In this history I've tried to put together what I've learned about our family and glimpses of what happened to them. The wish to find out more about our family started when I, at my first visit in the USA in 1979, discovered a lot of "Unknown relatives" in middlewestern states of America. I was struck by the strong family feeling between them and how much we had in common. It was amazing to see that my Mother, Tora Nilsson, who doesn't speak English met so many cousins and other relatives who spoke Swedish.
The information for this chronicle are collected from the Swedish Parishes' "Husförhörslängder" eg the household examination rolls or record of parish catechetical meeting. Taking notes at stories told by relatives, chiefly of my Mother Tora. The things I keep regretting are that I never asked my grand parents about the family, they would have known for sure when we are just guessing.
I intended to start this story with my great-grandmother, Kristina Charlotta Johansdotter, born July 21, 1853 and what I know of her siblings. However when consulting the Church record again I found interesting facts about Charlotta's husband Bror Johan August Larsson *1847-02-08. In the appendix you can find what we discovered. The appendix also contains translations of letters from emigrants to their family in Sweden and other things that might be of interest.
About 800,000 Swedes emigrated to North America between 1840 and 1900. During the years of bad crop in the late 1860s over 50,000 per year emigrated. (The Swedish population in 1860 was about four million). Other reasons for emigration were the lack of freedom in the old class society, persecution of nonconformist Christian and political radicals. The well-known Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg the author of Utvandrarna (The Emigrants) said that: "The emigration to N. America is the biggest event in the newer Swedish history. It cleaved the Swedish people in two parts." Another reason for emigration was the American Homestead Law. It entitled any person over 21 years to get or to buy extremely cheap 160 acres of land (sometimes 80 acres), provided they farmed it and declared that they wanted to become an American citizen.
For my convenience I use the modern Swedish way of writing dates which is: year, month and date. So for example 16 October 1998 is written 1998-10-16. I hope that doesn't disturb you too much.
When reading this history you discover that I've used A, B, C and D for identifying Kristina Charlotta and her siblings. The first digit after the letter their children and the second their grandchildren. The mark * is used for the year of birth and + for the year of death.