Scrapping My Family History: May 2023

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Whereabouts Unknown, 52 Ancestors

Can you imagine losing track of an adult child who has moved away from home? It must have been a source of worry and frustration for my 3rd-great-grandfather. The story has not been passed down in my family, so I can only read the records and wonder.

Carl Leopold Fors lived a short life before he disappeared. He was born on 15 November 1851, in the parish of Vårdinge, near Gnesta, about 30 miles southwest of the city of Stockholm. His father, Anders Forss, was a crofter (torpare) and tailor (skräddare). His mother, Catharina Andersdotter, had a military heritage as the granddaughter of a Navy sailor and a Cavalry soldier.

Carl was the sixth of eight children, three of whom died within a seven week period when he was only six years old. Older brother Johan Julius was 12 years old when he drowned in December, 1857. The church books don't show the cause of the two younger boys' deaths, but it may have been an illness, as they died four days apart. Gustaf Adolf was not yet four and Otto Wilhelm was eight months old when they died in January, 1858. Carl was the youngest of the five remaining children: three boys and two girls. Having lost the three brothers closest in age to him, was Carl perhaps scarred for life?

It was a challenging time for the family, with Carl's paternal grandfather dying in August, 1857, in a nearby parish. Anders Forss packed up his family in March, 1860, and moved the 8 miles back to the family farm in Björnlunda parish to live near and care for his aging mother. There Anders built a new house named Andersberg, which I've written about previously.

Over the next few years, all his older siblings left home, with Carl moving out in the fall of 1868, at about age 17. He left the parish shortly after his mother's death in January, 1869, moving in March to the nearby parish of Frustuna and then to Maria Magdalena parish, in the city of Stockholm, in November, 1870.

The records show that Carl lived in Stockholm for the next four years. He was listed as a single laborer in all entries that I have found. The last entry that I located is the husförhörslängd, household survey, written in Storkyrkoförsamlingen parish (Sankt Nicolai), at the end of 1874.

When Carl's father, Anders Forss, died in 1888, his heirs were listed in the preamble to the estate inventory, as was usual. The entry for Carl (Karl) was brief:

Sonen Karl Leopold Forss hvilkens vistelseort är obekant under de senaste 12 åren, antagligen är han till sjöss utrikes eller döde.

My translation guesses where commas should be:

Son Karl Leopold Forss, whose whereabouts are unknown for the past 12 years, presumably at sea, abroad or dead.

It seems to me that Carl had died, as he disappeared without communication with the family and without a departure recorded in the church books. If he had emigrated, his family should have known his whereabouts, just as they knew his sister's location in Wisconsin. He might have been imprisoned in a foreign country, but could a common laborer afford travel outside Sweden in 1874? If he had died in a parish where he was known, the death would have been recorded and the family notified. If he died while traveling, his death could have been recorded as an unknown person. Could he have died in a boating accident while fishing or sailing on a ferry? Could he have committed suicide or suffered violence, with his body ending up in one of Stockholm's many waterways?

The four brothers and sisters of Carl Leopold Fors lived into the 1900s, dying between 1916 and 1930. Did they ever learn their brother's fate? Was there closure?

Orientation

The family lived in parishes in the area marked in purple. The Forss/Fors siblings are marked in my grandfather's tree with the star.

To Do List

Continue watching for records about Carl Leopold Fors.

Sources

Church records for parishes: Vårdinge, Björnlunda, Frustuna, Trosa Landsförsamling, Maria Magdalena, Storkyrkoförsamlingen (Sankt Nicolai)
Daga District Court Probate Records
Lantmateriet.se Historical Maps
Church Records: Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Trade Lake Swedish Mission Church and Zion Lutheran Church, Trade Lake, Wisconsin

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Tempered, 52 Ancestors

Imagine for a moment that you are a young teen of 14. You are the sole support and caregiver for your widowed mother, who is wasting away from tuberculosis. You are living with and working for an unrelated family to earn your keep. You had planned to leave home and find a job when you turned 15, like your older siblings, but your mother's needs are more important. Are you overwhelmed?

The last three posts explored the question of whether the three surviving siblings of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Anna Catharina Nilsdotter, have living descendants. The results of the research were disappointing and inconclusive.

Her eldest half-brother, Jonas Nilsson Ek, lived in poverty with his wife. They had one unmarried daughter and no known grandchildren.
Brother Anders Nilsson and wife were crofters who buried all five children while they were very young.
Poverty-stricken sister Maja Brita Nilsdotter Sandborg had two children before she was widowed too young. Her children died as young adults and no spouses or grandchildren have been identified.

In contrast to her siblings, Anna Catharina lived a life that seems stable, yet she first had to live through a challenging time as a young teen, being tested and tempered.

The Anna Catharina Nilsdotter Family

Anna Catharina (Cajsa) Nilsdotter was the youngest of seven siblings. She was born in Törnevalla parish to Torpare (crofter) Nils Nilsson and Brita Johansdotter on 4 February 1803. The christening record named her as Anna Cajsa, though later records named her Anna Catharina.

Her sister, Maja Brita, was five years older and would have been asked to watch Anna Cajsa and help care for her. Knowing little girls, Maja Brita would have been like a second mother to the baby. The sisters stayed physically close to each other throughout their lives, while their older brothers moved away in different directions.

Their father died a month before Anna Cajsa turned 11. Maja Brita returned for about a year to help stabilize the family, but financially she couldn't stay for long. Anna Cajsa was left to labor for their host family and also care for her ailing mother. She must have been exhausted, frustrated, sad, angry and apprehensive. I hope she had moments of happiness along the way. Her mother died of lungsot, or tuberculosis, four years after her father. Six weeks after her mother's death, Anna Cajsa turned 15. She had no safety net and no known extended family. Her brothers were farm laborers and her sister was a maidservant. They could do nothing for her.

She soon left the parish to find a job, as she was entirely responsible for herself. She initially moved north and east to the parish of Kimstad, which was the opposite direction from Maja Brita, but within a year she had joined her sister in Värna parish. Like so many other errors in the family's records, her birth date was eventually recorded incorrectly, with the error happening during her move from Värna parish to Björsäter parish in 1821. The moving certificate must have been either written or interpreted incorrectly. Her birthdate was recorded in Björsäter parish as 11 February, instead of the previously recorded date of 4 February.

Anna Cajsa worked as a maidservant within the parish of Björsäter, as did her sister, for about seven years. Meanwhile, the young Sven Peter Persson was growing up on neighboring farms. He was five years younger and may have been interested in the "older woman". On 29 October 1828, the 25-year-old maidservant Anna Catharina Nilsdotter married the 20-year-old farm laborer Sven Peter Persson. His age in the marriage record was listed as 22, though the surveys showed his 1808 birthdate. The couple had a baby on the way, so Sven's age being under 21 was a problem. He also was on the path to signing a contract as a torpare (crofter), but could not do so until age 21. The minister and families must have decided to take the expedient path to get the couple married before the baby arrived.

Sven Peter Persson and Anna Cajsa Nilsdotter had two children: Anna Charlotta Svensdotter, my ancestor, on 18 January 1829, and Anders Petter Svensson on 8 October 1833. The family settled into the torp Skälstorp on the lands of Backvalsinge, where they lived for 23 years. Skälstorp is not labeled on any map that I have found, but is on contemporary maps with the name of Hägn.

This lovely survey, which started in 1841, reveals some interesting trivia. The routine information includes the names, birth dates, birth parishes and marriage year. The previous parish and arrival date should be routine, but is not always present or shown as nicely. The children were vaccinated against koppor, smallpox, while their parents were not. Young Anders Peter appears to have been the star of the family at reading and religious knowledge, at least for his age. The adults took communion once in 1841, the second time it was offered. The list of communion dates in the front of the book shows that they took communion on Palm Sunday, 4 April 1841, along with another 165 parishioners.

In 1852, the family moved a few miles north to the torp of Björksäter on the lands of Klacksäter. Seven years later, Sven Peter Persson died of gout at the age of 51, on 25 October 1859. Their son, Anders Petter Svensson, took over as the torpare and Anna Cajsa moved away. Perhaps she did not feel able to keep house for her son or did not want to do so. Perhaps she didn't want to be in the way as he looked for a bride. Or she may have preferred the more comfortable life available with her tradesman son-in-law.

Anna Cajsa lived the remainder of her life with her daughter and son-in-law at Christinaholm on the lands of Missmyra. Her daughter, Anna Charlotta Svensdotter, had married Adolph Ekström, a skräddare or tailor. Anna Cajsa was able to enjoy her daughter and two of her grandchildren. Her son married at the end of 1861 and, just a few weeks later, Anna Cajsa Nilsdotter died of gout on 12 February 1862.

The Descendants

While her three siblings had no known grandchildren, Anna Cajsa's two children had large families of seven and eight children. Thirteen of those children lived to adulthood.

My descendancy research for Anders Petter Svensson and wife Anna Sophia Carlsdotter is incomplete, but living descendants have been discovered half-a-world apart, in Hawaii as well as Sweden.

The descendants of Anna Charlotta Svensdotter and Adolph Ekström live in many places spread throughout the mainland of the USA. Some were born, lived and/or died in Canada, Mexico, China and Central America. I've written before about the decimation of the children of Adolph Ekström. Only the fourth child, my great-grandfather, has living descendants in 2023.