Passing of Sharon DeVowe

Obituary from Jacobs Funeral Home, Iron River, Michigan

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SWEDISH RELATIVE

I am going to edit this and add photos as soon as I can figure out how. In the meantime, here is more information than I have ever had before!!! It was sent a while ago, and I just discovered it TODAY!
What a wonderful gift for all of us! Thank you,  thank you, thank you!!!

The family of the sisters Louisa and Anna Mathilda Olsdotter

Parents:

Olof Olsson 1819

Stina Cajsa Andersdotter 1824

Lived in Alfvestaboda Västra Skedvi, Västmanland where their children were born:

- Louisa 1847 (you have her story with the Ekquist family)

- Gustaf 1848-1913

- Carl Erik 1853-1928

- Anna Mathilda 1857 *

- Johan Olof 1860

- Augusta Wilhelmina 1862(as you know she also moved to America with her husband 1887)

* Anna Mathilda 1857-1931. In 1875 she married Karl Gustaf Höglund a blacksmith at Karmansbo Bruk. They belonged to the Baptist Church, and all their 6 children were born in Hed, Karmansbo. She died at the hospital in Köping at the age of 74

• Karl Walfrid 1875 - 1935 He and his wife had 4 children. Karl, Inez and Signe and a boy? They lived in Kolsva.
• Beda Matilda 1877 – 1908 she was married Settergren and had a baby Karl Wilhelm in 1908 and died a few months later the same year at the age of 31
• Eva Elisabet 1880 – 1918 she was married to Karl Hammar and had a son Ivar in 1900. Eva died in the Spanish disease only 38 years old
• Elin Augusta 1884 -1936 was unmarried but had a daugther Lisa who according to my mother was adopted to a family in Stockholm. Elin was 51 years old when she died
• Ester Viktoria 1892 – 1939 was my grandmother. Ester had a son Erik Holger born 1911 who stayed with the grandparents in Karmansbo when she married August Emanuel Lundgren in 1919 and moved to Horndal. Ester and August had 3 girls Elin 1922, Ingrid 1924 (my mother) and Svea 1930. Ester died in 1939 when she was 47 years old
• Gustaf Samuel 1896 – 1987 was also a blacksmith in Karmansbo but moved to the city of Köping to work in the Volvo factory. He was married to Swea and lived a long healthy life until he was over 90 and so did his wife

As Ester was not healthy (TB probably) Ingrid my mother was sent to Esters brother Gustaf and his wife Swea in Köping . After a while when they realized Ester was not getting any better it was decided that Ingrid stayed with them. As Gustaf and Swea did not have any children of their own I guess that was the best solution. So in fact they are the grandparents I have always had.

Karl, Beda, Eva, Elin, Ester and Gustaf were all cousins to your grandparents William and Teckla .

Västra Skedvi where Louisa and Anna Mathilda were born is close to Karmansbo Bruk. This iron works is a museum today where you can see the forge and even a forgemans home. Even Augusta, Anna Mathilda and Louisas yonger sister, lived there with her husband

Horndal was also an iron works a bit up north. This is where my mother Ingrid was born.

Gävle where Louisa moved to is further away along the eastcoast.

Karl and Anna Mathilda Anna Mathilda with Gustaf, her youngest son

Höglund

The Baptists in Karmansbo. Anna Mathilda seated with small Gustaf to the left, the older son Karl to the right and her husband laying down. Probably year 1900

The old Anna Mathilda and some relatives. To the left Swea (Gustafs wife) with my mother Ingrid on her lap. Second from the right is Elin her daughter. The man behind Anna Mathilda is Karl her oldest son. Probably 1930

The girl on the photo below is my mother Ingrid.

Karl Walfrid Höglund b.1875 with his family. He was Anna Mathildas oldest son.

Ester Viktoria b. 1892 my grandmother

Gustaf Höglund b. 1896 with his wife Swea. Gustaf was Anna Mathildas youngest son.

Gustaf and his wife Swea, Karl (Bedas son), Elin and Karl Walfrid Höglund

Ivar b. 1900 Eva´s son

When I write this I can´t help thinking of what kind of contact the sisters Louisa and Anna Mathilda had. But as I found a photo of their parents in my mothers old photos, they must have had some correspondence. My mother Ingrid died 2015 and I´m really glad that we, a few years before, had looked at her old photoalbums to figure out the names of all the people on these photos. But this one of Olof and Stina Cajsa she didn`t know what it was. It wasn`t until I got the same from Sue that I realized I already had it.

The parents Olof and Stina Cajsa must have been very adventurus to leave Sweden at their age. But I guess they helped Louisa and Andrew a lot. And I´ve also realized that even their younger daughter Augusta and her husband Per Österberg had moved to America.

One strange thing I discovered while digging into the churchbooks was this note

One day before Louisa was born in Västra Skedvi 1847 my great grandmother Brita was born. She is on my fathers side of my family so she is not related to you. But for me this is a strange connection. Did their mothers know each other, or did these girls go to school together. Who knows.

Stockholm December 2017 Birgitta Ahlström

Swedish Family Names and First Names

If you've ever wondered about how Swedes were named, here is a link to learn how our names developed:

http://web.comhem.se/~u31263678/genealogy/Names.pdf

Swedish Candles or Stars in the Windows!

Swedish Welcome Light

Alan Waller, lives in Sweden (1966-present)
Let’s take this the long way round. Once upon a time, when almost everyone in Sweden lived by farming, people lived in cosy villages of log cabins clustered around a church, surrounded by fields. The rest was forest.

If a family had two sons, it was tempting to let them each inherit half the farm, but half a farm wouldn’t support either family. But log cabins are inherently transportable. Using a knife, you cut a number into each log. Then you lift them all off each other and use you dray horse to drag them a few at a time to the new site where you put the cabin back together like a Lego model. In Swedish law, houses were counted as moveable chattels, while the farm land was real estate!
So one son would inherit no land, only the buildings. He would need to break new fields on the edge of the forest, but wouldn’t need to build himself a house, just move the existing one. The other son would inherit the fields, all ready to use, but he would need to build himself a new house.
In many parts of the country, land reforms re-allocated farming land, giving each family all their land in one place rather than spread around in small patches. Such families would move their farm buildings to their new land allocation and would then save loads of time previously spent trekking from the village to outlying fields. This process was called “the exploding of the villages” because the old cosy center disappeared leaving the church all by itself. (This reform process ground to a halt due to the massive emigrations to the USA, when it became impossible to secure the permission of all the property rights holders in the family.)

These two processes gave us a landscape of fields with scattered farmhouses and isolated churches. The cosy village was gone. In that situation, wouldn’t you like to see lights twinkling through the winter darkness in the windows of those people who used to be your close neighbors? And wouldn’t you do the same for them?

                     And once you get used to it, you won’t stop doing it. If Grammy had lights in the windows of her home, you will too. That’s what makes it Homey, ok?

Answer requested by Goran Salimovic