ŅLostÓ
Swedish Family Found in Galesburg
a
Story of Problem Names
by Virginia Sholin
Smallwood
In 1913, sixteen year
old Kristina Strm left her family in Sweden for a new life in America. Like so
many other Swedes before her, she sent letters and photos back home, and her
family in Sweden must have read her ŅAmerica lettersÓ with great excitement.
Kristina had, indeed, started a new life, as well as a family of her own. The
family in Sweden who had known her as a daughter and sister went on with their
lives, as well, and time passed.
Eventually, both Kristina and her birth family in Sweden passed away.
I became involved when
KristinaÕs grand-niece in Sweden, Kjerstin Strm, found the names of some of
her ancestors on my Sholin family website. StrmÕs husband, Ulf Kaxekarlsson contacted me. His English is better. His wife wanted know
what had happened to her great-aunt, Kristina. By the time Strm started
looking for her family history, only the few of KristinaÕs letters and photos
remained, and any surnames and addresses were lost with the envelopes. The
photos contained only scanty information. Nobody alive today seemed to know
where Kristina Strm had lived in America, or even if she had actually married
her sweetheart, Jonas Hgg.
Kaxekarlsson told me
that Kristina Strm was born in Alfta, Helsingland, Sweden on Aug 9, 1897, a
daughter of Jonas Olsson Strm, born June 30, 1865, and Christina Johansdotter,
born Dec 11, 1872. Also, Kristina had emigrated in 1913 and might have married
Jonas Hgg. That was all I knew at first.
Right away, though, I
had some luck. A shipÕs passenger list online at Ancestry.com shows that
Kristina had sailed to America with a group of five young people from Alfta and
nearby Bollns. Kristina Strm, age 16, and Jonas Hgg, age 24, posted the same
destination, an address in Chicago.
The others were bound for destinations far away. As a favor, a
genealogist friend in Bollns sent complete names and birthdates for every
member of both Kristina StrmÕs and Jonas HggÕs birth families. But thatÕs
where it all ended – for a time. Though I searched for many hours using
every name variation I could think of, I could find neither Kristina nor Jonas
in any other records. These were distant relatives, and I do genealogy for fun.
So I filed this case away. Months passed.
Then one day
Kaxekarlsson sent me some photos. The captions on the back showed Jonas and
Kristina with their children: Ruth, Miriam, Maria-Louise, an unnamed boy and an
unnamed baby. One shows Miriam with Jim Johnson, apparently her husband. The
photo with the parents, a boy, a girl and the baby was stamped, ŅGalesburg,
Ill., August 22, 1933.Ó With this new information, I searched for the family in
the 1930 census for Knox and even Henry Counties. I still had no luck.
Another message came
from Kaxekarlsson. He and his wife had visited an elderly cousin, Anders
Norlund, who had been part of a dance troupe touring in the United States in
1979. As he remembered it, the high point of the trip was at a place called ŅBishop
Hill Chicago.Ó He was at a festival at or near that place when he heard his
name blaring from a loudspeaker ŅIs there anyone here called Aaanders Norrrrlund?Ó
Answering that call, Norlund found an old lady of about eighty years. With tears
streaming down her face, she said, ŅI am Kristine, your motherÕs sister!Ó She hugged him hard and for a long time.
But he didnÕt speak any English, and Kristine had forgotten most of her
Swedish. This is about all he
could remember of that encounter, and he could provide no more information.
Bishop Hill! That place struck an instant chord with
me, and I was hooked. Many of my
own ancestors had strong ties with the Bishop Hill area in Henry County,
Illinois. In fact, lots of Swedes from Alfta had gone there. Funny I didnÕt think of it sooner.
Perhaps it was because my own Bishop Hill ties had pretty much dried up at 1870,
by which time most of my relatives who first migrated there had moved on to
Kansas. Kristina Strm did not come to America until 1913, and her destination
was Chicago, not Bishop Hill.
Searching again at
Ancestry, I omitted the surname. Using only given names, birthdates and places
and year of immigration, I searched the 1930 census in Henry and Knox Counties.
Finally, in the 1930 census for Galesburg - the same town stamped on the back
of the 1933 photo - I found the family. There was a Christina and Joans [sic]
of the right ages and born in Sweden, both immigrated in 1913. Also listed were
the children, Ruth M., 14; Marian C, 11; Everett J., 5; and Mary L. 3 years and
3 months. These were the right given names, the right ages, the right
birthplaces and the right year of immigration.
The 1920 Cambridge,
Henry County, Illinois census confirmed the 1930 information. Christina and Jonas, born in Sweden,
both immigrated in 1913, were shown with their children, Ruth M., age 4 years,
7 months; and Marion C., age 1 year, 3 months. The family name in both censuses, though, was a
surprise. It was not Hgg or any form of that name. It was Westberg! No wonder I
hadnÕt been able to find them! It
seems that Jonas had done a very Swedish thing. He had simply changed his
surname.
IÕve seen this sort of
thing before. Pehr Larsson Kraft, born July 22, 1842 came to America with his
wife and children in 1869, but I could not find them in any American records.
However, Swedish records showed that his brother, Jonas Larsson Wallberg, born
June 12, 1836 had also emigrated with his wife and children that same year.
After finding Jonas in Republic County, Kansas, and living as Jonas Larson, I
narrowed my search to that area. In a neighboring town in that same county was
JonasÕ brother, Pehr Larsson Kraft, transformed into - Peter L. Norlund!
Swedes in the late 19th
and early 20th century were simply not very attached to their
surnames. There are some exceptions, such as the fifteen percent who had a
family name, such as Nyberg or Eklund. But, most Swedes in the 19th
century, in fact, did not even use their own fathersÕ surnames. Most Swedish
surnames are patronymic. For example, Pehr HanssonÕs son, Olof, would have been
called Olof Pehrsson, indicating he was PehrÕs son. Olof PerhssonÕs son, Jonas,
would be known as Jonas Olsson, since Jonas was a son of Olof. The same held
true for daughters, except that Pehr HanssonÕs daughter, Brita, would be called
Brita Persdotter.
Swedes serving in the
military might be given a Ņsoldier-name,Ó such as Lind or Skld, to sort out
one John Jonsson or Pehr Persson from the next. Since Swedish men shared only
about nine basic names, the soldier-name solved what would have been a big
problem. Calling out, ŅSkld!Ó brought forth only one man whereas ŅOlsson!Ó
might bring ten. Often a soldier kept his soldier-name, but it was usually just
for his lifetime. In the late 19th
century, some families kept the fatherÕs soldier-name. In my own family, the
sons kept their fatherÕs soldier-name, Sjlin, eventually Americanizing it to
Sholin.
And just because a Swede
came to America using one name doesnÕt mean he continued to use it once he got
here. Such was the case with our Jonas Hgg, a.k.a. Jonas Westberg. When I
found Jonas and Christine Westberg in the censuses, I rechecked the shipÕs
passenger lists for Kristina Strm and Jonas Hgg. Remember they were going to
the same address? Well, Kristina said she was going to the home of her friend,
Tilda Hgg, and Jonas listed his sister, Tilda Westberg. In fact, they were the
same person, Maria Mathilda Hgg. Mathilda probably married someone named Westberg. As for Jonas, the Swedish letter in Hgg may have
been problematic in America. Maybe some Americans mispronounced it, or for
whatever reason just couldnÕt get it right. Jonas may well have thought, ŅMy
sister has a pretty good name. In this new country, IÕll use a new name. From now on, IÕll be Jonas Westberg.Ó
Conclusion: Sometimes
our Swedish ancestors changed their names, but this is not an insurmountable
problem in research. It just makes
things more interesting. By
looking for and using every clue, following the migration patterns of other
family members, and keeping an open mind about Swedish names, these problems
can be solved.
Postscript: Christina
and Jonas Westberg had at least one more child, born about 1933, the baby in
the carriage in the 1933 photo.
IÕm currently looking for living descendants of the Westberg
family. Kjerstin Strm and Ulf
Kaxekarlsson would like to find her American cousins. Perhaps they might even
read this account and recognize themselves.
References:
Johansson,
Carl-Erik. 1995. Cradled in Sweden. The Everton
Publishers, Logan, UT
Westerberg, Kermit B.
1979. Swedish Exodus. Swedish
Pioneer Historical Society
Virginia
Sholin Smallwood has been doing family
history since 1988, and is especially interested in her Swedish
roots. She is a retired teacher
living in California. Believing that descendants of the Westberg family might still be living in Galesburg, she Googled the town along with the words, genealogy and
Sweden. That's how she found Terry Hogan's stories in his Backtracking column, Swedish
Roots, Illinois Soils. She enjoyed them so much she wrote to him
to tell him so. She also told him
a bit about the Westberg story, which he thought
might make a good story for The
Zephyr. If you would like to
contact her, our editor will be happy to forward your message.