Consistent Inconsistency, 52 Ancestors

The inconsistent church records of Grebo Parish are both a blessing and a curse. Each record examined leads to more questions and more records and more questions and answers. After quite a trip down the genealogy rabbit hole, it's time to return to my original research subject, a woman with plenty of errors in her sparse records.

Maria (Maja) Carlsdotter will likely always be an end-of-line ancestor, a brick wall. I've found only three direct church records for her. In a span of only five years, the church records show she was married, had a daughter and died. Each church record has at least one gap or inconsistency.

The marriage record is simple:

• dr[äng] Olof Ericsson i Borkesved och pig[a] Maja Carlsdotter ibidem ... d[ag] 22 November [1784]
• Laborer Olof Ericsson in Björksved and maid Maja Carlsdotter same ... day 22 November [1784]

Daughter Stina Olofsdotter, my third great-grandmother, was born nine months later, in 1785:

• [Aug] d[ag] 26 föddes och 28 döptes Olof Ericssons och hust[ru] Maja Persdotter [sic] i Biörksved ... Stina
• August day 26 was born and 28 was christened Olof Ericsson's and wife Maja Persdotter [sic] in Björksved ... Stina

Sadly, Maria died in 1789, less than five years after her marriage:

• Den 26 Mai ... Maria Carlsdotter i Åhagen död af Hectique [hektik] ... 45 år
• On 26 May ... Maria Carlsdotter in Åhagen died of pulmonary consumption (tuberculosis) ... 45 years old

You think I'm crazy because that looks like three different women. I assure you that's not the case, but there are definitely issues. 

The worst error is the birth record with the wrong surname for the mother. How could that happen? 

A woman who had given birth was not allowed into the church for several weeks afterwards. The infant was christened with the father, godparents and other witnesses in attendance. Whoever gave the information to the minister or clerk must have said the wrong name. The torp (croft) name of Biörksved/Björksved is consistent, as is the name of the father and first name of the mother. Other records have to be used to support the conclusion.

If you recall the twice-dead brother-in-law, you may remember that multiple families might have lived at the torp. What do the tax records add? 

Looking at the 1786 page for the lands of Rösten, the list was written on 30 November 1785, just three months after the birth of baby Stina. It's hard to read and really shouldn't be looked at in isolation. Here we see the families at Björksved[en] were Olof Ericsson and wife and Jonas Pehrsson and wife. There was only one Olof Ericsson who could have been the father in this birth record. Looking at many tax records, it is clear that Jonas Pehrsson lived at Stora [Big] Björksved, while Olof lived at Lilla [Little] Björksved, so both the tax and church records were a bit incomplete in naming the crofts.

Maria's death record has an unfortunate gap. The first two records were for Maja, a nickname, while the death record was for Maria. It did not specify that she was a wife or the name of her husband. That's an omission which means more research.

Looking at the tax records from the list of 15 October 1783 through the list of 23 November 1790, the story can be pieced together. The tax records also raise a question about the marriage record.

• In 1783-84, Olof was ogift, or unmarried. Living with him were his two younger sisters, Caisa and Lisa, and his father Eric, who was old and crippled.

• In the 1785 list that was written on 30 October 1784, Olof was listed with a wife. The church records recorded the marriage on 22 November 1784. The tax list was likely written based on the banns being called and the couple already living together. Were they actually married earlier than the church records state? Could they have been married in a different parish, her home parish, but recorded in his parish also? Additionally, Olof was the torpare [crofter] and not a dräng [laborer], which is a minor error.

• In 1785-86, Olof and his wife, with their unlisted infant and his father Eric were the only residents of Lilla Björksved.

• In 1786-87, Olof and his wife moved to Åhagen, a neighboring torp. Eric stayed behind, with his daughter Caisa moving back home. Olof and his wife also assumed the housing of some prior residents of Åhagen, who were probably on poor relief.

• In 1787-88, nothing changed. However, Olof Ericsson was accidentally written as Eric Olofsson.

• In 1788-89, nothing changed.

• In the 1790 list that was written on 27 November 1789, Olof was listed as änka, a widower. That places his wife's death between 20 November 1788 and 27 November 1789. Maria Carlsdotter of Åhagen died on 26 May 1789, so the records do align. Olof's sister Lisa moved in with him, probably to care for little Stina and to do the housekeeping.

• In the 1790-1791 list, Olof again had a wife, as he had remarried. This record repeats the questionable marriage sequence, with the tax list written about four weeks before the marriage date. 

The 1790 marriage record for Olof Ericsson and maid Catherina (Caisa) Andersdotter also noted an inheritance due to Olof's daughter, Stina, with the phrase "the widower's only daughter's mother". So one and only one daughter was living from Olof's first marriage.

The next question is how we know Olof Ericsson moved from Lilla Björksved to Åhagen. How do we know it is the same man? 

Two records are helpful. The first clerical survey for Åhagen lists Olof Ericsson and his daughter Stina, with their birthdates. However, Stina's birthdate is off by one year, written as 26 August 1786, instead of 1785. There is no corresponding birth record for 1786. 

When Olof Ericsson of Åhagen died in June, 1802, his eldest daughter from his first marriage was identified as Stina, age 17, which adds back the missing year. The incorrect reading or writing of dates by one year was an unfortunately common error in this parish. Therefore, Olof Ericsson of Åhagen was the father of Stina born 26 August 1785 at Björksved and he was the husband of Maria (Maja) Carlsdotter who lived at Björksved and died at Åhagen.

Having reconciled the three direct church records, supported by other records, an important question remains: when and where was Maria (Maja) Carlsdotter born and who were her parents. Her father was probably named Carl, but that's not much help. In the witnesses for her daughter's christening, surnames were mostly not listed, so there is no way to leverage the witnesses for a FAN club. The only surname was for a wealthier woman in the parish, so was unlikely to have been a relative.

If Maria was 45 at the time of her death in 1789, she would have been born about 1744. There is no supporting birth record in Grebo or in the annex parish of Värna. I don't trust the age as being accurate so have broadened the search years. She was old enough to marry in 1784 and young enough to have a child in 1785. She had no other children, which could have been due to her age or to tuberculosis. She could have been as young as 16 or as old as 45 at the time of her her marriage. That's a huge span of time and she has a name that is not very unique. 

So Maria (Maja) Carlsdotter is an end-of-line ancestor. She takes her place in the long-term to do list of checking birth indexes as they are expanded by ArkivDigital and its partners. Her position in my grandfather's tree is shown below with a star, at the end of one of the shortest branches of the tree. Grebo Parish is in the orange area on the map.

To Do List

• Find a viable birth record for Maria (Maja) Carlsdotter in or near Grebo Parish, between 1738 and 1768.

Sources

• Grebo Church Records for births, deaths and marriages
• Grebo Clerical Survey records
• Grebo Mantals Tax Lists 
• Bankekinds District Court Probate Records
• Swedish Historical Dictionary Database
• Demografisk Databas Södra Sverige, Klassificerade dödsorsaker

The Unwanted Gift, 52 Ancestors

A few months ago, my uncle, a retired doctor, asked me if my Swedish research had identified the source of the family "Disease". We were discussing the differences in his grandparents' families, which I wrote about earlier this year. He conceded that the source didn't really matter at this point. But I told him that I would watch for clues. 

In our family, the Disease and Related Conditions are inherited in a way that seems random. They vary in severity and seem to skip generations. But perhaps they don't skip, but are so mild we just don't see them. To protect the privacy of my family, I will not name the Disease and Conditions. My father claimed to have a mild form of the Disease, but until doing recent research into Related Conditions, I had not understood how his condition was part of the overall pattern. 

At the beginning of 2023, I stumbled over an unexpected clue. I had not intended to research, at this time, the line that I have been writing about. While double-checking my work on one ancestor, I found that her brother-in-law had died twice. Unraveling his story led me to his grandfather and his mother, Stina Månsdotter, my 5th-great-grandmother. 

While writing about her history, I saw that her cause of death was a word that I didn't know. The word was abbreviated and obsolete. After finally figuring it out, the translation showed an obsolete English term. Fortunately Wikipedia had a brief page on it. As I read the description, I was certain that this was the earliest known ancestor who was a source of the Disease, an unwanted genetic gift. 

While educating myself on the Swedish term, I found a Wikitree discussion suggesting that the term used for Stina's death was misused in some places and times. Did Stina really have the Disease or was it misuse?

Previously I had not focused on causes of death in Sweden. Common causes have been tuberculosis, pneumonia, childbirth, smallpox, old age, etc. Now that I had found a possible source of the Disease in my great-grandfather's line, it was time to take a deeper look at the next four generations and attempt to validate whether Stina's cause of death seemed accurate.

The death records generally give only a direct cause of death, so there is no knowledge of the other conditions that family members may have had. I also did not follow every line to modern times. However, I found reinforcement of the Disease in this line. Finding explicit statements, with modern terms, in other generations indicates to me that Stina is a source of this genetic flaw. There certainly could be other sources.

Counting Stina as generation one and my father as generation seven, the findings are:

1. 
   Stina died from the Disease.
2. No indications. Deaths from pneumonia, tuberculosis, childbirth, etc.
3. A notation of the Disease was in a household survey for a woman who later died from a Related Condition.
4. Persons with Related Conditions only, including two infants with an unusual cause of death.
5. One person who died from the Disease, and others with Related Conditions.
6. One person identified through family interviews as having the Disease.
7. Two persons identified through family interviews as having the Disease. Others, including my father, having Related Conditions.

Bear in mind that this graphic and information do not include all lines and that information on medical conditions is limited. While my direct line has some generations with no recorded conditions, it is likely that there were some. I also have not probed into my generation or our children and grandchildren. I do believe some of us have Related Conditions.

The seven generations covered spanned over two hundred years. Our family hopes that this unwanted genetic gift will die out and not impact any future generations .

Stina's Story

Stina Månsdotter was born about 1730. Having the Disease, she would have had health challenges throughout her life. Marriage in Sweden in those times was a practical and economic decision, so her father may have coerced a reluctant Eric Ericsson to marry Stina. He could have made it a condition to assume the lease for the croft Lilla Björksved on the lands of Rösten. The couple married in Grebo Parish, Östergötland, on 24 June 1751. Eric farmed the land, while Stina managed the home.

They had eight children: four sons and four daughters. 

• Three children died in childhood: Måns, Pehr and Helena.
• Anna Stina, the eldest, is lost in the records. 
• Eric had no children.
• Lisa had twins, but she and the babies all died within 30 days of the birth.
• Catherina (Caisa) had one daughter. 
• Olof had four children with two wives. 

The children of Caisa and Olof passed down Stina's DNA to future generations.

Stina died in March of 1783, with an age noted as 54. Her husband, Eric Ericsson, died of pneumonia in 1796.

The parish of Grebo is in the orange area of the map and Stina's position in my grandfather's ancestry is starred.

Questions about Stina

In the first post of 2023, I wrote that I have a lot of questions about Stina Månsdotter. Her origin is not at all clear.

Stina did not name a daughter Karin, although she did name a daughter Catharina, which can be a variant. If her mother was Karin Olofsdotter, one of the two eldest daughters should have been named after her. However, if Karin was alive when the older children were born, perhaps there was a desire to wait. Or perhaps her husband's mother was Karin and she was still alive.

When Stina's two younger daughters died in another parish, their death records listed their mother with different names. That may be due to sparse or inaccurate moving certificates or inaccurate information provided by surviving family members.  The records for these women had to be analyzed and traced through the parishes to assure the women were correctly followed. It does raise the question of whether Stina might have been a child of a different mother or father.

There is no birth record in Grebo parish that matches what is documented about her. In the tax records, she is listed as the daughter of Måns Andersson, not as a step daughter, foster daughter or other relationship. She may have been born in a different parish or from an affair outside his marriage. I don't know where her parents were living between their marriage on 17 March 1728 and the tax list created on 12 December 1730. There is also no supporting birth record in the immediately surrounding parishes.

Her assumed parents had twins named Anna and Anders who were born in 1731. While Anders' death was recorded, there is no trace of this Anna. Bearing in mind these parish records are full of errors, it is possible that this is Stina's birth record. However, the next child was born 15 months after the twins. That timeframe is unlikely if one twin was still nursing, but it is not impossible. A second daughter named Anna was born in 1735. Either the first Anna died or her name was recorded incorrectly. 

Stina first appeared on the tax list that was made on 6 November 1745, so she would have turned 15 sometime in 1745 or 1746. That assumes honesty with the tax collector, which certainly may not be the case. If she was 54 in 1783, she could have been born as early as 1728. If she turned 15 in 1746, her birth could have been as late as 1731. 

To Do List

More indexes are coming online each year. Can these questions be answered?

• What happened to Anna Stina Ericsdotter, born in 1751? 
• Can a viable birth record be found for Stina Månsdotter between 1728 and 1731? 

Sources

• Grebo Church Records for births, deaths and marriages
• Grebo Clerical Survey records
• Grebo Mantals Tax Lists 
• Bankekinds District Court Probate Records
• Church records for other parishes: Värna, Björsäter, Åtvid, Svinstad (Bankekind), Östra Ryd, Linköping Domkyrkoförsamling, Norrköpings Östra Eneby, Norrköpings Hedvig, Törnevalla, Skärkind 
• Death certificates: Chicago, Illinois; Venango County, Pennsylvania
• Family interviews
• Wikipedia
• Swedish Historical Dictionary Database
• Demografisk Databas Södra Sverige, Klassificerade dödsorsaker

Twice Dead, 52 Ancestors

Eric died in Björksved, Grebo parish, on 13 April 1762, at the tender age of 3 years, 5 months and 7 days. 

What? That's not right!

That's the right home, the right name and the right age. Before even calculating the birth date, I knew with dismay that this was a genealogical mystery which could break a branch off my family tree.

Unfortunately, I couldn't simply ignore this death record. My research showed that Eric Ericsson had lived to the age of 70. He had been born in Björksved on 5 November 1758 and had died on 28 January 1829.

It was time to double check all my research about this family and expand that research into the yearly tax records. That's been a multi-week effort.

Conclusion One

I have reached two conclusions, one of which cannot be disputed: the Grebo church records are messy, incomplete and often inaccurate. This family record, while a mess, is not the worst.

The first clerical survey (husförhörslängd) for members of this family did not match the church vital records in several instances. For example: 

• Died in 1795 (survey) versus 1796 (death register).
• Born in 1785 (birth register) versus 1786 (survey).
• Married in 1797 (marriage register) versus 1798 (survey).

There were also inconsistencies between surveys over the years. 

• Eric Ericsson and his wife both had a 5-year change in their birth years between two surveys.
• His nephew was born on 19 April 1802 or on 14 April 1802, a 5-day transcription error that persisted through his life.

My personal opinion, which is worth absolutely nothing, is that the minister and clerks in the parish suffered from disorganization and possibly dyslexia. Many of the records in the annex parish of Värna are written in the same hand and have similar issues. I had previously noticed that people who passed through these parishes had inconsistent birth dates, but had not recognized it as a pattern.

Conclusion Two

My second conclusion is that Eric did not die as a child. Rather, it was his younger brother, Pehr, who died. Eric and his family remain firmly attached to the Ekstrom side of our Swedish tree. He had no children, but was important to his nephew and nieces, as well as being a key to identifying the family. 

Eric's Story

Eric Ericsson was born 5 November 1758 to Eric Ericsson and Stina Månsdotter. He was the fourth of eight children. He worked as a farm laborer for his father and brother before finding similar jobs with other farmers, working as a laborer throughout his life. Eric married the 46-year-old Catherina Hansdotter on 7 May 1797. They had no children.

Eric's older brother, Olof Ericsson, died in 1802, leaving four minor children from two marriages. His estate inventory (boupptekning) named his brother Eric as the guardian of the children and their assets. The eldest daughter, Stina, was 17 and able to be self-supporting. The younger three children were from Olof's second marriage and their mother died eight years after their father, orphaning the children.

Eric took custody of Olof Olofsson, 8, and watched over his sisters, Lovisa, 16, and Maria Lotta, 14. Lovisa immediately left home to find work. Maria had health issues and stayed with her stepfather until she was over 21. Eric soon apprenticed Olof to a shoemaker, a wise choice which lifted Olof from the life of a farm laborer to that of a skilled tradesman. 

Eric Ericsson and his wife, Catherina Hansdotter, both died with a recorded cause of chest pain, eight days apart in January, 1829. In a role reversal, Olof Olofsson, age 26, was responsible for their joint estate inventory.

As a reference, this is my great-grandfather's family and this generation is at the position marked with a star.

They were from Grebo in Östergötland, within the area marked in orange on the map.

Research Observations

The following disjointed information explains my conclusion. The details are presented here in the hope that no one in my family will need to duplicate this effort. 

This is supplementary information for the use of family or those looking for ideas about research in Sweden. I will not be offended if you do not read it.

It was important to find every clue possible from early records, including the tax (mantals) records. The household survey records in Grebo parish started rather late, so tax and vital records had to be used for this family. This type of research takes time, as the records must be reviewed page by page. Probate records for this parish are indexed in book form, which also require paging, but is far easier than in unindexed parishes.

So who died in 1762?

The death records for Grebo parish in 1762 include one stillbirth, eight adults above age 20 and, sadly, 17 children under age eight. Smallpox (koppor) was spreading in the parish. In April, the records showed that the tenant farm named Björksved lost two young boys to what was listed as pneumonia: Måns and Eric. 

The children were listed only by the farm name and their first names, and without a surname or the name of their father. The death date, age and cause of death completed the brief entries. Eric's entry reads as follows:

[Apr] d. 13 Eric i Björksved bröstsjuka 3.5.7.

Translated/interpreted as:

[Apr] day 13 Eric in Björksved pneumonia 3 years 5 months 7 days

My date calculator shows that a child born on 5 November 1758 would have been 3 years 5 months 8 days on 13 April 1762. Discrepancies of a few days in such a calculation is normal, so the odds are high that this child's death record referred to Eric Ericsson, born on that day in Björksved.

The farmer at Björksved was Eric Ericsson. He and his wife, Stina Månsdotter, had four boys and four girls. For simplicity, I'll call this the Ericsson family. 

I had entered the Grebo records while tracing my third-great-grandmother, Stina Caisa Olofsdotter, who was born and raised in Grebo. Her records had date errors, so I had researched her parents, siblings and stepmother. Her father had died at Åhagen in 1802, and his estate inventory has survived. It is an important piece of evidence. It listed his widow and his children and stated that his brother, Eric Ericsson of Dammen, was to be the guardian of the minor children. The children included 17-year-old Stina Caisa, two sisters and an infant named Olof who was born on 19 April 1802.

The household survey records were sporadic in the first few years that they exist for Grebo. In 1800, the survey showed that Eric Ericsson of Dammen was married to Catherina Hansdotter, a somewhat unique name in the parish. Their birth years and marriage year did not align with later records and did not match the vital records. Later household surveys corrected those differences. This pattern of error and correction was also observed in a neighboring parish while researching another family. The survey instructions from the diocese must have changed over time.

Eric Ericsson and his wife lived only a couple of years at Dammen and soon moved on to Eriksberg. In the household survey of 1812, their young nephew was living with them, having been orphaned by the death of his mother. The family is listed in Eriksberg:

• Lodger Erik Erikson, [born in parish] Grebo, 5 November 1758
• Wife Katrina Hansdotter, Åtvid, 6 July 1750
• Shoemaker's Boy Olof Olofsson, Grebo, 19 April 1802

This record connected Eric and young Olof. Their birthdates in the parish connect them to birth records, which connect them to their parents and then to the probate record.

The birth record for 5 November 1758 showed the birth of Eric to parents Eric Ericsson and Stina Månsdotter of Lilla Björksved. Searching the birth records before and after the 1758 birth revealed seven more children born to the same parents. Olof Ericsson, his oldest brother, was the second child. Olof's birthdate of 17 April 1754 was accurately recorded in the survey of 1795-1800, but is hard to read, due to being overwritten.

Several questions needed to be answered for the Eric who died in 1762. 

• Was another Eric born in the parish at the same time? That was not found in the birth records. 
• Farms often housed multiple families. Was another family also living at the farm in 1762? The tax records showed an additional family when the tax lists were made in 1761 and 1762. Abraham Hansson and his wife had a son who was born one month before Eric, but had died at 15 months old. So Eric could not have been their son. 
• Was there a transient family, with a birth recorded in a different parish. That is another possibility. However, no record exists that can answer this question. 

In this time frame, children under 15 were not listed in the tax records. They were first listed by name when they turned 15 and sometimes were listed in the prior year. The records began listing the counts of all children in 1766. Eric, born in 1758, should have been listed by name in the 1774 records. The list written in 1772, for the year 1773, does not name Eric. Unfortunately, the lists for the next two years are missing. 

The 1776 tax list for Björksved includes a boy named Eric, with Olof as the farmer and parents Eric and wife also in the household. The oldest son had taken over responsibility for the farm, while the parents were stepping back. Olof's brother Eric was probably the same as the boy Eric, but he also may have been an unrelated farm worker.

The 1773 list for the Eric Ericsson family counts five children: maid Anna, boy Olof and three children under the age of 15. The family had two confirmed deaths for the eight children: Måns and Helena. This count confirms that one more child was not with the family. 

So who did die in 1762? The only child that does not appear in records is the fourth son, Pehr Gustav, born in 1761. He was not listed in the 1776 tax roll and the next few years are missing from the tax records. There was one child missing in the 1773 tax roll and, since Eric was alive, that missing child was not Eric. 

One other source was used to support the absence of Pehr. In the christening records for Olof's children, witnesses included his younger sisters and his brother, Eric. There was never a Pehr who served as a witness. Anna also was not a witness and I am unable to trace her after the tax list of 1773.

My theory is that the clerk would have looked up the dead child's birthdate and, being confused, looked for Eric instead of Pehr. I believe he accidentally used Eric's birth record as the basis for the death information. 

In another error, one of the tax records that should have listed Olof Ericsson, instead listed Eric Olofsson. It is easy for me to get turned around in the patronymics and perhaps the clerks did, too. They dealt with many more names and families on a daily basis. I do acknowledge their efforts.

Timeline

The following timeline is provided for any researcher who needs to follow the records.

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Sources

• Grebo Church Records for births, deaths and marriages
• Grebo Clerical Survey records
• Grebo Mantals Tax Lists 
• Bankekinds District Court Probate Records