#52Ancestors – Week 7 A little Swedish for ya!

#52Ancestors – Week 7                                             Randi Mathieu

This week’s prompt is “Valentine” Is there a love story in your family tree? Maybe a couple was married on Valentine's Day or you have a valentine that one ancestor gave to another. Maybe you have an ancestor named Valentine.

Hmmm, these are getting a little more challenging now that I’ve used up my awesome stories.  After running a calendar report on Legacy I came up with the idea to feature Johanna Mathilda Andersdotter. 

Johanna was born in Mellosa, Sodermanland, Sweden to Anders Gustafson and his wife Anna Pehrsdotter on 14 February 1838.  In March of 1860 She married Lars Erik Ersson in Husby-Oppunda, Sodermanland, Sweden.  Lars was from a parish known as Ardala, Sodermanland, Sweden.  The family grew in Husby-Oppunda as they had 4 children in their time there.  They eventually moved to a parish known as Bettna.  In Bettna their family grew even larger with 3 more children.  From Bettna the family moved one last time to a parish know as Lids.  In Lids there were 3 more children born to Johanna and Lars.  In total they had 10 children.  Johanna died in Lids in 1887 and Lars stayed there until he passed in 1917.

                      

The walk from Mellosa to Husby-Oppunda is approximately 32 km and would take around 6.5 hours. Husby-Oppunda to Bettna is approximately 10.6 km and would take about 2 hours and 10 minutes. Their final journey was around 28km which equals about 5.5 hours or walking time.

I love researching in Sweden as the churches were to account for all people in their district. The church not only recorded birth, marriage and death but also kept a move-in/move-out book!  The other joy of researching Swedish records in the naming system. Johanna Mathilda Andersdotter tells me she is the daughter of Anders! Not only that, but the women kept their surnames after marriage.  While I don’t have a photo of Johanna, I was able to find photos of the parishes where she reported to.

 

Bettna Parish

Husby-Oppunda Parish

Lids Parish

Mellosa Parish

#52Ancestors – Week 6

#52Ancestors – Week 6                                             Randi Mathieu

This week’s prompt is “Favorite Name”.

This is an interesting thought to process.  My first gut reaction to “Favorite Name” was how do I not use “William Fain Rountree” after all I used his middle name for my son’s middle name. As I thought about what to write, I thought about my own name – how original it is and how much it’s not what you expect.  Most people hear the name Randi and think male (until they notice it’s spelled with an i).  As I think about the names in my family my two great aunts stand out to me. Willis Melmus Simmons and Jessie (Chessy) Ward Simmons. These two women grew up with male sounding names in the early 1900’s.  Willis was named after 2 ancestors – both male.  Willis was the name of her grandfather and Melmuth was the name of a great uncle who died in the civil war.  I have not been able to track down where Jessie’s name came from but a middle name of Ward must have been a family name somewhere – guess I have some more research to do!

                             

 Willis

 Jessie

Catching Up

I will hopefully be catching up on blog posts now.  Life got a little hectic but now all should be calm.  I will be posting my #52Ancestors posts as soon as I get them in order.