Olga Elisabeth Lagergren

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Olga Elisabeth Lagergren (1877-1923) 

This is Olga Elisabeth Lagergren, born in Kristdala, Kalmar län, on Sept. 15, 1877. She died in Bankhult, Kalmar län, on Dec. 1, 1923.

Olga Elisabeth gave birth to a son, Frans Evald Brodin, in 1895. She wasn’t married to the boy’s father. Her situation can’t have been good, because according to the birth record both parents wanted to remain anonymous. Olga Elisabeth later changed her mind and came forward. Little Frans Evald was given his father’s last name, but no father is named on the birth record.

We will never know what kind of pressure either of them was under. The boy’s father, Emil Brodin, emigrated to the US in 1896 and died there a few years later.

Olga Elisabeth married in 1909 and had three more children.

Emil Brodin was my 4th cousin twice removed.

What’s not there

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One thing that becomes painfully clear when using online resources for family research is in that particular context women and women’s lives leave almost no trace. There is a lot of information about military service but very little about employment, for instance. Not to mention private lives. You will find information about births and deaths, and marriages. In the US school photos have been scanned. But that’s it.

Karl Aron Emil Brodin

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Karl Aron Emil Brodin (1875-1905).

Karl Aron Emil Brodin was born in Kristdala, Kalmar län, on Nov. 2, 1875. When he was 20 years old, in December of 1895, his son Frans Evald was born. At Frans Evald’s birth both of his parents are listed as ‘unknown’. Later his mother came forward, and Frans Evald was somehow also given Brodin as his last name.

Karl Aron Emil Brodin left Sweden for the United States on July 15, 1896. His son is 7 months old.

Emil Brodin died in Los Angeles, Calif. on June 29, 1905. He had contracted tuberculosis in Manila, Philippines, while fighting with the 22nd US infantry in the Philippine – American War. That was “an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that lasted from February 4, 1899, to July 2, 1902.” He had enlisted in the spring of 1898 and was discharged in Manila on Dec. 13, 1901.

Sawtelle Veterans Home in west Los Angeles, Calif. was established in 1887.

On Nov. 9, 1904 he was admitted to the Pacific Branch of the U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, in Sawtelle, Calif. ‘Chas Karlson (uncle), Victoria, Ill.’ was listed as his next of kin.

Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Emil was buried at Los Angeles National Cemetery, 950 S. Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles. His grave is in section 11, row L, site 8.

Emil was my 4th cousin twice removed.

Race: White, not yet a citizen (White)

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Arvid Renström was born on June 22, 1897 in Kristdala, Kalmar län, Sweden. In 1942 he was a fireman living in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier he had been a seaman sailing between Sweden and North American ports.

On Nov. 12, 1942 Arvid enlisted in the US army. He enlisted as a private, and on the line for race someone defined him as “White, not yet a citizen (White)”.

He was 5′ 8″, and 157 pounds.

Arvid became a US citizen a year later, on Nov. 18, 1943. At that point he was living at 566 Baltic St. in Brooklyn.

Arvid must have moved back to Sweden sometime during the 1960s, because according to the US Social Security Death Index Arvid died in Europe in August of 1970. He was not living in Sweden in 1960.

The fact that the word ‘white’ appears twice on the line for race in his enlistment record is, for lack of a better word, interesting.

Arvid was my 5th cousin twice removed.

San Francisco in October of 1911

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On Oct. 10, 1911 The San Francisco Call published names of people who had recently applied for marriage licenses in San Francisco. Among them, MAGNISON – HEMMING. That’s Swan Magnuson and and his niece Ebba Nathalia Hemming(sson). They’re in California from Alaska and staying at the Palace Hotel for the occasion.

The Palace Hotel had been severely damaged during the 1906 earthquake, but according to the ad from 1911 it was now ‘entirely rebuilt’.

In Fairbanks, Alaska

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From the Fairbanks Daily News – Miner, Fairbanks, Alaska Thursday Nov. 3. 1955.

From an Oral History of Pioneer Women of Alaska:

Vonda V. Kelning was born in Sweden and arrived in Skagway in 1899. She arrived in America with her brother, Swan P. Magnuson in 1897. In 1902 she moved to Rampart until leaving for Fairbanks in 1907. In 1909 she married A.P. Kelning and was widowed in 1913.

Vonda V. Kelning was born Wendla Victoria Magnusson in Döderhult, Kalmar län in 1858. She was one of five siblings. Her brother Sven Peter Magnusson had emigrated to the US in 1885. He came back to Sweden in 1897, and after their mother had died the same year Wendla joined her brother as he returned to the US. They brought with them their 17 year old niece Ebba. Her mother, their sister Maria Lovisa, had died in 1893.

In 1910 they are all living in Fairbanks. Ebba lives with her uncle, known as Swan.

In the 1920 US census Ebba and Swan are listed as husband and wife.

Swan dies in 1936, 72 years old. Ebba is 56. In 1939 she marries Charles Mayben. It’s his 3rd marriage. The documents show that it’s Ebba’s second marriage, but I have not been able to verify that she and Swan were ever legally married.

Wendla and Sven Peter/Swan were my 3rd cousins 3x removed. Ebba was my 4th cousin twice removed.

Sara Stina Danielsdotter b. 1835, year of death unknown

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Before Sara Stina Danielsdotter married Carl Johan Larsson, had a family and emigrated to the US she had been married to his brother, Lars Magnus Joachim Larsson.

Sara Stina and Lars Magnus had two sons, Lars Johan and Franz Oscar. Both boys died in their first year of life. Lars Magnus died at 35. In 1866 Sara Stina was 31 years old and a widow. The following year she married her brother in law. A legal procedure was required to cancel the “brother-in-law-ship”.

Larsons from Jönköping

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Photo by Alfred Stieglitz, 1907.

S/S Orlando left Göteborg on May 2, 1879 for Hull on the English east coast. On board were Carl Johan Larsson, wife Sara Stina, and children Emil, Bror, Christina, and Selma, from Hässleby parish in Jönköpings län. Their destination: Warren, Pennsylvania. Carl Johan was my 3rd great uncle on my mother’s maternal grandfather’s side. (My maternal grandmother’s grandfather’s brother.)

From Hull the passengers would take a train to Liverpool where they would board the ship for North America.

Carl, Sara, Emil, Christina, Selma, and “infant” arrived in New York on May 20 1879 on board the S/S Greece. According to the record above they left Liverpool on May 8. The family traveled in steerage.

Alice Maria Bååv Kemp

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Alice Maria Bååv Kemp was born in Göteborg in January 1888 and died in Chicago in July of 1970. She had lived in the United States since the spring of 1913, for 57 years.

Alice’s name appears alongside her husband’s on documents between their 1915 wedding and her husband’s death in 1939. After 1939 her son, Walden, born in 1916, is listed as the head of household. Alice is listed as a widow.

I don’t know if Alice ever worked outside the home after she married. The notes for her on the censuses say ‘housework’, or ‘at home’. Before she married she worked at an institution the for developmentally disabled in upstate New York. I have wondered what her time there was like.

Alice was my grandfather Kratz’s first cousin, and she’s one of my closest immigrant relatives. Her life is a mystery. There is very little information.