The Minister's Dilemma, 52 Ancestors

 

What do you do when your underage son gets a young woman pregnant?

The Vika parish minister, Magnus Aspelind, faced that dilemma in the fall of 1770. Magnus was responsible not only for the religious life of the parish, but also for parishioner morality, care of the poor and documentation of the parishioners through vital records. He was one of the most powerful men in the parish, but needed to be careful with his choices. He could publicly embarrass such a couple, but that would bring shame to his son and himself. If he did not treat them as any other couple, but the truth came out, he and his family would face another kind of shame, possibly from his superiors.

Carl Aspelind was only 17 years old, four years away from his majority at age 21. Magnus expected him to complete his university studies before getting married, so would certainly not have approved a marriage. Catharina Engelbrechtsdotter was completely unacceptable, as she was about 23 years old and of a lower social class. Magnus could send Carl away to school, but what could he do about Catharina? He needed to make the problem disappear.

Magnus seems to have been a minister who did not follow all the rules. Record-keeping under his authority had gaps and omissions. He did care deeply about his children, expressing his grief in the death book when his middle son died young, as he referenced two passages from the book of Job. He would have cared as deeply about his youngest son and would have agonized over his immoral behavior and how to handle it.

A single record appears to be falsified, leading to my speculation about Magnus' solution. I believe that Magnus offered Catharina a deal. He would give her a moving certificate with a good character reference and would also give her a bit of money. She would agree to leave the parish and make no effort to contact Carl or his family. She would have known that there was no future with Carl, so such an agreement would have been acceptable to her. She would join family members about 40 miles to the southwest, in the parish of Grangärde. Magnus gave her the moving certificate, but in the moving-out list she was shown as moving to the north, to nearby Falun. If Carl had looked in the book, he would have searched for Catharina in the wrong direction.

List of people leaving Vika parish in 1770, including Cath. Engelbrecht to Fahl from Kyrkiobyn

Other people could also have falsified the records. Carl might have had access to the records, though his motive would have been to hide her from his father. He could have written a duplicate moving certificate. Catharina could have simply taken advantage of a moving certificate that left out the destination parish. Perhaps she had intended a double move, but discovered she could go directly to Grangärde.

When she arrived in Grangärde parish in late September, a notation was placed in the household survey that she had arrived from Vika (Wika). 

Household survey showing Cathrin. Engelbreckdotter arriving from Vika in September, 1770.
Also lists her illegitimate daughter Anna Lisa and the people with whom they are living.

Baby Anna Lisa was born on 29 April 1771, and Catharina identified the child's father as Carl Asplind [sic] of Vika parish. Not all illegitimate (oäkta) children had their father named in the birth record, but Catharina provided that name and was able to enjoy the satisfaction of retribution. Was she attempting to make trouble for the Aspelind family?

Birth number 79 in 1771 in the parish. Birth on 29 [April 1771] and christening on 1 [May].
Illegitimate (oäkta) daughter Anna Lisa born to mother Cathrina Engelbertsdotter of Räfvåla,
with child's father named as Carl Asplind [sic] in Vika parish.

The two parishes were in the same diocese, so the ministers must have known each other and even met periodically. The Grangärde minister would have had the dilemma of whether to mention this assertion to his peer. Perhaps he recognized the connection and perhaps he didn't. Aspelind was not a common surname, but it wasn't entirely unique. Magnus Aspelind died at the end of 1772, so there were less than two years for the ministers to discuss the allegation. The birth record was never altered. 

Anna Lisa

Anna Lisa has been positively identified in only four records so far. She and Catharina were recorded twice in the household surveys of Grangärde parish. By 1775, they had moved over 100 miles from Grangärde, in Kopparberg (Dalarna) County, to Stockholm County, where Catharina married the sailor (båtsman) Johan Duhan on 9 January 1775, in Vårdinge parish. Anna Lisa is listed as an illegitimate daughter on the only page where the family appears together.

Family of Johan Duhan and Catharina Engelbrechtsdotter,
including illegitimate daughter Anna Lisa and children Catharina, Anders and Maria.
Household survey book includes random information from 1760 to 1786.
The family is living at the Nyble Båtsmanstorp (sailor croft for Nyble rote).

The fate of Anna Lisa is unknown, as the records of Vårdinge parish have many gaps. She may have taken the surname of Carlsdotter, may have chosen from another family name or may have invented a surname. She also might have died young. Her stepfather died when she was 17, so she had probably already left home, thus has not been found living with her widowed mother. With her common name and without knowing her chosen surname, she has not been simple to trace. 

Catharina Engelbrechtsdotter Duhan

Catharina bore five more children, at least three of whom died young. Her son Anders, born in 1784, was my 4th-great-grandfather. Her last child was a son born shortly after her husband's death. He was christened Carl and, sadly, died young. Did she name the baby after a lost love?

Catharina has also been difficult to trace. Finding one falsified record makes me question every fact that was ever recorded about her, especially with conflicting documents about her birth place and birth year. None of the evidence has led to a birth record. 

About the time her husband died, Catharina took his military surname of Duhan. Catharina Duhan died in the poorhouse (fattigstugan) in Vårdinge parish, Stockholm County, on 18 September 1823.

Part of household survey of the fattigstugan (poorhouse) for 1821-1825.
Enk. (widow) Catharina Duhan is crossed out. 
On the facing page (not shown) is recorded 23 död (1823 dead).

Cornetten Carl [Charles] Aspelind

When Magnus Aspelind referenced the life of Job, little did he know that his own family would suffer more tribulations. Son Lars had died in 1768, Carl fathered a child in 1770, Magnus died in 1772, daughter Hedvig in 1775 and widow Ebba in 1777. Daughter Maria died at age 39, in 1788, leaving only two children of the eight that she had borne. Oldest son Daniel died in 1800, having stepchildren, but no children of his own. Carl also died without legitimate surviving children.

Carl Aspelind was born to Magnus Aspelind and Ebba Catharina Nybom in Irsta parish, Västmanland County, on 13 September 1753. He was listed in his father's 1772 probate as a student. In 1774 he joined the military as a cavalry soldier, serving as one of a dozen such men provided from the parish of Irsta. He held the rank of Corporal by 1777, when he was promoted to kvartermästare (Quartermaster) in the Livregementet till häst (horse), Södermanlands kompani. He had to move from Västmanland County to Stigtomta parish in Södermanland County to accept that promotion to the officer rank of Cornet, equivalent to Ensign or 2nd Lieutenant.

In 1781, at the age of 27, Carl married his brother's stepdaughter. His oldest brother, Daniel Aspelind, was a half-brother, 13 years older than Carl. Daniel had married the widowed Hedvig Körsner, who was 10 years older than himself and had grown children when they married in 1776. Her 26-year-old daughter, Justina Helena Naucler, married Carl Aspelind in the parish of Bjursås. While this marriage was not illegal or genetically risky, it seems strange or even disgusting to us in 2023. Marriage in Sweden, especially for the upper classes, was usually a matter of practicality, rather than romance. Preservation of assets may have been a factor.

After his marriage, Carl appeared in two military muster rolls, which were made only periodically. In 1791, there was a simple notation for him: sjuk or sick. The next roll stated that he had been discharged (avsked) shortly after the muster roll of 1791, when he was about 38 years old. His illness must have been serious to have forced him out of the military, though he lived another 15 years. 

He and his wife left Stigtomta parish and their whereabouts were unknown until 1800, when the indexes begin for the household surveys. At that time, Carl, who also used the name Charles, and his wife Justina were living in Kila parish in southern Södermanland County, with no indication of their previous home. They had no children or other family members in their household. 

Cornetten Carl Aspelind died in the city of Norrköping, Östergötland County, on 21 December 1806. He was 53 years old and the death record from Sankt Olai says only that he died of an unnamed illness. His probate, which was filed under the name of Charles in both Norrköping and Falu, showed that he had no children. It is possible that he and his wife had children who did not survive. It is also possible that Anna Lisa was Carl's only child.

Death of Carl Aspelind, Cornet, of an unnamed illness, at age 53 years and 3 months.
He died on the 21st and was buried on the 28th [December 1806].

Orientation

The story of Carl, Catharina and Anna Lisa started in the blue area, north of the usual areas for my family, but ended in the purple area. The larger Aspelind family was based in the blue area. Catharina Engelbrechtsdotter Duhan is marked in my grandfather's tree with the star.

To Do List

• Using Family Search indexes, research births of children named Catharina, born to an Engelbrecht or variation.
• Research Anna Lisa Carlsdotter born in 1770 in Vårdinge, with the possibility that she is the right woman, with errors having been made in the church records. No such birth was recorded in Vårdinge.

Research Note

The question of the identity of the father of Anna Lisa was not solved with the church records that are the foundation of Swedish genealogical research. There were two things that made this research possible: Catharina's uncommon surname and the class status of the Aspelind family. For ordinary peasants or farmers, this search would likely have been fruitless.

This puzzle required tax and probate records to establish location and relationships. Military records were critical, as were indexes at both ArkivDigital and Family Search. It was the 1770 tax record that piqued my curiosity. Without these tax records, Carl Aspelind would not have been identifiable with the indexes that exist in 2023.

Scrolling through the Vika tax list for any household with the name Asplind, I  found a single entry with the title and name Kyrkoh. Aspelind. The title Kyrkoherden means the parish minister, or the church shepherd, when translated by breaking up the word. That position signified that there was a story to be found. 

Fragment of the mantals tax list for 1770 in Vika parish.
Underlined is the name Kyrkoh. Aspelind, with quite a few family members in the count.

Sources

• Mantals tax records for the parishes of Vika and Stigtomta 
• Probate records:
• Kopparbergs och Säters län (utom Säters socken) och Österdalarne 
• Falu rådhusrätt och magistrat 
• Norrköpings rådhusrätt och magistrat 
• Military records:
• Generalmönsterrullor - Livregementsbrigadens kyrassiärer (1795)
• Generalmönsterrullor - Livregementet till häst (1770-1791)
• Meritförteckningar 27 (1784)
  
• Church records:
• Kopparberg (Dalarna) parishes: Vika, Grangärde, Norrbärke, Gustafs, Säter, Bjursås, Falu Kristine, Stora Kopparberg (Falu)
• Västmanland parish: Irsta
• Stockholm County parish: Vårdinge
• Södermanland parishes: Vagnhärad, Kila, Stigtomta
  
• Östergötland parish: Norrköpings Sankt Olai
• Gotland parish: Visby stadsförsamling
• Lieutenant Colonel Claes Grill, Statistiskt sammandrag af svenska indelningsverket (Statistical Summary of the Swedish Allotment System)
• Lantmateriet.se Historical Maps