Johan Edvard Lundstrom

[Kathy Clark Craig]

We have a family story that my great grandmother is the illegitamate daughter of Johan Edvard Lundstrom the match maker.  Can you tell me how to prove this?  I am very new to this research.  Thank you.

[Eva Dahlberg]

Johan Edvard Lundström (1815-1888) never married I believe, but had a daughter that he acknowledged and who lived with him.  She was born in 1846. It's not known that he had more children.
 
The way for you to research your family is to work backwards with the data you have. Some info on Swedish research is found here, on Swedish Roots (it's a part of the e-zine Rötter, just click on in English there). However, if it's not this girl that is your ancestor it would be difficult to prove the relationship.
 
Kind regards,
Eva

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Eva, thank you so much for your help.  My great grandmother was Ellen Dorothea Larsen and she came possibly from Kopping.  She was born in approx 1875.  She came to America in 1896.  I will continue searching.  Thank you, Kathy

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi Kathy,
 
Here is a guess from the Emibas cd, made from registrations in the Swedish parish to go to a foreign country. Perhaps your Kopping is Norrköping. (This is only a guess.)
 
Post 117865
 
Larsdotter, Elouise Dorothea
Fosterdotter (unmarried woman)
 
b. 6/23/1874 in Norrköpings Sankt Olai, Östergötlands län (Östergötland)
 
Emigrated 10/5/1896
from Sankt Olai, Norrköpings Sankt Olai, Östergötlands län (Östergötland)
to Amerika
 
Source: Household Examination Roll, p. 854
 
Emibas migration file ID: Norrköpings Sankt Olai E 1896 055
 
Un-normalized versions:
 
Parish of birth: Norrköping S:t Olai
 
Fosterdotter = (You guessed it.) foster daughter.
 
From the Emihamn database of CD Emigranten, made from registrations with the Swedish port police before leaving Sweden:
 
First name: ELIN D
Last name: LARSSON
Age: 22     Gender: K (kvinna = woman)
Parish: NORRKÖPING     County: E (Östergötland)
Port: GÖTEBORG
Date: 1896 10 14 (registration date)
Destination: BOSTON
Fellows: NEJ (Nej = no. She traveled alone on her ticket.)
Source: 58:473:70858
 
 
I think this is the same girl on the 1890 Swedish Census cd, but this time she is Elin Dorotea.
 
widowed wife:
 
Post 799819
 
Anjou, Gustafva
enkefru
 
f. 1836 i Askeby (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
Änka, mor i familjen
 
Kopparkupen
Norrköpings Sankt Olai (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
Födelseort i källan: Askeby Ö.g. l.
 
daughter:
 
Post 799820
 
Hildegard Maria Louisa
 
f. 1861 i Linköping (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
d.
Ogift kvinna, barn i familjen
 
Kopparkupen
Norrköpings Sankt Olai (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
Födelseort i källan: Linköping
 
foster daughter:
 
Post 799821
 
Larsdotter, Elin Dorotea
 
f. 1874 i Norrköpings Sankt Olai (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
fosterd.
Ogift kvinna, barn i familjen
 
Kopparkupen
Norrköpings Sankt Olai (Östergötlands län, Östergötland)
 
Födelseort i källan: S:t Olai
 
This is a guess. Try to find a birthdate and other identifying information in U.S. records (or records for whatever country where she ended up).
 
In addition to the normal genealogical sources in the U.S., try the records of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. They have a website but their extensive records aren't online.
 
http://www.augustana.edu/swenson/
 
Good luck!
 
Judy

[Kathy Craig]

Thank you so much for all your time.  I am still trying to understand what you've given me.  I need to find a Swedish connection here to translate for me.  I really appreciate your help, Kathy

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi Kathy,
 
Maybe this will help.
 
enkefru = widowed wife
 
f. = born
i = in
 
Änka, mor i familjen = widow, mother in the family
 
Län = county.
 
Födelseort i källan = birthplace in the source (meaning how the location was written in the record; the modern (and/or unabbreviated) spelling has already been listed in a different part of the same record)
daughter:  
 
d. = daughter.
 
Ogift kvinna = unmarried woman
 
barn i familjen = child in the family
 
fosterd. = foster daughter
 
Judy

[Karin Ekeroth]

Hi Kathy,
 
If the information given above is correct I think this is your great grandmother. I found her in the SCB for Östergötland. That is an index of all births in Östergötland listed according to parish. In Norrköpings Stad (city)Saint Olai this birth was listed:
 1874 June 23
 Elin Dorotea
 Illegitimate daughter
 Mother: Sofia Matilda Larsdotter, maid, 18 years old.
 
Regards,
Karin

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Wow, I am so excited.  Thank you so much for your help, I am still trying to get dates and information from family, this will help so much, Kathy

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Karin, where did you find this record?  Does it say where the mother Sofia Matilday Larsdotter was working?  Are you in Sweden?  Thank you, Kathy

[Kathy Clark Craig]

I am trying to understand how to do this research, that is why I am asking.  Thank you, Kathy

[Karin Ekeroth]

Kathy,
The record I mentioned only shows the parish, date of birth,the names of the parents and the age of the mother and her occupation. If she had had a father who acknowledged the child at birth seeing they were not married or trolovade, a little like engaged, he would have been on the record, but now there is no mention of the father, just the note oäkta, illegitimate.  
 
To find the mother means going through a lot of household records, or, if there are other records available in Norrköping looking at them. I live in Sweden, but not at all in the Norrköping area nor am I acquainted with it.
 
Maybe someone with Norrköping as a specialty could help you with that.  
 
Good luck!
Karin

[Kathy Clark Craig]

How do you all know English so well?  kathy

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Thank you all so very much for your help, Kathy

[Karin Ekeroth]

Hi Kathy,
All Swedes learn English at school; nowadays they begin in the third or fourth grade. I am an American of Swedish descent who has moved back to my roots.
 
Mvh(!)
Karin

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Well I am jealous.  I studied Latin in high school, Spanish and French in college.  Also, Korean on a mission for my church.  Not fluent in anything except mommy talk these days.  We homeschool though, so I've tried to expose them to more of the world.  
very mvh, Kathy

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi Kathy,
 
Purchase some Swedish tapes and start learning Swedish with your kids. :-) There are lots of tapes you can purchase, either online or online. If the kids are young enough, they will probably learn more quickly than you will, so that will be a motivation to work with those tapes while they are asleep.
 
Judy

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi again, Kathy,
 
This (either online or online) makes no sense. Yikes! I'll try again. I have seen several tape/book sets (and not just for travel Swedish) in bookstores, and if you can't find them, there are plenty online too. I have a few at home and can suggest some titles, if you wish.
 
Judy

[Stig-Ove Wisberg]

Hi Kathy,
I looked at the records from Norrköping S:t Olai and found this for you.
 
Elin Dorotea?s mother, Sofia Matilda, was born on June 10, 1856 in S:t Olai, Norrköping. Sofia Matilda?s parents are: Erik Larsson and Helena Sofia Göstring. (Norrköping S:t Olai C:10, GID 346.95.10600). Erik Larsson was born June 14, 1824 in Östra Eneby, dead 1857 (Östra Eneby C:3, GID434.25.65800). Helena Sofia Göstring was born on March 31, 1830 in Askeby (Norrköping S:t Olai AI:50 pag 157, GID 346.59.74000). Unfortunately the birth record book for Askeby has skipped the relevant page when photographed, so who her parents are is as yet unknown to me.
 
I just found Helena Sofia?s parents in the household records for Askeby. They were Adam Göstring born 1780 in Kimstad and Lena Cajsa Jonsdotter born in Askeby 1792.(Askeby AI:4 page 184, GID 271.4.10300)
 
I hope this is useful for you,
Stig-Ove Wisberg.

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Hey, I am in tears at you finding this all out for me.  You are so kind.  I am so grateful to you all.  
How do I possibly find Elin Dorotea's father?  Thank you for all you've done, Kathy

[Karin Ekeroth]

Hi Kathy,
I looked up the record mentioned in the Emibas, Norrköping S:t Olai AI:103 pag 854 GID 346.205.41800 where it says they are moving to America. I tried to follow them backwards and found them on GID 346.160.52400, Norrk.S:t Olai AI:99. There is something there about someone wanting to convert to Catholicism, but I am not sure who. Then I have not gone further - couldn?t find them.  
 
But I wonder, since this widow Anjou(her late husband was some official) took Elin Dorotea as a fosterdaughter there might be some records of this somewhere, but I do not know where. It could be that the name of the father was in them???
 
Karin

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Okay, the family story goes like this:Elin Dorotea was born of her mother and this Swedish count.  The count cared for mother and child, left money for them.  Mother died and child-Elin Dorotea went back to live with mother's family. They squandered all her money except enough for her passage to America.  So how does that fit in with foster daughter stuff?  I do not understand a bunch of this stuff.  You all have been terrific helping me, I really appreciate all you've done. But where does foster daughter stuff come in?  Does fosterdotter mean government appointed caretaker or does it mean family caretaker, what does that mean?  Kathy

[Chris Bingefors]

Kathy
 
Widow Anjou that Karin found is related to Elin Dorotea, she was born Göstring in Askeby 1836 which is consistent with the answers above. Some great-aunt or similar? She was married to Jakob Edward Anjou who was a court official and died in 1879. Maybe she is the wicked relative who squandered all the money? In the next household record there is a note that says poor.
Adoption did not exist until 1917 and foster care by a relative is usually not recorded officially.
It is the daughter, not Elin who wants to convert, it says she applied June 1890, persisted in August. Confirmed in the next household record.
Elin applied for a certificate to move to America 5 October 1896

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Hello, are you still there?  I had to put my work down for a little while.  Do you have any idea how I can connect Sofia with Johan Edvard Lundstrom?  The family has her having an illegitimate daughter with a Swedish count who perfected safety matches.  That's him.  Are there work records somewhere or residency records that would put her working in his house?  I just don't know what I'm doing here or where to go.  I appreciate all your help, Kathy Craig

[Ingela Martenius]

The safety match was invented, and in 1844 patented, by the chemist Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788-1862).
Johan Edvard Lundström (1815-1888) perfected Pasch's invention and started the match factory in Jönköping in 1845.
Neither of these gentlemen was a nobleman, much less a count.
 
Possibly the story of the count is mixed up because of the foster mother's (Wallonian) married surname, Anjou. Anjou was first a county, later a duchy in France.
 
Fosterdaughter simply meant that you lived with another family. Children of families that were so poor that they could not care for the children were sometimes auctioned off by the parish - the person demanding the least amount of money for the child's upkeep, paid by the parish, was awarded the child. As a parent, you of course tried to get more well-off relatives to care for your children instead.
This should however not be confused with being a guardian of the child. Guardian was a legal responsibility and did not necessarily mean that the child resided with the guardian.
 
Fostering was well recorded if it meant residing in another parish or with people who were not immediate family. This is due to the fact that the parish they lived in were ultimately responsible for them (though sometimes that just meant that the parish auctioned them off). Typically, fostering was not recorded if the child lived with its grandparents (or an aunt etc.) in the same parish as the parents.
And in this case there is of course no doubt: Elin Dorotea is documented as being a fosterchild of a richer relative.
 
Even if you prove that Elin Dorotea's mother, Sofia Matilda, was a maid in Lundström's house that does not prove that Elin Dorotea was his daughter. And - Sofia Matilda was 18 while Lundström was 59; she may have tempted him but what interest did an 18-year-old have in someone who was actually old enough to be her great grandfather? Far more probable that the father was the Lundström coachman or some likely lad of her own age from a neighbouring family.
But of course, you can check the household examination books (also translated as clerical surveys) - husförhörslängder for the relevant time. Lundström we know lived somewhere in the Jönköping area. Sofia Matilda was born in - and later bore her own daughter - in Norrköping, a town about 100 miles distant from Jönköping. (BTW, the word köping means market town.)
The best bet though would be to check Lundströms bouppteckning. This is a property survey done after a person's death and it also lists all heirs (and potential heirs), whether by law or by will. If Lundström had given money for Elin Dorotea's upkeep earlier it is not inconceivable that he also willed some money to her, particularly since he had no legitimate offspring.
Lundström's bouppteckning can be requested from the appropriate Landsarkiv (district archive) for a small fee. Lundström probably died in Jönköping, so the proper archive would be Vadstena. You can email them (in English) at  landsarkivet@landsarkivet-vadstena.ra.se  
 
Ingela

[Kathy Clark Craig]

Thank you for your remarks.  I have written to the address you gave me.  I will pursue this further.  Thank you, Kathy

[Brita Lundstrom]

I found this thread doing a search on my family.  I am a Lundstrom and during some preliminary research I found I am related to Johan Edvard Lundstrom.  I actually thought he was my great great great grandfather (is that the right amounts of greats?).  But if you are saying he was unmarried then it is more likely it is the brother Carl not Edvard.  My grandmother has told me storys of my great grandmother coming from Sweden and was told our family had match and glass factories.  Where could I find out thins information.  I am at the office and will post exact information on my great grandmother and father when I get home.
 
Thanks in advance.