LINN COUSINS

There were 21 of us. Children of Peter and Maude’s 5 sons. We had get-togethers at Grandpa and Grandma’s house and often at Ivan and Ann’s home. A bunch of blond heads, having that Scandinavian look, playing and running, all the same except for Dennis who took after his mom’s side and had dark hair.

Stanley: Dennis

Rolland: Myron, Diane, Marcia, Randy

Ellis: Alan, Doug, Michelle, Kurt, Joel, Timothy

Ivan: Dean, Donnie, Linda, David, Dirk, Daniel

Merlyn: Debra, Brett, Karie, Kathy

We are now 18 strong. Cousins who were born in the late 40’s through 1970. Spread out from one side of the country to another. We’ve lost touch, but somehow many of us have found each other through a phone call, a funeral, even this blog.

Donald Wayne Linn, age 64, was the most recent cousin to pass. He and I had reconnected through this blog. He often left a short comment on the posts he enjoyed. He and I would email about our shared love for the Cubs. But I dropped off on posting regularly, and I didn’t hear from Donny. When I started to post more regularly this year, it is then that I learned of his passing from a heart attack.

I’m so sad that I didn’t know Donny as an adult with shared memories of a childhood with the very loud Linns. I read an article not long ago in which the author wrote of hearing about a childhood friend who had passed and being surprised how hard it hit him. They had been distanced for over 20 years. And then he realized, as I have, that people from our past share memories that no one else has. And as each passes, a part of that history, a history we can share with someone, is now gone.

I want to acknowledge my other two cousins who have passed. Kurt Girard Linn, age 44, passed in 2008 in Colorado. On the front of his monument is a photo of him with a guitar. On the back it says, "Music Man. Mountain Man." I wish I’d known Kurt as an adult, listened to his music and asked about his love of the mountains.

Ivan Dean Linn, Jr., (known as Dean) passed at age 18 in a motorcycle accident. He and his girlfriend were riding, and he only had one helmet. He gave it to her. When the accident occurred, his helmet saved his girlfriend, but Dean died. His death was the first one I knew of someone around my age. I was in college in Utah at the time and wasn’t able to come back for the service. But I remember the time and I remember Dean from so many family get-togethers.

I’m so glad that many of us cousins have connected in some way. We share memories of parents, grandparents, and Iowa in a way that no one else can. I don’t know how or if we could find a way to get everyone together, but I’m open to ideas. Back in Iowa? All of you come out to sunny California?

Our numbers have gone from 21 to 18; I hope that we stay 18 strong until we can meet.

 

 

 A bunch of Linn cousins with Aunt Ann.

 

The Andersons

Sometimes I can imagine I actually knew ancestors from 100 or more years back. Among the records, photos, news articles, and family stories, I sometimes have a picture of what they were like, how they went through their lives, what kind of parent or spouse or sibling they were.

My great-grandmother Elin Mathilda Andersson Linn and her family seem very real to me.

Elin (pronounced Eee-Linn) was the middle of 5 children born to Carl (Charlie) Magnus Andersson and Anna Maja Andersdotter. Three girls were born first and then the two boys: Maria Lovisa, Anna Charlotta, Elin Mathilda, Karl (Charlie) Johan Oscar, and Viktor Alfred. They were all born in Malexander Parish in Ostergotland Sweden.

Carl and Anna were common people. Growing up, Carl was a dräng (a farm laborer) and Anna was a pigan (a female servant). Their marriage on 26 December 1856 didn’t change their status or security. They were crofters (peasants whose principal means of subsistence came from farming some small part of land, held in tenancy, of an estate. The crofter paid the bulk of his rent by putting in so many days work on the parent farm and moved quite often from farm to farm to find work. Doesn’t this sound a bit like sharecroppers in this country?) Carl and Anna and their growing family did move often, from farm to farm, as shown in several Swedish clerical surveys in the 1860’s and 70’s.

At one point, the farm they were living on was Golstugan under Maleryd where Carl worked as a crofter or tenant farmer. When you see one name under another, in this case, Golstugan UNDER Maleryd, it means that Golstugan is a small tract of land of a larger area called Maleryd; and this is where Carl, his wife, and first child lived. Crofters often moved from one place to another. In 1856, Carl and Anna moved to Golstugan from Gransjostugan. And before that, Carl had moved from Gransjostugan from Damshult; and from Asbo to Damshult. I won’t continue these movements, but you can see from this list that a crofter’s life was unsettled, transient, which can also make it difficult to track ancestors.

 

 ANNA MAJA ABRAHAMSDOTTER ANDERSON

Starting in November of 1884, the family of 7 was noted as being “on the parish” which meant that they had no place to live. Can you imagine how difficult it was for Carl and Anna to provide for their family? In 1885, they emigrated to the United States, hoping for a better life.

The first census we can find the family in is the Iowa State 1895 census. Even though they came in 1884, the 1890 US Federal Census was destroyed except for a very few counties across the United States. In 1895, we see Charley Anderson, age 66, his wife Anna, age 62, and sons Karl (Charley) and Viktor. The 3 daughters were married and living in the area with their new families.

Eldest daughter Marie married Frank Anderson (interesting that she didn’t have to change her last name!) in 1887. Second daughter Anna Charlotta also married an Anderson: Anders Gustaf Anderson in 1884. And, Elin Mathilda Andersson, my great-grandmother, married my great-grandfather Andrew Fredrick Linn on 1 November 1888.

Looking ahead at the 1900 US Federal Census, we see that Anna Anderson is now a widow. Carl (Charley) died in 1896 and is buried in the Hardin Township Cemetery in an unmarked grave. As a widow, Anna was still living on the farm at age 67 as a farmer, with her son Karl (Charlie) Anderson, age 28. Next to them on the census is daughter Anna Charlotta with her husband Gustaf and their 4 children.

In the 1910 US Federal Census for Dayton, we see that Karl (Charley), now age 38, is the head of the household with mother Anna, age 77, living with him on the family farm.

On 1 January 1918, Anna died at the age of 85. Like her husband Carl (Charley), she is also buried in the Hardin Township Cemetery. On findagrave.com, there is a notation that she also lies in an unmarked grave.

I’m troubled, as you might be, to have learned that both Carl Andersson and Anna Maja Abrahamsdotter Andersson lie in unmarked graves. I messaged the person who added their graves to that website asking if there was additional information. Who has a thought about what the reason might be and what might be done to have a small marker placed where they lie, if we could learn that?

Here is a portion of her answer:

In researching local cemeteries, I began coming across many records (obituaries, newspaper accounts, death registers and certificates, church records, etc., for burials without markers, so I began documenting them with the information available. Rural cemetery records are often not very good as is the case with Hardin Township Cemetery (also called Swede Bend Cemetery, Johnson Cemetery or Richie Cemetery).

For your 2^nd great grandparents, both of their obituaries state they were buried at Hardin Township Cemetery; and Anna’s death certificate also indicates her burial place.

They were members of the Swede Bend Mission Covenant Church in which the membership is largely buried at Hardin Township cemetery and was located nearby. The probability is high they are both buried there.

I appreciate this woman’s help. Genealogy people are so very willing to help each other, often for no cost. While we don't know with 100% certainty, the information she provided is compelling. She continues to speculate why Carl and Anna’s graves might not be marked. Weather destroying a marker overtime; no longer legible; never marked to begin with; marked with a temporary marker by the funeral director but never replaced with a permanent one, etc.

I’m still hopeful we may find the exact location where Carl and Anna are buried and place a marker at that site.

For a time, the family belonged to the Emanuel Lutheran Church in Dayton, beginning when they first arrived in the area in 1885. The record of members, page 68, found on microfilm at Swenson Center show Carl Magnus Anderson, b 15 Feb 1828; Anna Maja, b 16 October 1832; son Carl Johan Oscar, b 21 Jan 1871; son Victor Alfred, b 2 December 1873.  A note indicates that the family came from Ulrika in 1885. Notation on page 69 says the family asked to be removed from the church rolls on 11 June 1889 because they joined another church or moved.

In the church record for the Stratford Swede Bend Covenant Church, Carl Magnus Anderson, his wife, and children Mary, Anna, Elin, Carl, and Victor are found as members, starting on 4 October 1890.

One additional piece about this family, a story that has been passed down with photographs as truth is that Anna Maja Abrahamsdotter’s father, Abraham Carlsson (my 3^rd great grandfather) built the Carlson cabin in 1850 near Dayton. I would question the accuracy of this for two reasons:

1.     Anna’s parents, Abraham Carlsson and Anna-Brita Johannesdotter never left Sweden. Abraham died there in 1849 and Anna-Brita in 1880.

2.    Even if the cabin were named for Anna Maja’s parents but thought to have been built by Anna’s husband Carl, that couldn’t have happened around 1850. Carl and Anna Maja and their 5 children didn’t emigrate from Sweden until 1884, well after the 1850 date that has been posted.

I wouldn’t doubt that someone from our family lived in that cabin, maybe even a Carlson or the Andersons, but it was likely built by someone else in 1850 who was not in our direct line. Or, someone has the incorrect date and the cabin was built sometime after 1884 when the Anderssons arrived. One person has speculated on Ancestry that Carl Andersson ADDED to the Carlsson cabin. That supposition holds some water as the Anderssons were a family of 7 and might have needed additional room. 

Again, one of the things I love about genealogy research is exploring and learning, but always being open to new information. If I’m incorrect about the cabin, I hope that someone will leave a comment or email me. It certainly would be nice to lay claim to the Carlson Cabin.

My next post will be about my great-grandmother Elin with a little bit of information about her siblings.

 

LINN AND LIND

Could it be that we are related to EVERY Linn in the middle of Iowa? How about the surname Lind? After all, Gus and John’s last names were often spelled Lynn, so why not Lind? In this post, I’m going to attempt to set the record straight on these surnames.

I’ll take one married couple in our family tree:

Marie Ellen Linn, born in Lehigh, Webster County, Iowa, in 1908, married Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind in Lehigh on 26 January 1926. Clemens was born in 1902 in Harcourt, also in Webster County. This couple had 3 children: Donald, Phyllis, and Richard.

So, are either Marie Ellen or Clemens Gustaf related to us? If they are in our tree, they certainly are in some form. Which would you guess is the relative?

It might surprise you to learn that it’s Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind who is our relative. Marie Ellen Linn is not.

Let’s start with Clemens who is our distant relative. Clemens is listed as the nephew of the husband of the second cousin three times removed. OK, I said it wasn’t a CLOSE relative! Clemens’ mother was a Challgren, which shows some form of relationship to me. But more importantly, Julia Linn* and Peter Berg’s daughter, Francis, married Arthur Challgren, a brother to Jennie Challgren who married Frank Lind.

And it’s Frank Lind and Jennie Challgren Linn who are the parents of Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind.

Confusing? It can be without a genealogy program that shows all of these relationships. We clearly are not related closely to the Lind family. But we are related. Challgrens were friends of my parents in Dayton. And I see the surname Lind at reunion news articles and other family get-togethers.

Now let’s look at Marie Ellen Linn who is not related to us other than to have married Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind.

Marie was born in Lehigh, Webster County, Iowa, to Jessie William Linn and Lillie Belle Needham. Following Jessie Linn, we see he was born in Missouri in 1881 to Francis Marion Linn and Esther Gillespie. Francis Linn was born in Illinois in 1840. Francis’ parents, Isaac Linn and Mary McVay, were born in Ohio. Isaac was born in 1820.

We can see, just by these few generations back, that these Linns were not from Sweden. First, none of the men married a Swedish woman. Second, very few Swedes came to the United States before the 1840’s. Isaac Linn was born here in 1820. There is some evidence that the next generation back is from Pennsylvania and before that, from Ireland. I’ve not been able to trace this family farther back at this time; and I doubt that I’ll spend more time on these Linns since they are not related to us.

One other interesting fact that might shed light on the other Linns is that they were not buried where OUR Linns were buried. Ours were in Dayton Cemetery, Linn-Bethel Owen Cemetery and others in and around the Boone and Pilot Mound areas.

These other Linns were buried north of Dayton cemeteries: McGuire Bend Cemetery (about 14 miles north of Dayton, near the Des Moines River) and West Lawn Cemetery (just outside of Lehigh). While there are many Linns in those two cemeteries, none are related to us.

 

*Julia Linn was John Linn’s daughter, shown to be the first white child born in Webster County, Iowa.

 

 

The red pin shows McGuire Bend Cemetery; at the top of this photo is Lehigh. The West Lawn Cemetery is just west of the town.

How Noble/Nobel Are We?

My mind was just blown away, dynamite involved, I’m sure! When I shared this with my brother Myron, he felt the same way. Both stunned and completely excited!

Our ancestors, Linns, Olofsons, Andersons, Barquists, and many others, are made up of interesting people whom I’m happy to have gotten to know over the past 45 years of research.

Through my research, I’ve found non-parental events (birth out of wedlock), multiple marriages when a divorce or death happened, family members who adopted neighbor or friend’s children when a parent died, and foster children. I look at each of these combinations as OUR family whether the same blood passes through us all or not. The relationships, the care, the sustained love in these “non-traditional” families is what is important. And, as my ancestors become THEIRS, I believe that THEIR ancestors become mine.

Take a look at the following chart: Here, we see John Olausson Linn and his second wife Sarah Svensdotter, one of their 5 daughters Charlotte (Lottie) Linn married to William Rinquist, and their son Roy Oscar Reinquist. Roy is my second cousin, twice removed.

Now that we've seen the ancestral line from John Linn through Charlotte Linn to Roy, let's look at a second chart:

Here we see a Roy Oscar Hagerty, born on the same date, in the same place as our first Roy. But the parents are Harry Hagerty and Thea Josefina Wretling. Thea's parents are Theodore Adrick Wretling and Anna Brita Ersdotter. And Theodore's parents are Carl Wretling and Amalia Nobel.

So, are these two Roy Oscars, the same, or is this just a coincidence? They are the same person. 

You may recall two posts I wrote on 23 May 2021 and 3 July 2021 about the Rinquist boys being given to a Christian home in Nebraska by their parents, Harry and Thea. Roy Oscar was adopted by Charlottte and William Rinquist when he was 10 and raised as a Reinquist.

I had to stop for a moment in my research and ponder the idea that Amalia Nobel might be from THE Nobel family. Inventors, Nobel Prize. Wealthy. But no. Not in our family. 

But readers, family, friends, it's true. Amalia Nobel is the aunt of the very famous dynamite inventor and namesake of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel. Amalia's brother Immanual Nobel and his wife Andriette Ahshell had 4 sons:

• Robert Nobel, a Swedish businessman, industrialist and investor. He was the founder of Branobel, and a pioneer in the Russian oil industry.
• Ludwig Nobel, was a Swedish-Russian engineer, a noted businessman and a humanitarian. Ludvig Nobel built the largest fortune of any of the Nobel brothers and was one of the world's richest men.
• Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philantropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize, though he also made several important contributions to science, holding 355 patents in his lifetime. Nobel's most famous invention was dynamite. 
• Emil Oscar Nobel, opened a workshop with foundry in St. Petersburg returning to Sweden in 1859 with his youngest sons Emil and Alfred. Emil was the only member of the family to go to college, attending the University of Uppsala. He died in an explosion while experimenting with nitroglycerine. 

And father Immanual Nobel was a Swedish engineer, architect, inventor, and industrialist. He was the inventory of the rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing.

And so, we are related through adoption to the very famous Nobel family!

Of course, this always leads me to new questions. Why did Theodore Wretling and his wife uproot their family with 8 children to come to the US and settle in Texas? What happened to the family wealth, the knowledge, the ability to invent, their philanthropy? 

In the 3 June 2021 post, we do see an award that Roy Oscar received for his charitable works in Florida. A Linn trait perhaps? Or Nobel trait? Raised by giving, loving parents William and Charlotte Linn Rinquist? Always more to research!

Dodringshult For Sale

Dodringshult was the home of my 3 x great grandfather, Olaus Fredericksson and his family, including my great-great grandfather Gustus Olausson Linn. As you can tell from the translated portion, this family was well off, owning over 1,400 acres of land. Olaus was a well-respected farmer.

On tax roles, we see that the family can only farm about 1/8 of the land because much of it was forested. But they managed to have a still to make booze which was also listed in the tax rolls. Olaus was a jury man (namdemannen) which means that one of his roles was to conduct inventories for other families in probate. He was also a Rusthallaren which means that his farm supplied and supported a soldier.

This real estate ad was sent to me several years ago by one of our distant relatives in Sweden. I have been to Dodringshult and walked the farm and out buildings. It's still a very beautiful home and property. While I don't know exactly how old this home is, it was clearly used in 1830 by Olaus Fredericksson and his family.

Translation of the above real estate ad: The property is situated high up, approx. 20 km east of Eksjö and approx. 10 km N of Bruzaholm. On the property there is a 2-story farm building and outbuildings.

Area approx. 572 ha (hectares or 1,413 acres) of which 533 ha is productive forest land. Timber storage in new forestry plan approx. 48,000 m

Well-developed forest road network.

Good hunting opportunities.

We know that, after Olaus died, his family was not allowed to stay on this beautiful farm and were separated by their ability to work on other farms or needing to stay with their mother. Because Gus was the youngest, he lived with his mother down a dirt road for a few years until he was able to work.

 

MEANING OF LAST NAMES

In our Swedish ancestry, most of our surnames are based on patronymics, using the first name of the father along with “son” or “dotter” to identify the gender of the child. Thus, Per Larsson would be the son of a man named Lars. Brita Nilsdotter would be the daughter of a man named Nils. This naming pattern helps tremendously when doing Swedish genealogy research because, based on the child’s name, we at least have the first name of the father.

But what about the less obvious Swedish surnames? Barquist, Lundblad, Rundquist, Kjallgren? Often these names were added to a soldier’s patronymic surname to distinguish him from all the other Lars Larssons or Olof Olofssons in his regiment. These surnames related to the location the soldier was from. The farm name, something about the terrain or natural surroundings.

Other non-standard Swedish surnames really came from the need or desire to change the surname to something that was unique, not to be confused with others who had the same name, whether in the military or not.

If we take the name Bergqvist (Barquist in the United States), it translates to Mountain + twig. The Bergqvist families were from Gavleborg County which was heavily wooded making the name related to their surroundings.

The name Lundblad means grove + leaf, again a surname related to their surroundings.

Rundquist means round + twig. It seems as if “round” might have to do with the land that was farmed or a pond on the property.

Kjallgren roughly translates to cold + branch, probably a reference to the winter surroundings.

The name Stråle in our ancestry translates to beam. Strom/Strum means flow. Fogelqvist means bird + twig. Hjelm means helmet. Tomt means plot.

The name LINN? It’s still something of a mystery. None of our 3 Linn brothers or their father were involved in the Swedish military. The name LINN seems to have come to our family when Johan Leonard Olausson (John Linn) came to the United States. There has been a misconception that names were changed at Ellis Island. It’s simply not true. Did some names change? Yes, but more likely because of a language barrier or misunderstanding the question being asked. In addition, these 3 Linn brothers never came through Ellis Island which became an immigration center in 1892, well after our Linns set foot on American soil.

Linn could have come from Johan’s (John’s) middle name Leonard.

Johan’s first wife Brita Eriksdotter came from the farm Linneberg.

Whatever the reason, those of us born “Linn” are really an “Olausson”.

Many cultures have naming patterns. Once you understand what the Scottish did in naming their sons and daughters, you can more easily follow the genealogy trail. African and Asian countries have their own unique naming patterns.

In Sweden, the use of patronymic names started to dwindle in the late 1800’s, and today, one sees a last name that is passed on to children just as we have in the United States today.

THE BEGINNING OF 2023

 Happy New Year, Friends and Family!  With a redundant "new beginnings," it's time to see what else can be uncovered about our mutual ancestors. I often receive questions about the WHY. Why did our family leave? Why did they come to the United States? And why did they settle where they did?

Rarely do we have diaries and letters and newspapers to give us all the answers. But we can piece together some logical reasons for our ancestors' moves. 

As we have discussed in prior posts, often religious freedoms, forced conscription, inability to purchase land had a great deal to do with PUSHING our ancestors out of their home country. The PULL to the United States and to a specific area often had to do with being able to purchase cheap land, religious freedom, and the ability to settle in communities made up of other ethnic friends and relatives who had paved the way and had written to their homeland about this beautiful new land. Below are just a few of our Swedish ancestors and their likely reason for settling where they did.

Who or What was Waiting for our Ancestors when they came to the Midwest?

Why did Olof Olsson and Kerstin Larsdotter settle initially in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin?

An early settler to Wisconsin, Gustaf Unonious, came to the US in 1841, arriving with a small Swedish group in NY, and making their way west, much as John Linn had in 1848. But instead of staying onboard to Iowa, the group, headed by Unonious, disembarked in Milwaukee. The group settled near Pine Lake, and, through great hardships, created a place called New Uppsala. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Upsala,_Wisconsin) Unonious was called to become a minister, and, in 1845 was sent to Manitowoc to take over a congregation there. With glowing letters being sent to Sweden, often published in newspapers, it is likely that Olof Olsson and Kerstin Larsdotter learned of Manitowoc and the growing Swedish population there and decided to make their way to Wisconsin in 1850 where land was plentiful.

Why did Erick Lundgren come to Iowa?

Erick was born in Amots Bruk in Gavleborg County on 18 June 1818. He married Elizabeth Olsdotter and, together with their son Olof, came to the United States in 1869, settling in Swede Bend. By 1869, the pull for Swedes to come to America was strong; yet, it would still be difficult to learn a new language and to buy farm land without knowing others. Who else in our family was from Amot? The Barquists.  John Barquist, Sr., his wife Marget, and 6 children lived in the Swede Bend area and had been in Iowa since 1857, making them the ideal friends for the Lundgrens to settle nearby.

 

Why did Anders Lundblad come to Iowa?

In this case, Anders’ immigration to Iowa is related directly to the arrival of his sister Katrina Lundblad and her husband Gustus Linn in 1852. Anders, his wife Maria, and 6 children made the long trip to the United States and to the Pilot Mound area in 1857 where they found Katarina and Gus, willing to house them and help them settle.

 

Why did Gustaf Challgren come to Iowa?

Starting in the mid-1800s, groups of Swedes traveled across the ocean to New York and made the very long trek to the Midwest. In Illinois, religious groups such as the Swedish Jansonites settled in Bishop Hill and Gevle, Illinois; others moved along to Iowa and Minnesota. Gustaf Kjellstrom/Challgren stopped in Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, in 1868, not far from the Bishop Hill cult settlement. Ingrid, however, came much later, in 1873, settling also in Princeton. Gustaf and Ingrid married in 1874. While I’m unsure if they had any affiliation with the Jansonites, no doubt life would have been easier with other Swedes to guide them. Five children were born to this couple in Illinois before they moved farther West to the Gowrie, Webster County, area, where there was a large Swedish group of settlers, land was plentiful, and where they had 2 more children.

 

I hope that you will continue to read this blog and that you will send questions you have about our Swedish ancestors. If I don't have an answer, I'll be researching to find one!