Karl Aron Emil Brodin

December 15, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

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.

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)

December 14, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

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.

Sara Stina Danielsdotter b. 1835, year of death unknown

November 17, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

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”.

Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth

November 9, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

Bruce Jens Christensen, my 6th cousin, was born in 1941 and died at the Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth in Beatrice, Nebraska in 1966. I don’t know how or why he ended up there.

When I first noted his birth and death years I assumed he might have died in Vietnam. I was wrong. Instead I found yet another institution taken straight out of a nightmare.

Quoting from the mission statement of the Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth, their goals were to provide

“custodial care and human treatment for those who are feeble-minded, to segregate them from society, to study to improve their condition, to classify them, and to furnish such training in industrial mechanics, agriculture, and academic subjects as fitted to acquire”.

The Asylum Project also notes that,

By 1935, in order to assure complete separation from society, [Nebraska Institution for Feeble-minded Youth] resident’s graves were no longer marked with family names, but with numbers; families desired to disassociate themselves from their “defective” relatives by dehumanizing them.

A young couple I know had a daughter with Down syndrome earlier this year. In a Facebook post they say:

While the words certainly carried a heaviness with them at the time, due mostly to misconceptions on my part, within a few hours of receiving the news we were already talking about what a beautiful life she would have.

Parents aren’t expected, or forced, to find their children ‘defective’ anymore. Parents aren’t pushed to hide away their children at institutions. Parents are allowed to be happy, optimistic, and loving.

When I think if it I am sure that more than a couple of the students I’ve had at American universities would have been considered feeble-minded just a few decades ago. I didn’t know their exact diagnoses, and I didn’t need to know, or want to know. But what I saw was hard working kids with a-typical communication styles, who were supported by parents, teachers, and others.

Anna E. Grove

November 2, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

An unmarked newspaper clipping:

Miss Anna E. GROVE was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. GROVE, and was born in Jefferson county, near Lockridge, Ia., February 4, 1877. Here she grew to womanhood and here too she spent practically all of her life in an unselfish service and in caring for others. She gave at least twenty-five years in an unstinting way for the care of those whom she loved. First, she cared for her mother, and then upon death of her oldest sister, Mrs. Olive GROVE TROMMER, she cared for her five motherless children, the youngest of whom was but three weeks old at the time of the mother’s death.

Three years ago she left Iowa and moved to Colome, S. D. where she resided until a few months ago when because of ill health she gave up her home and continued to live with her sister in the same village. Here she died on Friday afternoon at five o’clock, December 4, 1931, aged 54 years and ten months.

She was a life-long member of the Lutheran church, the church of her parents, having been confirmed in the Lutheran faith at the age of 14.

She was preceded in death by her parents, one sister Mrs. Olive GROVE TROMMER, two brothers, Charles and Joe GROVE.

The following sisters and brothers remain to mourn her death: Mrs. Hannah DAVIS, of Colorado Springs, Colo., Mrs. Esther BRESLEY, Colome, S. D., William Axel, Ellmer and Ray of Fairfield, and Dr. E. G. GROVE, of Boone, Ia.

Interment was December 7th, in Evergreen cemetery, at Fairfield.

Anna was my grandfather’s first cousin. Her parents and older siblings had emigrated from Skaraborg, Sweden in 1870.

William Atle Nelson, 1925-1944

October 28, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

William Atle Nelson as a junior at Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa, 1942.

From the Iowa State Memorial Union:

Private William Atle Nelson was born in Gary, Indiana on August 11, 1925 to Forrest A. Nelson and Virginia K. Kelly. He later lived in Galesburg, Illinois. William entered service on October 1, 1943 at Camp Dodge, Iowa. He served with Company K, 397th Infantry, 100th Division, Seventh Army. He had been in service one year, two months and four days before he was declared missing in action in France on January (should be Dec.) 5, 1944. After several months, the war department declared him to be killed in action.

From the WW2 Army Enlistment Record:

Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law.

The dates are unclear, but William is said to have died during the Battle of the Bulge, Adolf Hitler’s “last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front”.

War photographer Robert Capa was embedded with U.S. troops during parts of the battle. This is one of his photos from December 1944.

We will never know what happened to William, or how he died. He was just a kid. Had he lived until he was 20 he would have seen the war in Europe end in May, 1945. But, he didn’t. He died at 19, in all likelihood cold and scared.

William was my seventh cousin. We are related through two brothers, Carl Månsson born 1720, and Nils Månsson born 1727. William’s grandmother Hilma Charlotta Nilsdotter emigrated from Döderhult in Kalmar county to Galesburg, Illinois in 1868. She was three years old. Hilma was the great great great granddaughter of Carl Månsson. My grandmother Herta Viktoria Nilsson was born in Döderhult, Kalmar, in 1884. She was the great great great granddaughter of Nils Månsson.

Through Carl’s and Nils’ great great grandfather, Carl Jönsson Sabelskjöld, William and I have a known shared history going back to the early 1500s.

The Sabelskjöld family website provides more information about Carl and Nils Månsson, and their family history.