They lived there until Per's  death in 1946 so the 'address unknown' in the court records was not really true! They never had any children. 

So now I'm still puzzled about Nils Peter, I want to  find out what happened to him, if he really died in 1908 or later, maybe even earlier. And I also want to know what happened to brother Jöns. More about that some other time.

Bengta Sonesdotter Born in 1862 on October 20 in Hörröd, Farstorp, (L) Sweden. She married Nils Månsson in 1889-07-24 Sterling, Whiteside, IL  He was born in 1859, March 19 in Hörröd, Farstorp (L), Sweden. I did not know about Bengta (Betty) and her immigration until the day I started to find out what happened to the siblings of my grandmothers' father, Pehr Christensson. His brother Sone, born in 1824, marrried a Johanna Pehrsdotter in 1855 in Boa, Farstorp, Sweden. Their daughter Bengta became Betty Munson in the US.  It took me a while to confirm the details and as I was sure to have found her, I learned that she died in 1907. Nils died in 1905. I know what happened to a few of the children. Arthur Herbert Munson, born in 1899 and the youngest of the siblings, died in 1980 in Wyoming. Click here to see the family; Betty Munson from Farstorp

Update; August 27, 2008.

I am now anxiously awaiting copies of newspaper articles, obits etc. on this family and their destiny. I have been told that three of the children were adopted (taken in) by relatives. Relatives that I did not know about.

So, my dear Bengta/Betty, you'll see that soon I will know more about your children and what happened to them. I will let living descendants know about your past and where you came from. That I promise.

I also recently learned that Bengta had two daughters, born out-of-wedlock in Farstorp. One was named Ida and the youngest, born in 1887, was named Anna Wiktoria. I'm now trying to find out what happened to them as I believe they grew up in Farstorp. I'm sure Betty's intention was to get them over one day, once she was settled in her new country. That obviously never happened.

Update; September 26, 2008 - A sad, sad story.

I got the articles last week and it was quite a depressing reading. It's a sad, sad story. Apparently Nils (Nels) died of pneumonia, on December 26, in 1905. He had been ill for a whole year and financially this was too hard for the family. When Nils died he did not even have bedding to keep him warm. The children were clean but starving and of course heartbroken. It had been days since they had a real meal. The people of Sterling did all they could to help Betty. Three local ladies took charge of the household. They made sure the children were sent to school, nice and tidy and not hungry. That way Betty could get a job to make some money. Three of the children were taken care of by relatives. Two came to Nebraska, to relatives of Nils (still have to find out who they were), a married couple without children. One was taken care of by a relative of Betty (still don't know who that was), and that might have been baby Arthur (mentioned above). Thank's to Michelle Moore, I know more about him and his life. He married a Stella Ruth Lavergne, and lived in Wyoming until the end. It is unknown if they ever had children.

Unfortunately all this was too hard for Betty, losing her husband, not being able to care for the children and the economy. She died in 1907.  The death notice said she was born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 20, 1862. Obviously her children did not quite know where she was born.

I know that Oscar Munson stayed in Sterling. Mabel Munson came back and married a Roy Myers. He was a local barber. They had one son and she divorced Roy in 1931. August once saved a little boy from drowning and that made some newspaper articles. August married a Loretta Fagan, and lived happily ever after. One of their son's, Carl E Munson died just recently.

I will add more as I get more details. Bengta, and Nils, I'm getting closer. I know that at least some of your children had a good life.

Nils Hägg (Hegh) is probably my 'favorite' ancestor of all. He was the son of Lars Hägg (Hegh),  who was a Swedish soldier (a so called Svenskryttare) who was sent down to Skåne some time around 1679, along with his father and a brother Jöns, to 'keep the peace' in the area. I don't know much about his father Lars other than that he came from Västergötland, somewhere. He got married to Pernilla Pehrsdotter in 1697 in Farstorp. And she is most probably not from there. Lars had arrived from neighboring parish Finja the year before that so my belief is that they met there. And so Lars and his brother were sent out to war in 1701, to Pomerania, and they never returned. Nils was 3 years old at that time and neither his mother Pernilla nor his auntie Karna got remarried. They shared roof and life  until they passed away.

I think Pernilla got into trouble for not following the traditions, as a soldiers widow. Normally they'd re-marry, but only if they had a death certificate to proof they were widowed. Pernilla did not get married again. Maybe because she couldn't or maybe because she didn't want to. 

Pernilla raised Nils all by herself, and she died in 1736. By then Nils was a respected village citizen, he became a soldier too, and a farmer, and he married twice. First time he was a very young soldier, in 1720, he  married Sidza Ericksdotter. She was a soldiers widow, born in 1680. And as such she had been married to two soldiers before Nils...Those were the days.

Nils and Sidza (Sissa) had two sons, Per Nilsson Hägg and Lars Nilsson Hägg. Both became soldiers, of course. Sidza died in 1738, 58 years old.

The following year, in 1739, Nils got married to Una Sörensdotter. She was a young maiden, born in 1716. She was the daughter of the miller Sören Nilsson of Gammalstorps Mölla (Mill).  They had 3 daughters, two of them survived Nils. And one of them, Sissa, 'my Sissa', my connection to life, was born in 1743. 

Sissa is one of many 'links' to the soldiers in my past and present.

More to read soon on Sissa's sister Sara, and how Michael who is related to her and now living in Colombia, found me.