Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Tuesday Tip: Swedish Churchbooks on-line free this weekend

Upcoming Saturday, March 15 is The day of Genealogy in Sweden. There are a lot of events going on all over Sweden, at libraries, archives and genealogy societies. ArkivDigital.se celebrates all weekend by letting people look into thier on-line churchbooks for free during the weekend. You need to register an account and download an applikation (availible for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and iPad).

Have a great weekend digging into churchbooks and other historical documents: http://www.arkivdigital.net/

This is a picture from a birthbook using the ArkivDigital iPad app

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Fearless females - Else, born, married, dead and buried in the month of March

Today, 128 years ago it was the day before my second great grandmother Elses' wedding day. She got married on March 5 with my second great grandfather Jöns Torkelsson Berlin.

Jöns Berlin and Else Månsdotter got married on March 5 in 1886
ArkivDigital: Vinslöv EI:4  page 20 


The month of March contains the birthday of Else. She was born March 25, 1866, in Vinslöv, Sweden. As written above, she got married on March 5 in 1886. In the month of March she died on the 16th in 1893. Finally, on what that would have been her 32nd birthday, she was buried, March 25 in 1893.

Else is one of my favorite ancestors. I don't know much about her, but she and her husband Jöns were two of the first ancestors I had to do research to find. Before I started doing genealogy even their names were unknown to me. Also, seeing Else die so young, sixteen days after giving birth to her forth child made me a bit sad at the time I found out.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Fearless Females - Anna Olsdotter - my third great grandmother

I am joining in on the Fearless Females blogging prompts started by Lisa Alzo starting to day, March 1. Todays prompt  "Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check." 

One of my female ancestors that I would like to know more about is my third great grandmother Anna Olsdotter. She was born in Fjälkestad, Sweden in 1830.

When Anna was 25 she had her daughter Margareta (my second great grandmother). Margareta was born out of wedlock and the father was not listed. A couple of months before the birth of Margareta Anna moved from the farm she was working as a maid to another parish, Annerstad. Margareta was born on August 7 in 1855.

From the birth book - birth of Margareta
ArkivDigital: Annerstad CI:3 (1815-1860) page 113 


When Margareta was about four years old she came to a couple, Anders Persson and Karna Ek, as a foster child and that is where she grew up. Anders and Karna didn't have any other children.

Who was the father of Margareta, why did Anna leave her with Anders and Karna and what happened with Anna?

Well, I guess I might never know who the father of Margareta was, but I have a suspect. The husband at the farm where Anna was working as a maid about the time when she got pregnant. Why do I think he might be the one?

When Anna and Margareta moves away from Annerstad, Margareta is listed with the surname Vollmarsdotter. The name of the man at the farm was Vollemar and that is not a very common name, not like Nils or Anders. Second: Margareta ended up living with Anders and Karna, guess what, Anders was the brother of Vollemar. Vollemar and his family later emigrated to the US in 1867.

What happened to Anna after she left Margareta with Anders and Karna? I am not sure, I have been trying to follow her to see if she had any more children or if she got married, but no luck yet. I don't know much about Anna but it can't have been easy for her having Margareta out of wedlock and then leave her with Anders and Karna.