HALFARDSSON HOME

 

My 6^th great grandfather on the Olofson line is Anders Halfvardsson, born on January 16, 1687 in Ytterhogdal Parish in Jamtland County in northern Sweden. He moved to Farila Parish in Gavleborg County where he married Cherstin Zachrisdotter who was born in June 1691 in Farila Parish. They raised 5 children including a set of twins.

I found the following picture and description of their home in Karbole, Farila Parish where you can see Anders and Cherstin’s names mentioned.

 This description (at least the parts I can read) gives us a look at how this house was handed down in this family from one generation to the next for a very long time. I can also partially read that a baby grand piano was moved to its present location in 1895. Some animals are mentioned: 1 horse, 11 cattle, 2 pigs. The farm previously covered 1,147 ha. (some measurement), but about 250 were sold in 1890. The land has been in the family as far as you can trace back in the church.

Anders Halfvardsson and Cherstin Zachrisdotter passed the home on to my 6^th great uncle Halvard Andersson and his wife Marta Jonsdotter. Why didn’t my 5^th great grandfather Olof Andersson, inherit the property from his father? Because he wasn’t the eldest son. His brother Halvard Andersson was.

Halvard’s son, Anders Halvarsson, my first cousin 6 times removed, lived there next with his wife Ingrid Persdotter. Later, their son Per Andersson and his wife Anna Andersson lived in the home. Their daughter Marta Persdotter and her husband Olof Ersson lived in the home, followed by their sons Per (who used the last name Sundstrom) and Olof.

While I had already researched and found the birth and death dates of these ancestors, along with their spouses, this was a great source for confirming what I had found and would also help someone who hadn’t filled out this part of the family tree. But what was new to me was how this property had stayed in our family for generations.

• Halvard Andersson was the eldest child of Anders Halfvardsson.
• Anders Halfvarsson was the eldest child of Halvard Andersson.
• Per Andersson was the only child of Anders Halfvarsson.
• Maria Persdotter was the only child of Per Andersson.

Do you see the pattern? Eldest or only child in the family inheriting the family home. This was the tradition. And this helps explain why some family members had to move, to immigrate to other countries, to find another path. They would never own property that had been in their family.

And when you look at people like Gus, John, and Peter Linn, the 3 youngest of a widowed mother, their opportunities to own land would only be available to them through immigration. Thus, one important reason why these 3 Linn brothers immigrated to the United States.

 

Francis and Elsie (Linn) Carlson's Farm

 Hi Everyone,

What a treat I have to share with all of you, courtesy of my second cousin, Jim Carlson, the grandson of Francis and my great aunt Elsie (Linn) Carlson. A few days ago, Jim sent me links to some of the home movies he has gathered, digitized and posted. Below is an introduction, written by Jim, and below that is the link to the 12-minute video. Even if you aren't related to the Carlsons or Linns, you will enjoy this look at farm life in 1942.

Jim and I made connection through our DNA work and have exchanged emails and photos and stories for the past couple of years. He's a wealth of information on the Carlson line!

Enjoy!

My name is James Ray Carlson, born 1948 Nov 16 in Boone, Iowa (where I still live).

My paternal Grandfather was Francis Emory Carlson, born 1886 Nov 23 at Stratford, Iowa, which is also the town where I grew up. He married Elsie Louellen Linn, born 1889 Aug 3 at Pilot Mound, Iowa (13 miles away). They had 4 sons: Kenneth, Chester (Chet), Eugene, and Wayne.

My Dad, Kenneth Quinten Carlson, born 1910 Jan 20, died 2008 Sep 29, was the oldest son. Beginning about 1940, he began taking 8 mm home movies, beginning with B & W, and soon transitioning to color films. He made movies of family reunions, working on the farm, his kids and grandkids growing up, pets, and family vacations. It seems that he realized that it was important to film PEOPLE, and not just locations and scenery, which makes them more interesting now 80 years later. I have just completed digitizing over 125 reels of his  movies, some from 50 foot 3-minute reels, and many that had been spliced together to make 10 to 30-minute reels. The total is about 6 hours of video. I have provided all these digital movies on a flash drive to each of my siblings, so I hope my project will keep memories alive and give future generations an idea of what family life on the farm was like for their ancestors.

This 12-minute film was taken at Francis and Elsie's farm at Pilot Mound in 1942. In addition to the people mentioned above, you'll also see my Mom (Fern); my sisters (Dorothy, Pat, and Karen--I wasn't born yet); my cousins Ronnie and Janice; and a great great uncle and aunt who lived at Fort Dodge, about an hour away. Family ties were SO important in these years, as families worked together and played together.

I hope you too will enjoy this glimpse of the simple life in Iowa from 1942.

Jim

https://vimeo.com/503982648

Click on the link above or copy and paste it into your browser. Enjoy!

Family Reunions

 

Have you ever been to a family reunion? Some reunions attract hundreds of family members where family t-shirts are worn, family recipes are shared, photos are displayed, and games are played. Today, I want to share information with you about some of our family reunions.

 Let’s start with the Linns. The Linn reunions began in 1925, but the earliest news article I have is from 1931 when it was held at the Stratford Park on September 6, with 114 attendees. The following article tells a bit about the reunion program and who attended. Recognize any names?

 

I recognize several names: William Linn, Oscar Linn, Robert Linn, Floyd Linn, Francis Carlson, Frank Linn and Joan Linn, and surnames of Malmberg, Fallein, and Westrum.

Jumping ahead to September 1941, the 16^th annual Linn reunion was held in Pilot Mound with the following article describing the event and attendees: 

Again, I recognize many names: Linn, Carlson, Fry, and the Wallace Linn family came all the way from Nebraska with Helen Louise Linn from Denver. 

Did you know that minutes were kept and people signed in when they arrived? Below are various parts of the minutes from different years, including sign-in sheets; lists of births, marriages, and deaths; and activities. I’m not sure who has the original book, but my mom allowed me to make copies of the pages so I could have them for my genealogy work, and then she gave it back to its rightful owner. I have information for the Linn reunions from 1936-1980. And so, if you are curious about a year, or several, of the Linn reunions, who was there, what was in the minutes, who was born, married or died, let me know and I’ll email you scanned copies.

From the 1955 Linn reunion below, you can see that the treasury had $2.83 going forward, 28 attendees, and ice cream, cake and coffee served. We see births for the previous year: two of my first cousins Ivan Dean Linn, son of Ivan and Ann; and Alan Edward Linn, son of Ellis and Johanna. And farther down is a cousin I’ve more recently connected with, Scott Allan Linn, son of Marlin and Janet. You may recognize other names.

 

In 1956, we see the sign-in sheets below which give the names of the attendees and where they are living, a great help to me as a family historian. Do you recognize names in our family?

 Also from 1956, we see my family listed. Sorry, Randy. You weren’t here yet:

And the list of attendees in 1956 (53), plus the accounting for the year.

If you have other years you would like to see, I’m happy to post more or send through email a year you are most interested in.

 

The Lundblad family also held annual family reunions starting in 1910, one of the oldest family get togethers in Iowa. Below is an article about the 1932 Lundblad reunion from the Dayton Review:

 

I know fewer of these names, but as a family historian, this is very helpful to me. It allows me to find additional relatives, but it also gives me a town where they are currently living. For example, in the second paragraph above is the name H. J. Lundblad which is Henrik Julius Lundblad. Henrik is the son of Anders Lundblad and the nephew of our Catharina Lundblad Linn. I now know that, in 1932, he and his family live in Laurens, Iowa, a small town northwest of Fort Dodge. I can now search for him and his family based on this information.

In addition to the Linns and Lundblads, the Barquists also held annual reunions. The following article from the September 11, 1913 Dayton review indicates a small turnout from the immediate area, but in addition to the Barquist names we know, Olof Olofson and his wife Brita were also in attendance.

 

While there were Olofson get-togethers, their “reunions” were more of a gathering for an event. The following Olof Olofson family reunion was to honor their son Leon who was going to serve in World War I in 1918, taken from the September 12, 1918 Stratford Courier:

The next year, 1919, a reunion of the Lars Olofson family took place. Lars was the brother to my Olof Olofson. He and his wife had 10 children, so just their immediate family alone made for a relatively large reunion:

 

To my knowledge, no formal reunions were held by the Olofson family, none where minutes were kept, dues paid, and activities held.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this sketch about our family reunions. Perhaps you attended one, or several. If you have photos of any you attended, I’d be happy to post them and share with our extended family. And wouldn’t it be fun to have another reunion in Iowa? Maybe at the Stratford park? We could make it a Linn-Lundblad-Olofson-Carlson-Barquist-Rask reunion!!!

 

A Mail Order Bride?

Most of us have options when we are looking for a serious partner. Dating apps, church, school, a bar, a blind date, a person we see at the local Starbucks. But, many of our ancestors came from the smallest of parishes in Sweden, rural areas where options to find a mate were slim. Thus, we often see marriages between people who lived on the same farm, a huge age gap in the couple, or marriages that were arranged or designed to provide stability and shelter. And, there were many births out of wedlock in our family tree.

Brita Margrite Rask was born in Bollnas Parish in Gavleborg County and is the step grandmother to our Maude Edith Olofson Linn. She was born on December 24, 1857, the second of five children born to Olof Rask and his wife Sophia Margrite Kjellander. Olof and Sophia didn’t marry until 1861, when they already had 3 children.

I wouldn’t call Olof Rask a particularly good catch. He was poor, moved a great deal as a laborer, and in one clerical survey is noted as being “defenseless, but basically honest”.

Bringing 5 children into a rather unstable environment must have been difficult for everyone.

•   Eldest daughter Anna Stina, who worked as a servant/pigan, died at the age of 22 of an unknown illness.
•   Second daughter Brita Margrite, who also worked at various farms as a pigan, became pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth to a daughter, Anna Charlotta, when she was just 22 years of age. She and her daughter immigrated to the United States in July 1880.
•   Third daughter Olivia was also a servant girl who followed her sister to the United States in 1881.
•   Fourth child Johanna Marie died at the age of 2 of an unknown illness.
•   The baby of the family was Karl Olof Rask. Karl came to the United States in 1884, lived in Iowa for a short time, married and moved to Yankton, South Dakota, and eventually to North Dakota, where he died in 1930.

We see that the three surviving Rask children all immigrated to the United States. But why? In Karl’s case, he was able to be an independent farmer, owning his own farm by 1910. He married another Swedish immigrant, and raised 8 children. Compared to what his life would have been like in Sweden, the son of two poor parents and no option to be a landowner, he certainly carved out a much better life for himself.

Olivia Rask followed Brita from Sweden to Iowa in 1881 and eventually married my great grandfather, William Edward Olofson. This makes Olivia our great-grandmother but also our step-great-great aunt. Confusing?

Brita’s immigration is interesting. She was living with her parents and raising a daughter in Sweden. How would she have learned about Olof Olofson in Iowa? How could she have met him to know if he would make a suitable life partner? While I have no definitive answer, it is my belief that this was an arranged marriage or a mail order situation for Olof and Brita.

Olof had been widowed sometime between 1871 and 1880, when Maria Barquist Olofson died. He was raising his son William Edward Olofson with the help of his mother Christine, as shown in the 1880 census taken in June of 1880.

Brita and her daughter sailed from Sweden to the United States sometime after July 5, 1880, when we see that they are moving out of Bollnas Parish. The ocean part of the trip would have taken approximately 3 weeks. That puts their arrival on the Eastern shore of the United States around the first part of August 1880. From there, Brita and Anna Charlotta would have taken a train, perhaps a boat and other transportation to Iowa and eventually to Hardin Township in Webster County. Maybe that would have added another month to their trip.

Brita and Olof Olofson married in Boone County on September 9, 1880. It would certainly appear that this couple did not know each other before marrying; or, if they did, it was for a very few days. Looks like an arranged marriage, a mail-order bride, or something practical, if not romantic.

When Brita and Olof married, Olof was going blind. As we saw from a post on July 1, 2018, Olof spent the last 40 years of his life blind. He died in 1924, so he would have been blind around 1884, just 4 years after Brita and Olof married.

Brita Rask Olofson is my step-second great grandmother and also my second great aunt, Maude Edith Olofson’s step grandmother and also her aunt.

Take a look back at the March 11 and March 18 blog posts and also the July 1 post, all from my 2018 year of 52 ancestors in 52 weeks, for more on the Rask family. And then weigh in. An arranged marriage? Or ….

Two photos of Brita Rask Olofson; lower photo is of Olof and Brita Olofson. Olof is blind in this photograph. Love his beard and wish we had that cane and his very cool hat!