RELIGION OF OUR SWEDISH ANCESTORS

We think of many Scandinavians as being Lutheran, but there is much more to learn about religion in that part of the world.

Before the 11th Century, Swedes worshiped the Norse pagan gods. It was not centralized or formalized, meaning that each village or territory practiced its own customs and religious practices. Normally that included sacrifices and food rituals.

Christianity gradually gained a foothold in Sweden and by 1060 Christianity (Roman Catholicism) was firmly established throughout most of Sweden. When the Protestant Reformation came to Sweden, it became a political tool used by the king to secure control over the church and its assets. The King, Gustav Vasa, proclaimed a state church with HIM as the head. From the 1530’s until 2000, Sweden has been Lutheran with the Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan) as the state church.

The Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan) is Evangelical Lutheran and has its secretariat in Uppsala, a city that has been the center of the Swedish church since the Middle Ages. The Church of Sweden has been separated from the state since 2000, which means that Sweden no longer has an official state church. While most countries in the world have no official religion, Sweden is in fact the only Nordic country without a state church, as Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have all retained theirs.

On October 28, 2018, I posted about the Jansonites, a small group of people who lived in and around the area where Maude Olofson Linn’s ancestors were from. Below is a brief quote from that article:

Erik Jansson, along with many Swedes in the 1840's, became disenchanted with the state church, its rules, and the oppression they felt. Erik Jansson became a leader of a movement that rebelled against the state-run Lutheran Church. Meeting in secret in various homes to hear Jansson speak, the group lived in fear that they would be found and arrested. As the group of Jansson followers increased, a plan was made to flee to the United States, to establish a colony where they could worship freely.

 

Members wishing to join Erik Jansson, and the group known as Janssonites, sold all of their belongings and put the proceeds into a common fund used to transport followers and to establish their American colony. The first settlers, around 1,500, arrived in Henry County, Illinois, in 1846 and bought 60 acres, establishing Bishop Hill as their home.

 

You can read more about this short-lived colony of fanatics, some have referred to it as a cult, that demonstrated the extent to which some Swedes would go to in order to have freedom of religion.

Some of us know about the Swedish tradition of Lucia, one of the non-religious highlights before Christmas which is celebrated on December 13. It is named for Saint Lucia who was killed for her religious beliefs. Today, it is a local custom celebrated in homes and in villages. A young woman in white enters a dark room with a ring of light on her head, symbolizing bringing the light into the darkness of winter on the Winter Solstice. She carries food that symbolizes her bringing food to the persecuted Christians.

Midsummer is a celebration on or around the Summer Solstice. Greenery, maypole dancing, and great smorgasbords are part of the celebration. Rocky and I were in Sweden once during Midsummer, and the food spread at the hotel was tremendous with every kind of herring one could imagine. Rocky tried them all. I did not!

Today, few church services are held, and the churches are often locked. A pastor is responsible for multiple churches and holds a service on a rotating basis at the various churches in his assigned area. Attendees today would have to drive to a church a few miles from their home church if they want to attend church on a regular basis.

Today, Sweden is considered to be one of the world's most secular nations, with a high proportion of nonreligious people.

While holidays that we know to be based in religion might still be celebrated, there are few, if any, religious rituals. Swedes simply celebrate the day itself.

There are also non-religious ‘name-giving’ ceremonies (namngivningsceremonier) for infants, with the aim of celebrating the arrival of a new child without the religious overtones of a christening.

The churches are architecturally interesting. Below are a few pictures we have taken of the churches of our ancestors:

 

Ingatorp Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                            Malexander Church

 

Farila Church

 

 

                                                    Amot Church

Ulrika Church

 

 

 

 

 

The churches above were places of worship for our ancestors:

Ingatorp: church attended by Olaus Fredriccson and his family, including our Gus, John, and Peter Linn.

Malexander: the church that Elin Andersson's family would have attended.

Farila: church in Galveborg County that the Olssons and Olofsons would have attended.

Amot: church attended by John Barquist and his ancestors and family.

Ulrika: church attended by Gus Linn and John Linn before they immigrated to the United States.

When our Swedish ancestors came to the United States, most of them continued to meet regularly in homes until a church could be built. The services were in Swedish with Swedish Bibles and Swedish hymns. And this practice of being in the Swedish language lasted for many years.

John Linn was an ordained minister and started many churches in Iowa and surrounding states. According to his Dayton Review obit on 23 May 1907, he was converted to the M.E. church in Hardin County and entered the work of the ministry. In 1868 he was pastor at Rockford, Geneseo and Galesburg, IL. In 1874 he was presiding elder of the District of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. 

Our Swedish ancestors were faithful servants, protestants with some remaining Lutheran, but throughout their lives, they practiced their faith.

Roy Hagerty Rinquist Update

 

On May 23, I posted about the Hagerty boys who were adopted by 3 different families. Roy Oscar Hagerty was adopted by William Rinquist and his wife Charlotte Linn Rinquist.

Below is some additional information I have found about Roy:

An obituary from an unknown newspaper source in Miami states that Roy O. Rinquist, 82, of 8981 Sunset Dr., Miami, passed away Thursday. Mr. Rinquist was a native of Kansas and had been a resident of Miami for the past 18 years. His Philanthropic services to the Veterans Hospital for which he was awarded a 3,000 hour volunteer pin and to Post No. 67 of the American Legion who honored him with the "Award of Merit" and a life membership bears tribute to his outstanding services. He is survived by his wife Hilda. Friends may call 7-9 pm Friday Lithgow 150 St. Chapel, 15011 W. Dixie Hwy.

 

Two items stand out for me in this obit:

 

1. Roy’s philanthropic services to the Veterans Hospital and the American Legion. The pins were given for various levels of volunteering, starting at 300 hours. Roy was clearly a very active volunteer for the Veterans Hospital in Miami.
2. He was survived by a second wife, Hilda whom he married two years after his first wife Olivia passed. Hilda must have loved men! She had 5 husbands altogether, counting Roy Rinquist.

 

 

NOTICE: I've been informed by blogger that it will no longer support the email feed you receive when I've posted something new. I hope you will keep checking the site itself for new stories and updates. If I find a new plug-in, I hope to set that up again. If any of you know how I might do this, please contact me.

ancestorfootprints.blogspot.com

 

DNA - A Brief Introduction

 

I’m not a DNA expert and would never hold myself out to know more than the basics. But, like many people, I’ve spit into a tube, sent my DNA in and received results about my ethnicity, learned of over 400 potential relatives, and even been in contact with some. Today, I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned from doing my DNA.

Even with my limited science background and interest, I know that I receive half of my DNA from each parent. Each of my siblings also receive half from each parent. But, unless I am an identical twin, the mix we children receive from each parent is not the same.

We don’t look identical, don’t have the same eye color or nose shape, or height. But we have some of the same characteristics. You can tell we are siblings. We just received a different mix of that 50% from each parent.

My two brothers and I each took an Ancestry DNA test. One of our parents is from Swedish descent; the other from Bohemian descent. Neither, of course, is 100% Swedish OR 100% Bohemian, but pretty close!  And what they passed on to us is also not exactly 50% of our makeup.

I’m 43% Swedish; one of my brothers is also 43% Swedish; the other brother is 64% Swedish. Yet, we are full-blooded siblings. It’s important to recognize that the mix of DNA received will not be identical.

I recently attended a Zoom genealogy meeting on DNA and learned that, within 5 generations, we probably have errors in our family trees, based on the paper research we have done. Even the best of researchers cannot help but have errors. That’s because we don’t really know what was going on in the lives of our ancestors. Was a direct-line descendant born out of wedlock, yet raised by the people that we see on all paper records as the parents? Was one of our ancestors raised by a neighbor after a tragedy struck leading us to believe through the paper trail that the parents are the biological parents? Were mistakes made by the census taker or the local minister? There are so many reasons why the paper records might be incorrect. Thus, the reason for DNA testing.

My reason for doing DNA testing was to break through a couple of brick walls. For example, my third great-grandfather, Carl Johan Lundblad, father to Catherine Lundblad Linn, was born out of wedlock in 1793 to Ingeborg Ingedotter. Our tree on Carl’s father’s line, stops at Carl and his mother. I have no way through paper records to definitively find his father. Going back 3-4 generations through my DNA test is not likely to show results because I would only receive about 6.25% of my DNA from Carl Johan Lundblad. Do you see the problems? Carl’s biological father, the person I’m trying to find, would only be responsible for 3.12% of my total DNA. But still, it has been my best hope for breaking through that brick wall.

Last summer, I was back in Iowa and was so very fortunate to have time to visit with Uncle Merlyn and Aunt Shari at their 60^th wedding anniversary celebration, see cousins I hadn’t seen in decades; Uncle Ivan who took me as his “date” to the celebration; Myron and I also visited with Veryl Olofson.

I had purchased two more Ancestry DNA kits with the hope that I might get a generation older, closer to Carl Johan Lundblad, to test. And Ivan immediately said yes. Veryl also did the same to help with the Olofson line, being a generation farther up our tree on that side.

In Ivan’s case, Carl Johan Lundblad would be his second great-grandfather, and Ivan would have inherited 12.5% of his DNA from Carl, 6.25% from Carl’s biological father. This can make a difference, assuming the right people also test their DNA. I’m still hopeful that another descendant of Carl Johan Lundblad’s biological father will test and will lead us to a breakthrough on this tree line.

Through Veryl’s DNA matches, I’ve communicated with cousins I’d never met and enjoyed sharing stories and a few photos.

It's always important to remember when doing your own DNA test or having other members of the family take DNA tests that surprising results can happen. You know what I mean. So, it’s important to tell people that they should be prepared, even if they are CERTAIN there will be no surprises, that there could be a surprise. I have seen so many of these “events” in my genealogy groups, a couple of parent or sibling surprises with my friends, and even was contacted by someone from Ancestry who did match our family and had been adopted as a baby.

I manage five DNA tests and can also view 2 others on Ancestry. I’ve also uploaded my husband’s DNA results to another online site, FamilyTreeDNA, because we are working on a Scottish “event” in his family line, and that site has more results for him as a Scot than Ancestry does.

My Ancestry results show that I’m 43% Swedish, 24% Czech, 11% Norwegian (yes we Swedes got around!), 6% Baltic, 6% Germanic (probably related to my Czech), 5% Finnish (probably Bertil Monsieur I wrote about in the 2018 blog), 3% Wales and 2% England and Northwestern Europe (no idea how those got in there!).

An additional thing I have learned is that some of the low percentages might not be/probably aren’t related to people in our tree. They could be from characteristics that are attributed to a geographical area. As more and more people test, my mix of percentages changes a bit. For now, I feel comfortable saying I’m about half and half Swedish and Czech.

If you are interested in doing your DNA and you post it on Ancestry, I’d be happy to be another pair of eyes to look at matches. The more people who test, the better chance we have of finding our way through brick walls. After all, our mixes are not identical. You may hold the key.

 

LaVonne June 5 Visitation and Service

 To my friends and family,

Thank you to those who were able to come to either mom's visitation or cemetery service and those who sent flowers, cards, and donations. We are so appreciative of everyone's hugs and tears and stories about mom that have made us smile.

In a few days, I'll start posting again about our Linn and Olofson ancestry. I have two interesting ones that are just about finished: one about an adoption in our Linn family, and another about DNA (non-scientific, I promise!).

But today, I'd like to share a few pictures from Saturday. If you would like to make a donation in LaVonne Halligan's name to the Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, you can go to https://ncsml.org/ and make an online donation OR you can mail a check indicating it is in memory of LaVonne Halligan to 1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

Ivan and Diane; Diane, Merlyn, Myron; Karrie, Randy, Becky, Merlyn and Shari; Myron, Diane and Randy; Randy and Ivan; procession to mom's resting place; mom's beautiful casket.

LaVonne Helen Pliner Linn Halligan

Our mom peacefully passed away last night, moving on to her well-deserved rest. I'm sharing a portion of the obituary I wrote for her that gives just a short synopsis of her life.

All of you knew mom and have your own special memories and stories of her. I know that my siblings and I would very much enjoy hearing your memories. Would you please share with us on the blog, not through the email, so we can all learn about your relationship with this special lady.

With heavy hearts, the family of LaVonne Helen (Pliner, Linn) Halligan announce her passing at age 95 on May 27, 2021.

LaVonne was born on September 2, 1925, on a farm in Elkhorn Township, Webster County, Iowa, to Jeffery and Bessie Pliner, joining her older sister Irene to make the family complete. She attended Elkhorn #8, a one-room schoolhouse, and graduated from Moorland High School in 1942.

In 1946, LaVonne was united in marriage to Rolland Linn at Lundgren United Brethren Church and together they had four children who are left to grieve her loss. Myron (LeAnne) of Adel; Diane (Rocky) of California; Marcia of Ankeny; and Randy (Becky) of Grimes. She also leaves 9 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

Until 1957, the family lived on a farm just two miles outside Dayton, Iowa, when the family moved to Des Moines.

Always known as a hard worker, LaVonne held many jobs, sometimes three at a time. From cashier to government worker, lunch lady to home typist, farmer to waitress, she demonstrated to her family and friends the value of doing your best. LaVonne had a very creative side, being able to make something useful, if not always beautiful, from just about anything. Her family will also remember with smiles how she glued macaroni on just about everything and spray painted the item gold. LaVonne enjoyed gardening, crocheting, sewing, singing, and was an active support to her children in all of their activities. She loved to dance anywhere, anytime, an activity begun at a very young age at the Bohemian Hall that her parents ran for over 30 years. LaVonne was a 50-year member of ZCBJ Lodge #39 and an active genealogist, who appreciated her Bohemian heritage.

After being widowed for 13 years, LaVonne reconnected with her high school sweetheart, the love of her life, Robert Halligan of Lenox. In 2011 they were married and had 4 loving years together until his passing in 2015.

With hope and faith, her family sends LaVonne to her well-deserved rest in heaven.

ADOPTION OF THE HAGERTY BOYS

I wish I knew the entire story. Today I’m sharing what I do know in the hope that one of you may have information that will help me complete the research on this family.

This is an interesting tale of sadness and joy, of love and sacrifice, a few lingering questions, and a portion of the Linn family.

Roy Oscar Hagerty was born on December 14, 1890; brother George Cleveland Hagerty followed on June 10, 1893; and John Henry Hagerty on May 21, 1895. They were born to Harry Hagerty and his wife Josephine Dorothy Wretling Hagerty. Josephine was born Thea Josefina Wretling in Frotuna, Stockholm, Sweden and came to the United States with her family in 1880 when she was just 9 years old. Her family eventually settled in Kansas where she met and married Harry Hagerty, a naturalized citizen from England or Ireland.

Roy, George, and John were all under the age of 10 when, on December 26, 1899, their parents surrendered them to the Christian Children’s Home in Holdrege, Nebraska. This home had opened in 1888 under the care of a pastor in that town. You can read more about the history of this home at the following site:

Christian Children's Home

From the accounts I’ve read, the Christian Children’s Home was clean, orderly, and disciplined, but not cruel or abusive. The three Hagerty boys would have attended school and church activities and had a group of other young children to play with.

Below is the first page of the intake papers for the 3 Hagerty boys in which we see that the parents have been counseled and believe “that it is for the best interest of the children that said adoption be made”.

We don’t know the complete reasons the Hagertys placed their 3 young sons in the Christian Children’s home, or how they came to select a place in the middle of Nebraska when they had been living in Oklahoma. But we can speculate that perhaps their marriage was troubled, it was too difficult to provide for a family of 5, there was abuse, or even that the parents were ill-equipped to be good parents. Whatever the reason, the day after Christmas in 1899, Roy, George and John Hagerty became the wards of the home. And in 1902, the mother Josephine remarries.

It wasn’t long after the boys were placed in the Christian Children’s Home that the eldest, Roy Oscar Hagerty, was adopted. His new family was William Rinquist and his wife, Charlotte Linn Rinquist. Charlotte (Lottie) was the daughter of John and Sarah Linn, thus our Linn connection to this story.

William Rinquist was born in Sweden in 1847 and came to the United States in 1871. Lottie, we know, was born in Iowa to John and Sarah on January 29, 1857. The couple married on July 3, 1884, in Denver, Colorado and moved to Kansas. They had two children, but only one survived.

We see in the 1900 US Federal Census for Diamond Valley, Kansas, William Rinquist, a farmer, his wife Lottie, and their two children Maria Edna Rinquist, born in July of 1890 in Kansas, and adopted son Roy Oscar Rinquist, born in December 1890. He and Maria were the same age. The census also states that Lottie had given birth to two children but one had died. I have no record of that other child.

We also see in the 1900 US Federal Census the listing for the 2 younger brothers, George and John Hagerty, listed as “inmates” at the Christian Children’s Home in Nebraska:

These two Hagerty boys didn’t have much longer to live at the Christian Children’s Home. In 1901, they were adopted by Carl and Betty Hord. In the 1910 US Federal Census, John is 14 and living with his adoptive parents in Plumgrove, Nebraska. George is listed as a 16-year-old hired hand on a farm in Union, Pottawatomie County, Kansas.

The boys’ biological mother, Josephine, remarried in 1902 to William Quilliam who became a captain in the Salvation Army until he was investigated for embezzling money from the organization. It appears that Josephine didn’t have great success with her husbands!

Several interesting facts surround these 3 young men as they grew up. From the article below, you can see that they all had contact with their birth mother. She knew where they were and additional articles show her visits with at least one of her sons.

I’ve tried to find additional info on the biological father, Henry Hagerty, but I’ve been unsuccessful.

John Henry, the youngest, used the last name Hoard/Hord as far as the 1910 census when he was 14 years old living with Carl and Betty Hord, but by the 1920 census, he had returned to using his birth name again, John Henry Hagerty; and he used that last name the rest of his life.

When William Rinquist died in Fresno, California in 1912, his will stipulated that his adopted son Roy Oscar would receive $50; his biological daughter Mary received $3,000.

Were there difficulties in the homes where these young men were raised? At the time, would there normally be a difference of money given either to men and women in a will or to an adopted child? I have no way of knowing as only facts are generally available to the family historian. But it does make me curious about the warmth and contact the 3 had with their birth mother, Josephine, the use of the original last name by one of the boys, and Roy Oscar Rinquist remaining in Kansas while the rest of his family moved to Fresno, perhaps leading to a breakdown in that family and a nominal inheritance.

Our Linn relative, Roy Oscar Hagerty Rinquist, served in World War I, enlisting on December 14, 1917, and discharged on October 3, 1919. Before entering service, he was a streetcar conductor in Kansas City. He was in the Aviation Corps, served in France and, on October 5, 1918, Roy was admitted to the hospital in Lorient, France, for a short stay and was dismissed on October 28 and sent to USN Base #19.

When he returned to the United States, Roy married in 1919 to Olivia Nordenberg and continued his work as a conductor. In 1927, the couple made an ocean trip back to Sweden, coming back through New York on September 5 of that year.

Sometime after the 1940 US Federal Census, the couple moved to Miami, Florida, where Olivia died in 1969. Roy remarried in 1971 to Hilda Nelson; and he died in April 1974. Roy had no children with either woman.

Roy and his brothers are not close relatives, second cousins twice removed. But their story is interesting to me; and at this point in my research, I’m much more interested in the life stories than in collecting more and more names and dates. These stories, I hope, show the humanity, the problems and joys, the lives of those who came before us.

If You're Happy and You Know It ...

Have you seen any studies that have shown who is the happiest? Maybe you’ve read an article about the happiest state, small town, occupation, number of children, marital status. These, of course, are fun to read and maybe hold some truth. Do we inherit a “happiness gene” or “happiness tendency”? Can we find happiness by where we live?

Recently, my cousin Alan sent me a YouTube link about a study that has been repeated every year since 2012, ranking the happiest people in the world, based on GDP, education, corruption, and more. It might surprise you to know that Scandinavian people are among the happiest in the world. While Sweden ranks #7 when one looks at the top 10, 5 of top 10 are Scandinavian countries. And the United States is nowhere to be seen.

Our Linns, Olofsons, Lundblads, Carlsons and more have been in the United States for almost 2 centuries, so how much “happiness” we inherit from our ancestors’ time in Sweden is questionable. However, when I watched the YouTube video, I saw a couple of cultural happiness traits that I saw in my Swedish grandparents. I wonder if you do, too.

Being happy is probably a complex issue, one that I'm not prepared to discuss with any authority. But  happiness probably includes many factors including the general attitude of the people, the weather and geography, religion, the influence of the government, and more, many of which we see in the YouTube. 

The video also made me wonder about other characteristics I may have inherited, not because I’m Swedish or Bohemian, but because of the qualities that were passed down from parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. Hard work? Honesty? Musical ability? Impatience? Alcoholism? Frugality? Independence? Worry-free? Responsibility?

And while I didn’t think of it when I visited Sweden, now that I reflect on my three trips there, I do see much of what is shown in the YouTube is in the Swedish culture that I witnessed.

Here's the link to the video, about 25 minutes long if you speed past the ads.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e6oAQlTd67k&feature=share

I thank Alan for sharing this thought-provoking video. I wonder what your ideas are about traits or characteristics you may have inherited through our Swedish culture or upbringing. I look forward to your comments.