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