Wordless Wendesday - Unidentified children

This is an unidentified photo of what I think a couple of twins. It is from an photo album on my Berlin surname side of the family.

It look like they are having a fun time at the photographer. The photographer was Lisa Jonsson in Hörby.

Unidentified children. Photo by Lisa Jonsson, Hörby

Tombstone Tuesday - Elsa Andersson, first female pilot in Sweden

Elsa Andersson Photodate: March 14 2010

Elsa Andersson was the first female pilot in Sweden. She was born 1897 in Strövelstorp parish. Her birthplace is quite close to where I live and grew up and that ofcourse has made her and her life interesting.

Elsa Andersson Photodate: March 14 2010

She is buried at the Strövelstorp Cemetery.

Elsa was born April 24 in 1897. Her parents were Nils Edvard Andersson and Alma Gustava Svensson.

Stövelstorp CI:9

Below is a picture form the household book covering the years 1898 - 1906. During this time there was also three deaths in the family.

Strövelstorp AIIa:1 (1898-1906) page 271 

• Brother Nils Valdemad (born February 5 1900) dies February 8, 1900
• Sister Thyra Linnéa (born April 28, 1901) dies  March 26, 1903
• Mother Alma Gustava dies on December 18, 1903

In the household  book covering 1921 - 1930 in the column for occupation it is noted "flygare" which would translate aviatior.

Strövelstorp Alla:5 page 188

Now Elsa wanted to do more than being a pilot. She wanted to do parachute jumps. She went to Germany and got educated.

On her third jump, February 22 in 1922 she jumped to her death. Between 3000 to 4000 spectators had come to watch. Her parachute didnt expand until she was too close to the ground. She died outside of Askersund. The article below says her head was cruched and both legs broken and that the probably died immediately. The article also said she was 22 years old but as she was born 1897 she was 25 when she died.

Dalpilen February 24 1922

In the death book its written, aeroplane accident, unsuccessful parachute jump.

Strövelstorp FI:1

Photos I took myself. Pictures from birth, household and death book is from ArkivDigital, Article is from Dalpilen.

Mobile Monday - ArkivDigtal app for iPad

I have been waiting and longing for this app. In August last year I heard they were working on an app. I was at a seminar on February 5 at my local genealogy society where Niklas Hertzman were speaking, (he works at ArkivDigital), and he said the app was at Apple for approvement.

So, I started to search Apple app store everyday and one day, there it was (Im not sure if it is available in the US app store and other app stores)

ArkivDigital is a company who takes pictures (in color) of the Swedish churchbooks and some other historical records and publish them online (and CD) and it is an ongoing project. You need a subscription to be able to log in and you can buy subscriptions from one week up to two years at a time.

If you have been using thier program AD Online on a computer you will be recognize the functions on the iPad.

First thing you need to do is to download the app from Apple app store. Do a search on "arkivdigital" and you will find it. It is free to download.

Next thing you need to do is to fill out your username and password and if you a have a subscription you will be logged in. If you would like to try it out first, and you don't have a subscription log in with

username: demo

password: demo

When you login you will see along list of what is available.

With the demouser you can see the names of the parishes and other archives that are available but you wont be able to see the actual pictures, unless you do a search on Röke or Älvsbacka.

Lets look at Röke. So, in the search field in the top, type in Röke

I click on the little blue arrow to the right and then I get a list of what records are available for Röke.

To start with, for example there are Household rolls (Husförhörslängder), birth-and baptismbooks (Födelse-och dopbok), banns-and marriagebooks (Lysning-och vigselbok) and Death-and burial books (Död-och begravningsbok) among others.

Lets try. I want to check out the household roll covering 1869 - 1875. I click on the little blue arrow to the right and the picture starts to load. Picture one is a picture of the actual book.

In the bottom to the right I have a five buttons.

• -5 sidor = go back 5 pages
• -1 sida = previous page
• Bild 1 = current page
• +1 sida = next page
• + 5 sidor = move 5 pages

If you know what page you are looking for, click on the icon for current page and you will get the iPad typical scroll wheel and you use it to scroll to the page you want to go to. If you want to quickly browse pages close to the one you are at you click the icon looking like a piece of film.

When the page is done loading, you are able to zoom in (and out) using the usually iPad two finger "pinching grip". If you flip your iPad you will also get a nice view in the horizontial mode.

This is what this page look like on my mac using the AD online program.

In the bottom to the left is a blue bar, showing how much of the page that is loaded. When you go to a page you will first see a low resolution page and as soon and the page had loaded you will see it as a high resolution. Here loading is in progress and now we are looking at a birth-and baptismbook.

It takes just a moment and the picture is in high resolution. How fast it load is ofcourse depening on the WIFI. My experience is that for me, it is fast enough.

For me, doing genealogy in Sweden, already having a subscription at ArkivDigital this app is great. Now I can feel totally free and mobile and able to check up things with only bringing my iPad. This app has been on my wishlist for a long time. I would not start to do all my research on my iPad on a daily basis but just to be able to do a quick lookup is great. I dont know if there is an English language version, but I think that even if you are not from Sweden but are into Swedish genealogy you will learn the basic terms quite quick. I look into Estonian archives at times and I have a little cheatsheet with with Estonian - Swedish translation next to me, helps a lot.

Check out ArkivDigital website for more information about what records are available. It is a treasure.

I have had the app for a couple of days now and I really like how you are able to zoom in and take a really close look. You can do the same zooming on a computer but it is the feeling of being able to take up the iPad and take a close look and not needing to lean half over your desk. Another cool thing was at work where I at one of our coffebreaks took my iPad to the cafeteria and showed a couple of old records to my colleges. And as long as I have WIFI I never need to worry about finding anything to read before I go to sleep.

Summary: Great app. What I miss in this version is the ability to save a bookmark, I use that all the time on my computer. I also miss the possibility to do a "copy source" which is in the computer version as well but this is really minor wishes and to me most important that the app has arrived.

Sport Center Saturday - Playing soccer in Tving 1930

This is a picture from Tving taken 1930. One of the players is my grandmothers brother, Arthur Ringö (born Jönsson).

Playing soccer in 1930

What I like about this picture is the variety of clothes. Some of the boys are dressed up with a suit and bow tie, someone with pants and a white shirt and one in an overall. Awesome.

Tving is a place in Blekinge close to Karlskrona and Ronneby. In 2010, 459 people lived in Tving.

Tving

Friday’s Faces from the Past - Bothilda Magnuson

Everytime I am at a fleemarket I keep my eyes open for Carte de visite. I just love those photographs. When I find a picture with a name written on it I try to find out some more information about the person / persons. Now I have more photos than time so here is a sweet one taken by photographer Ruesher, Fulton street, Brooklyn, New York.

Bothilda Magnuson

On the backside someone has written Bothilda Magnuson, typical Swedish name. The photo is bougt at a fleemarket here in Sweden as well.

Thriller Thursday - Killed by her father July 15 1860

Sunday July 15 1860, in Västra Sallerup:

Hans Lindqvist, a former soldier, picks up his daughter Pernilla from her cradle. Pernilla is one year old and two months. Hans puts her in his lap. He then takes out a razor, cuts her throat and kills her.

A small notice in the newspaper Folkets Röst on July 25 in 1860 describes the murder:

From Folkets Röst July 25 1860

Hans Lindqvist is taken to the prison in Malmö. In the archives pictures of prisoners can be found. This is a picture of Hans Lindqvist.

Malmö Länsfängelse DIII.:1
I found this at ArkivDigital

In the household book of Västra Sallerup covering 1860 I found the family at Sallerup number 3.

Västra Sallerup AI:11 page 19

Far to the right, on the first line it says "Killed his child on July 15 1860". On the line of Pernilla it says "Killed by her father July 15 1860".

Västra Sallerup AI:11 page 19

In the death book of Västra Sallerup I find Pernilla on page 223. Here it also says cause of death: killed by her father.

Västra Sallerup CI:4 page 223

What happens to the family, I dont know. In the household rolls of Västra Sallerup it says the family, at that time, Hans, wife Karna and two sons, Anders and Bengt are moving to a place I think look like Bosarp.

Västra Sallerup AI:11 page 19

They are also in the moving book of Västra Sallerup, moving out.

Moving out. Västra Sallerup B:4 page 11

I have been looking for the family but no luck yet. The last information I have is from the moving book but I hope I will find them at some point and then I'll post an update.

I am not related to any of the persons in this blogpost. I was browsing ArkivDigital when I found the picture of Hans Lindqvist in prison and I wanted to know more about him and his family.

Sibling Saturday - Bergström siblings at the old cemetery in Helsingborg

At the old cemetery in Helsingborg I found this tombstone with the six Bergström siblings, Carl Johan, age 15, Fabian Mauritz, age 10, Fransyska Eleonora, age 7, Sture Gottfrid, age 3,5, Inez Agda, age 1 3/4, and another Sture Gottfrid age 1.

Ofcourse it made me curious, it has no dates so, when were they born and when did they die? Did they die on the same day, in an accident or what happend to them?

Instead of only writing what I found out, Im going to try to show in step-by-step how I did to find out more information about the Bergström siblings.

1) Since the stone is in Helsingborg, I assume the lived in the Helsingborg area. So, there first place I look to find information is the free ddss.nu webpage. It is a searchable database with churchrecords about birth, marriage and death and covers parishes of Skåne, Blekinge and Halland. Check out the webpage to see exactly what parishes that are covered.

At ddss.nu I choose the database with death and burial records. I pick Fabian to start with and I type that into the deceased first name. I also put in Bergström as the last name of relative. Why? Well, since this is a child that has died usually the fathers name is mentioned. If I don't get any hits I would try with Fabian Mauritz and skip the relative.

Deceased first namn: Fabian Relative last namn: Bergström

Seems I was lucky. One hit that seems to match. Name of Deceased Fabian Mauritz, date June 13 in 1881. Relativees name: Bernhard Mauritz Bergström, father. Parish Helsingborg.

To take a closer look, click on it. As we can see, there is no last name listed on Fabian so doing a search of Fabian Bergström would have given 0 hits. Fabian Mauritz was 9 years, 10 months and 2 days. His father Bernhard Mauritz Bergström seems to be an inn-keeper. Cause of death is diphtheria.

What is important is the sources. This record is found in Helsinborg Stadsförsamling F:7. In this case there is also a note telling the mothers name, Ingrid Christina Olsson and also a page number of the household records 100,3.

2) So, lets check the original source and lets start with the death book. I use a combination of ArkivDigital, Ancestry.com/Genline and SVAR (all are paysites) and in this case I use ArkivDigital. I search for Helsingborg and in the search results I click on Helsingborgs Stadsförsamling.

Scrolling down the list I find F:7. It covers the years 1875 to 1887 so time to start browsing the pages. While browsing 1881, I reach the month of May and I recognize some names.. On May 22, Franciska Eleonora, daugher of Bernhard Mauritz Bergström, dies from diphtheria, 6 years, 8 months and 10 days old. Two days later, May 24, Sture Gottfried, son of  Bernhard Mauritz Bergström, dies from diphtheria, 3 years, 3 months and 1 day old.

Franciska Eleonora and Sture Gottfrid
Helsingborgs stadsförsamling F:7

Turing a couple of more pages, I reach June 13 and find Fabian Mauritz.

Fabian Mauritz Helsingborgs stadsförsamling F:7

That means we have found three of the six siblings. These three died in within 24 days, all from diphtheria.

3) Next thing I would do before moving on to the other three siblings would be to look at the household record since I know the page number. It was page 100,3 and I should look at a book covering 1881. I notice there are seven books covering 1880 - 1884 so I am greatful about the little number 3 and dig into book III page 100.

There are 7 books covering 1880 - 1884....

There is the family. Bernard Mauritz, his wife Ingrid Christina and six children where three has thier date of death written to the right. The other children, Anna Maria, Hertha Wilhelmina and Gerda Christina are not any of the other names of the stone so I need to keep looking. Far to the right there is a note that the family has moved in 1881 to 4 Pål.

I pretty much so the same steps over again. I go to ddss.nu, look for Inez in the name of the deceased and Bergström in relative last name.

Once again I am lucky and get only one hit that seems to match. Inez Agda, dies October 10 in 1883, 1 year, 7 months and 24 days old from pneumonia.

Inez Agda

This time to find the family in the household record it would be in the fourth book and page 325 of the book covering 1883.

Helsingborgs Stadsförsamling AI:73 page 325

Four of the six siblings are now found.

Back to step one again, doing a search for Sture at ddss.nu. I get two hits this time. One is the Sture Gottfrid I found above who died in 1881. Then there is another Sture Gottfrid who died in 1876.

Looking at the record I understand that the names on the stone doesn't seem to be in order on when the children died but in order of how old they were when they died. The Sture Gottfried I found now was born and died before the other siblings but his name is the last one on the stone.

So, almost going to the beginning of the same death book I have been looking in, I find Sture Gottfrid. He dies on New Years Eve of 1876 from scarlet fever.

Sture Gottfrid

According to the helpful note, I need to check page 92 in the third book covering the year of 1876. There is the family listed and now five of the six siblings on the stone are found.

Helsingborgs Stadsförsamling AI:64 page 92

Now I need to find the boy named Carl Johan who died at the age of 15. In the household records above which covers the family from 1876 to 1883 I haven't seen the name Carl Johan. According to those books it looks like Bernhard Mauritz and his wife Ingrid Christina got married in 1866. If Carl Johan would have been thier first child born after thier marriage he should have been listed with the family in 1876 above (assuming he was living with his family at the age of 9-10 years which ofcourse we can't be sure of). It might also be that he was born in 1883 after the family moved and after Inez died. Then he would have died in 1898.

Searching on ddss.nu gives me no relevant hits. I did a couple of searches on the Swedish Census CDs of 1880, 1890 and 1900, finding the family but no son named Carl Johan. But I notice that in 1884 they get a daughter, Inez Theresia and in 1886 a daughter, Ebba.

Looking at the records above I know Mauritz and Ingrid came from Kvistofta in 1866. I take a chance and do a search on ddss.nu in the married records database for the couple.

One hit and they should be on page 14 in the household records in Kvistofta parish.

I find the couple but that doesnt give any more clues about Carl Johan. Looking at the birth book for Hertha Wilhelmina in 1876 it says she is the fifth child of Ingrid. That is interesting. When Ebba is born in 1886 it says she is child number 12.

Hertha Wilhelmina born 1876 is child number 5

Ebba, born February 2 1886 is child  number 12

Looking into the records I have found 10 children. If Ebba is child number twelve and Hertha is number five there are two childern missing in the list below. My guess is they were born between 1866-1868 or maybe out of wedlock.

• Anna Maria b 1869
• Fabian Mauritz b 1871
• Hertha Wilhelmina b 1873 
• Fransiska Eleonora b 1874
• Sture Gottfrid b 1876
• Sture Gottfrid b 1878
• Gerda Christina b 1879
• Inez Agda b 1882
• Inez Theresia b 1884
• Ebba b 1886

No luck with Carl Johan sofar. My next strategy would be to follow Ingrid Christina from her birth until she married Mauritz Bernhard. I will look into that someother time and with that, I will put Carl Johan Bergström away for a while and be happy with the dates I have found out about the other five siblings:

• Fabian Mauritz, born August 11 1871 died June 13 1881, age 10 years
• Fransyska Eleonora, born September 19 died May 22 1881, age 7 years
• Sture Gottfrid, born February 2 1878 died May 24 1881, age 3,5 years
• Sture Gottfrid, born February 23 1876, died December 31 1876, age 10 months
• Inez Agda, born February 16 1882, October 10 1883, age 1 3/4 years