By Another Name, 52 Ancestors

Is it possible that the siblings of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Anna Catherina Nilsdotter, have living descendants? Three siblings died in childhood, while three lived to be adults. Did those three have children and grandchildren? 

Just a few years ago this question would have been difficult to answer, as most Swedish records were not indexed. However, when Covid disrupted imaging, ArkivDigital and partner MyHeritage changed to indexing the existing collections. Anyone in Sweden who is listed in a husförhörslängd, a household survey, between 1800 and 1947, is now indexed. While the quality of the indexing varies, it is a powerful tool for finding people who moved around.

The Story of the Jonas Nilsson Family

Anna's oldest brother, Jonas, proved tricky to follow. He was born in Törnevalla parish to Torpare (crofter) Nils Nilsson and Lisken Nilsdotter on 29 July 1791. Lisken died four days later from complications of childbirth. Nils quickly remarried to Brita Johansdotter, the only mother that Jonas would have known. As the oldest surviving child, he had five younger half-siblings and one older sister who died when he was four. He would have worked the farm with his father.

Jonas left home to take a job by 1806, when he was about age 15. He moved a few miles away to the parish of Örtomta, never again living in Törnevalla. For the rest of his life, he worked as a contract laborer, moving frequently between different parishes and different farms or estates. 

In 1816, he married a woman named Brita. Their only child, Stina Lisa, was born the same year. All three of these family members changed names during their lifetime and Brita's birthdate varied in the records from inconsistent to incorrect. 

When Jonas died of pneumonia on 12 August 1837, the minister of Styrstad parish wrote a short paragraph about him in the death book. His crofter parents were referred to as bondefolk, or peasants. Jonas was referred to as a statdräng, a contract farm worker of a lower social order than a crofter. Wikipedia has an article describing the dismal lives of the statare class.

Brita died of "languishing" nine years later, on 3 May 1846, also in Styrstad parish.

Stina Lisa left her parents at the age of 15. She lived a long life, also moving frequently and working as a servant or farm worker. She died, unmarried, in 1899, meaning this family line has died out.

The Records - Jonas

The challenge of finding the family in the records started with Jonas. Searching for any person named Jonas who was born on 29 July 1791, living in Östergötland County, returned 14 records with two names: Jonas Nilsson and Jonas Ek. Were they the same man? Most records in the index showed a birthplace that resembled Törnevalla, though spellings and abbreviations were random. Looking through the underlying records, two showed the name of Jonas Nilsson Ek. These records confirmed that Jonas changed his name from the patronymic Nilsson to the nature-inspired Ek (oak) at the end of 1817.

The Records - Brita

Having reconciled the records for Jonas, it was time to identify his wife. Going through the records, it appeared he had married both Brita Hållberg and Brita Bengtsdotter. The birthdates for both women were randomly 1780 and 1781, with a birth parish of Östra Ryd. The marriage record in Östra Ryd stated that Jonas Nilson of Hummelsäter married Brita Bengtsdotter on 17 May 1816. Stina Lisa was born in the parish, on 20 September 1816, to Jonas Nilson and Brita Hållberg of Hummelsäter. This made no sense. 

Were Brita Hållberg and Brita Bengtsdotter the same woman? How could that be proven? Because the birthdates for Brita varied from record to record, searching did not reveal enough information. One recorded birthdate was 30 April 1780, but there was no supporting birth record. With no indexing before 1800, it was time to use the old method of tracking the person from record to record. Fortunately, that was possible. 

Starting from the marriage, I worked backward in time and was able to trace her back to the earliest husförhörslängd for Östra Ryd, which started in 1790. In a record for 1800, there was an obvious reason for a change on her recorded birthdate. The date was written as 30/11 1780, then crossed out. The month 11 could also be read as a 4. Before that record, her birthdate was written as 30 November 1780. Later it was written as either 1781 or as 30 April 1780.

Looking at births for 30 November 1780, the surnames were clarified. Brita was born to askved soldat (retired soldier) Bengt Hållberg and Kerstin Svensdotter (age 31) at Bäcketorpet. Her father's military name was Hållberg, which she used at times. However, children of military men didn't generally take his military name. Her patronymic was Bengtsdotter, which she used after about 1817, when Jonas changed his name to Ek. Brita's birth was also recorded as one of the last births of the year 1780, with the year of 1781 written a few lines later. Had a minister or clerk at some point looked at that year when looking up her birth record?

The Records - Stina Lisa

After solving the puzzle of Brita, daughter Stina Lisa was left to research. She used the names Jonsdotter Ek as her surname. Stina Lisa disappeared from the index about 1842, but the records did not show a death. At about that time, she took the name Christina Elisabeth, rather than the nicknames Stina Lisa. Her names were abbreviated in many different ways in the records, making it hard to locate her in the index. Fortunately her birthdate remained consistent, though there are records I have not found. 

Christina Elisabeth's two grandmothers were Kerstin Svensdotter and Lisken Nilsdotter. Kerstin and Christina are used interchangeably. Lisken is a nickname for Elisabeth. It seems that she was more fully honoring her grandmothers. She spent the last 25 years of her life in a parish named simply Å, spending the last five years in the fattighuset, the poorhouse. Christina Elisabeth Jonsdotter Ek died on New Year's Day, 1899, at 82 years old, with the cause not recorded.

The family lived in parishes that were mostly in the northernmost part of the area marked in orange. Jonas Nilsson Ek was from the generation marked with the star.

Sources

• Wikipedia article on statare
• Church records for parishes: Östra Ryd, Törnevalla, Örtomta, Landeryd, Vist, Konungsund, Björsäter, Svinstad (Bankekind), Å, Styrstad, Kuddby, Dagsberg, Östra Ny, Norrköpings Sankt Johannes, Norrköpings Sankt Olai, Norrköpings Hedvig, Sankt Laurentii (Söderköping).