Why emigrants went to Ishpeming, Michigan

[Karen Kelsey]

I have wondered how Swedish emigrants chose the areas where they would settle.  As an example, the Larsson family from Ånimskog (question posted under emigrants on Jan. 17, 2006) emigrated in the early 1880s, and they all went to Ishpeming, Michigan.  They did not stay there long, but moved to other areas soon after their arrival.  The brothers filed their first requests for naturalization in Marquette County, MI (Ishpeming), but became citizens in other counties or states.  There is no way to know what drew them to Ishpeming, but how did emigrants decide where they would settle - if they did not have other family members already in that area?  Were there companies that recruited emigrants?  Did shipping companies make contracts with small towns in the U.S.?  Did newspaper advertisements advertise the shipping lines, or did they describe the states to which the emigrants could settle?

[Bo Johansson]

Ishpeming seems to have been a popular destination for people from Ånimskog. Emigranten CD has 33 persons emigrating to Ishpeming 1882-1893.
 
// Bo Johansson

[Elisabeth Thorsell]

Ishpeming was/is a mining town and the big mining companies recruited people from the mining areas in middle Sweden. From the mining area around Filipstad in Eastern Värmland several hundred miners went to Ishpeming. Some of them of them stayed, others continued on to California, for instance.

[Karen Kelsey]

Thanks for this information.  Two of the Larsons worked as stone cutters or miners for awhile. The family says that one of the Larsons (must have been Eric Magnus) moved west, perhaps to find work in mines out there, after the upper peninsula mines closed.

[Peter Borg]

This relative to me and his brother Axel Anderson worked as miners in Ispeming and Ironwood, Michigan.
 

[Karen Kelsey]

It is interesting to find that Swedish families often followed the same routes when they moved from state to state, or from town to town.  Those little Michigan towns must have had many immigrants.  The Larson family also had relatives who lived in Ishpeming, Ironwood, and Ewen.

[Andrea Flanagan]

I've been looking for information on an ancestor who also went first to Michigan -- Iron Mountain.  He apparently died there before the rest of the family could emigrate.  They eventually settled in PA.  I had always wondered what took him to Michigan first!

[Karen Kelsey]

Many of the counties in the upper peninsula in Michigan have good historical and genealogical societies, so I hope you found the information that you wanted.  Here is a genealogical society that deals with many of the upper peninsula counties: http://www.menomineemuseum.com/
 
This is the web address for an on-line naturalization database from Dickinson County, MI
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17449_18635_20684-98802--,00.html
 
Dickinson County was not created until the 1890s, so maybe these databases are not what you need.

[Karen Kelsey]

Many of the counties in the upper peninsula in Michigan have good historical and genealogical societies, so I hope you found the information that you wanted.  Here is a genealogical society that deals with many of the upper peninsula counties: http://www.menomineemuseum.com/
 
This is the web address for an on-line naturalization database from Dickinson County, MI
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17449_18635_20684-98802--,00.html
 
Dickinson County was not created until the 1890s, so maybe these databases are not what you need.

[Andrea Flanagan]

I am looking at a very short priod of time between the summer of 1880 and September, 1882.  His name was August Andersson Leo (soldier name) Levin (Surname he adopted upon emigration.)  So I doubt that the Dickinson County records have the info I need.  The Charles Levine listed in the Naturalization database may be one of his sons (Carl) who emigrated to Iron Mountain later, then moved to PA.

[Shawn Bagnall]

Another great site that just recently came out with scanned death certificate (over a million) for the state of Michigan from 1897 thru 1920 is seekingmichigan.org  
Some death certificates are missing and there are a few typo's so you may have to play around with the spelling or page through, but I have found a lot of death certficates for my family and therefore lots of information.  My family also immmigrated to Ishpeming and Marquette.  
 
By the way in regards to the Larsson family, do you have a Jacob Erik Larsson in your line?  My GG Grandmother Karolina Mathilda Stang's sister Anna Charlotta Lottie Stang married him.  I only know of one of their children and his name was Victor Emmanuel Larson b. June 15, 1889 (Ishpeming) d. May 19, 1901 (Ishpeming) of TB. Otherwise I do not know what happened to her or him.  I am sure they must have had other children.
 
I know that Anna Charlotta Lottie Stang immigrated to America in 1870.  
 
Thank you  
Shawn