Emigration
On my mothers side, two individuals emigrated to The United States of America. My maternal grandfather's name was Cristen Hansson and he was married twice. In his first marriage he had five sons.
*Anders, born on the 11th of November in 1882,
*Nils, born on the 14th of January in 1885,
*Hans, born on the 14th of August in 1887,
*Johan, born on the 28th of November in 1890 and
*Albin, born on the 21st of November in 1894.
His first wife, Hanna Nilsdotter, who was born on the 23rd of February in 1862 in the parish of Hyby in the county of Malmöhus, died on the 29th of April in 1897. Her family has not yet been investigated.
Their son Nils Kristensson, who was born in the parish of Lyngby in the county of Malmöhus, emigrated but when this happened is unclear. I remember that my grandfather was troubled when the scarce letters from Nils ceased arriving in the latter half of the nineteen thirties. My grandfather had up till then had sporadic correspondence with Nils. He had also received a nice watch-chain from him. Unfortunately there are no letters saved. But there are a few photographs of Nils. At the back of the photos he has written a few short messages to his father. The photo picturing two persons has no date, but the smaller photo showing only Nils is dated Seattle the 9th of July in 1934.
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I have used the Internet trying to find Nils, or Nels as he calls himself on the photograph from 1934. So far my search has been unsuccessful, but I intend to continue my investigation of when he emigrated and what happened to him.
If you want to view Nils' family on his fathers side, click here on Cristen Hansson and follow his ancestry back to 1656.
The other individual who emigrated was my maternal grandmother's second son in her first marriage. My grandmother's name was Carolina Ekdahl (maiden name Jönsson )and she was born on the 27th of August in 1866 in the parish of Östra Vemmenhög in the county of Malmöhus.
She had three children in her marriage to Lars Andersson Ekdahl:
*Karl August, born on the 15th of March in 1890
*Hilma Maria, born on the 6th of September in 1892 and
*Jöns Albin, born on the 25th of February in 1895.
All children were born in the parish of Skurup in the county of Malmöhus.
At the time of the birth of the last child, the father had disappeared and was never found again. His family has not yet been investigated.
Jöns, or John which he subsequently called himself, emigrated in October of 1919. He first worked as a farmhand for a family in Minnesota. He then worked as a carpenter with the Swedish construction firm Olsson Brothers. He attended evening school and later studied to become a carpenter foreman. On the 9th of April in 1926 he married a Swedish girl named Karin Larsson. She had arrived to America in February of 1925. Things went well for the family of John and Karin Ekdahl. They had five girls: Violet, Mary, Debbie, Carol and Susan. They acquired a vacation home in Lake Geneva, Wi. Both Karin and John visited Sweden several times. During World War Two my grandmother received many packages from them with coffee and other goodies. John lived to be 84 years old.
If you want to view the family on John's mother's side, you can click here on Carolina Ekdahl and follow his ancestry back to 1740.
In the picture below John is standing between his mother Carolina and my mother Emma. The other photo is of his wife Karin.
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Styled by Kjell Närkhammar maj 2005.