Elma Georgina became Mrs. Elma Larson

October 27, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

I was looking for Elna Georgina Nilsson Kratz, my grandfather’s younger half-sister, for a long time. She’s the girl who changed her last name to Nilsson for reasons we will never know.

Elna emigrated from Sweden to the United States, by herself, in the summer of 1896. I was able to trace her until she stepped off the boat at Ellis Island, but after that, nothing. I searched the records endlessly, until I found a marriage record where half the information was inaccurate. But, Elna Georgina are exceptionally unusual given names, and I was sure I had found the right young woman.

It turned out that Elna married Hugo Larsson from Hammarby, Sweden, in Manhattan in 1898. They had three boys: Hugo in 1899, Eric in 1902, and Henry in 1904. Elna’s husband passed away or abandoned the family sometime before 1916. I haven’t been able to determine how, or when, but in the 1916 New York City phonebook Elna is listed as Elma, widow of Hugo. ‘Widow’ may not be true, but it was more socially acceptable than ‘divorced.’

In 1900, after they were married, Elna and her husband Hugo lived on 135th street in the Bronx among immigrants from Sweden, Ireland, Italy, and Germany. In 1905 they lived on 246 East 125th street in Harlem on a block with immigrants from northern and eastern Europe, Finland, Norway, Russia, Germany. Hugo is listed as a carpenter, and their neighbors are housewives, laborers, dock builders, seamen, and book keepers. One woman is listed as having a profession, a dressmaker. Later the Larsons moved to #305 on the same street.

Elna’s oldest son Hugo stayed with her until his early 30s, when he married. Anna, his wife, and Hugo never had children of their own, but they took in their niece Frances when Henry’s wife, also named Frances, died in the late 1930s.

Eric married Alice Youngson, and had two children, George and Alice, born in 1927 and 1929.

182 East 122nd street in Manhattan on Google street view.

In 1940 Elna lived by herself on 182 East 122nd street. Everyone on her block was white. Many were born in the United States, but there were also many European immigrants. Among her closest neighbors were people from Germany, Finland, and Canada.

In 1940 Elna was 65 years old, and listed as a laundress. It seems she started working, at least officially, when her oldest son Hugo got married in 1933.

Elna lived her whole life, as a wife, widow, and mother, on East 122nd and 125th streets in East Harlem. 125th street is now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The buildings where Elna lived on that street are not there anymore.

Elna died on April 12, 1956. She was 81.

Monday July 13, 1896

October 27, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

These are notes made at Ellis Island when the s/s Island, the ship that had left Göteborg on June 23, arrived. Passengers are listed as having embarked at Fredrikshavn on the Danish coast across from Göteborg, but we know that some of them had been on the ship since Göteborg. The Swedish passengers are at the top of the page. They are listed in the same order as they were on the manifest taken in Göteborg.

The page is torn where Elna G. Nilson’s name would be, right below Gustaf Larson. Following her line to the right we can see her final destination, New York. Most of the young men are listed as farmhands, and the young women as servant girls. I’m guessing Elna was another servant girl.

Elna had traveled in the aft, rear, of the ship. She brought one piece of luggage. On this part of the page alone four people are listed as having died on the voyage across the Atlantic. The first digit indicates the date, July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The second digit is a code for the cause of death. I haven’t been able to figure out what they mean.

My father has told me that his father, Elna’s brother Karl Adolf, was a seasick sea captain. I get seasick too. I wonder what three weeks on a ship across an ocean would have been like.

I hadn’t been able to figure out that Elna’s name had disappeared in the worn fold of the piece of paper if it hadn’t been for more experienced researchers. It seems obvious to compare the names on the list created when they departed from Göteborg to the list that was taken down when they arrived at Ellis Island. But I didn’t think of that. Instead I cursed. The records are well organized, but you never know. The paper trail is important. I needed to know that Elna had arrived in New York, or else I would have lost her.

For a very long time this note was the last I knew of Elna’s whereabouts. She disappeared in New York, into what I imagined was a hot summer day, or a warm summer’s night.

Monday June 22, 1896

October 27, 2019 by LottaK Leave a comment

This is the ship manifest listing the names of those traveling from Göteborg to New York on June 23, 1896 on the s/s Island. One of the passengers was Elna G. Nilson from Österåker, Södermanland. Elna was my grandfather’s younger sister. Before emigrating she had been working as a maid on a farm in Österåker. She had been baptized Elma Georgina, but most records have her name is spelled with an ‘n’, Elna.

Elma was born without a known father, but unlike her brother she didn’t use their stepfather’s last name, Kratz. In Sweden in those days you could chose a last name for yourself, no questions asked. Elma picked Nilsson for reasons we will never know. Maybe she knew who her father had been, and wanted to use his name. Maybe she named herself for a friend. Either way, as a teenager she clearly didn’t want anything to do with her stepfather’s name.

On June 22, when the list was created, they hadn’t yet left Göteborg harbor. Anticipating their lives in America one change had already been made: All names ending in -son have had one ‘s’ eliminated. Andersson has become Anderson, Larsson is Larson, and Elma Georgina Nilsson Kratz is now Elna G. Nilson.

All that aside, tho, look how young these emigrants were: 16, 23, 17, 18. Elma was 21.