Tombstone Tuesday - Carl Hjalmar Simonsson

In January 2012 I took about 300 photos of tombstones at the old cemetery in Helsingborg and uploaded them to Billiongraves.com.

One of the photos I took, was this one, the tombstone of Carl Hjalmar Simonsson who died only eight years old from tuberculosis.

Carl Hjalmar Simonsson 1875 - 1884

Carl Hjalmar was born on April 20, 1875 in Helsingborg. His father was beer salesman Johan Simonsson and mother was his wife Helena Holst.

Birth of Carl Hjalmar from ArkivDigital:
Helsingborgs stadsförsamling (Maria) CI:12 (1872-1878) page 166 

At the time of Carl Hjalmars death the family, Johan and Helena and their children Selma Amalia, Carl Hjalmar, Johan Bernhard, Anna Elvira and Alma Bernhardina was living at Fyrkanten nr 5.

Family of Carl Hjalmar from ArkivDigital:
Helsingborgs stadsförsamling (Maria) AI:71 (1880-1884) page 71

Carl Hjalmar died on February 10 in 1884 and was buried on February 12.

Death of Carl Hjalmar from ArkivDigital:
Helsingborgs stadsförsamling (Maria) FI:7 (1875-1887) picture 285 

I am not related to Carl Hjalmar.

Mystery Monday - Was there another child?

Nels Henry Nelson was the oldest son of Jens Nelson and Anna Nilsdotter Rickard. He was born in Vinslöv parish, Sweden August 22 in 1885. In 1887 he emigrated with his mother and younger brother Carl Emil to America, a year after their father and Annas husband Jens went there.

Nels married Emma Larson and they had a son, Howard Emmet Nelson, born September 21 in 1915.

Howard Emmett Nelson

Looking close on the birth certificate of Howard, it says:

Number of children to this mother, including present birth: 2
Number of children of this mother now living: 1

I had this birth certificate for years and only recently noticed that detail.

Since Howard was born in 1915, this child must have been born sometime after 1910 but before 1914 and probably in Minneapolis and Hennepin county. At Minnesota Historical Society there were two possible birth certificates from 1913, with surname Nelson and mothers maiden name Larson. 18 USD later I found the right one:

A baby girl, stillborn on April 15 in 1913 in Minneapolis.

Sentimental Sunday - Visiting the grave of Andrew Richardson

It was a three-hour drive to get to Pine Grove Cemetery in Palaside, Aitkin, Minnesota. Well, first of course, it was a eight hours flight over the Atlantic to New York and then a couple of hours flight from New York to Minneapolis... but then it was only a three-hour drive..

I have finally been able to follow my great grand uncle Anders Nilsson Rickard Holmer or Andrew Richardson as he was known as in the US.

Earlier this year I got an invitation to a family reunion that would take place in July this summer in Minnesota. Besides from the reunion there were two things on my must-do list:

1. Visit Ellis Island in New York
2. Find the grave of my great granduncle Andrew Richardson in Paliside.

I know he was buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Paliside in Aitkin County according to his death certificate and his obituary.

I wanted to be as prepared as possible, driving to that cemetery and not finding the grave... heh.. I can't even describe how I would have felt... So, I contacted the Aitkin County Historical Society asking if they had a map of the cemetery and perhaps knew where his grave was. I got a map in return, and an exact location, Section 0, Lot -10, Site -1. And the information that there wasn't any headstone. So, I would be looking for a marker, good to know. Going there and looking for a headstone with his name, I would never had found anything.

Coming there on July 17, it was a warm, sunny day. The last couple of miles to get to the cemetery was on a grovel road. The cemetery was quite small but nice. And plenty of mosquitoes. It took a while to find the marker. No headstone of course, but where his headstone should have been there is a tall pine tree.. There were a couple of white tree crosses without any names with Veteran markers close but none of them would be at what I figured would be Section 0, Lot -10 and Site -1. Really, there should have been a Veteranmarker at Andrew as well since he was a Spanish-American war veteran.

Andrew Richardson
aka
Anders Nilsson Rickard Holmer
born in Vinslöv, Sweden,
January 26, 1858
died in Palaside, USA
August 1, 1928

With that visit, I now have followed up on all the Rickard-siblings. Karna, my great great-grandmother in Farstorp in Sweden, her siblings Anna, Ellen and Nels in Swanville, Minnesota and finally their brother Andrew in Palaside, Minnesota.

Pine Grove Cemetery, Palisade, Aitkin, Minnesota, USA

Other posts on Andrew Richardson:
http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2013/01/children-of-sven-peter-rickard-part-2.html
http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2012/04/my-andrew-richardson-in-spanish.html

Friends or relatives - Friday's Faces from the Past

Every now and then I look trough my collection of scanned old photographies. Most of them belonged to my great grandfather Nils Anton Berlin and great grandmother Hanna Persson in Farstorp so probably they are a mix of their relatives and friends on their both family lines. And no, no notes of names anywhere, I mean, they were fully aware of who all these people were.

When looking I usually notice some new detail. I try to figure out by the clue of how many people there are on the picture, male/females, children and age what family it might be.

So, there are a some people that appears in more than one photo and today I am looking at two specific photos. One is of five men in uniform. One of them,  I think is a brother of my great grandmother.

Then there is this other man who appears on other pictures as well in uniform. Now I am thinking that he might be the same man that also appears on other photos that are more like family group photos.

Man in the middle might be my great-grandmothers brother. The man to the left, who is he?

The man in the back to the right, who is he?

So, is it possible that those two men are one and the same? 5-10 years of time difference between the photos perhaps. The lips, nose and ears looks pretty much the same I think.

Same man?

Now, if it happens to be the same man, then who is he? A relative or a good friend someone got to know when being in the military? A neighbor? 

And the children on the second picture, are they siblings?  I haven't found any relative that had seven children, five girls and two boys. Or, they could be cousins or even not related at all.

Anyhow, there are plenty of people in the pictures, meaning there would probably be more copies of those pictures. Perhaps even with names on it. 

Lots of questions still waiting for answers, they joy of genealogy - endless problem solving.

Have a nice Friday!

July 24 - Cousins Day

You can't have a blog called Cousin Linda and not pay attention to Cousins Day today on July 24. So, here we go, Happy Cousins Day everyone.

Coffee and cake, a good way to celebrate
 Cousins Day