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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
My great grandfather, Carl Viktor Nilsson. Born Aug. 30, 1846 in Döderhult. Died Aug. 17, 1926 in Oskarshamn.
This is Carl Victor Nilsson, the father of my grandmother Herta. I don’t know much about Carl Victor, but I do know that he was a sea captain, and that he kicked his own son off the boat (more than once) for being drunk. It looks to me as if you wouldn’t want to have messed with Captain Nilsson, but according to a his great grandson, my cousin, he let the drunken son back on the ship pretty quickly.
Both of Carl Victor’s parents had deep roots in Kristdala north of Oskarshamn. Many of his relatives were related to each other in several ways, and as a result I have a disproportionally high number of DNA matches with Carl Victor’s line. Many of his emigrant relatives settled in the mid-west, in Kansas, Illinois, and Nebraska. But I also have mysterious matches on the Northeast coast of England, in the area of West Hartlepool, where Carl Victor apparently spent some time.
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.
This is my 4th cousin once removed, Private First Class Ralph Victor Freburg, born Sept. 27, 1915 in Bertrand Co., Nebraska. Ralph arrived in France with the 3rd Armored Division on June 24, 1944, and was killed in action on Aug. 17, 1944 in Ranes, Basse-Normandie, France. His family buried him in the Prairie Home Cemetery in Holdrege, Phelps Co., Nebraska. When he signed his draft card in 1940 he had been 6’2″, weighing 185 pounds.
Ralph’s grandfather Anders Victor Andersson had immigrated to Illinois in 1877. He was born in Kristdala, Sweden, in 1850 and died in Nebraska in 1918.
