Albert's Swedish roots

Eric Albert Ericsson (also Eriksson, Erickson) was born in 1869 in Sweden and came alone to the US as a young man. He was my second great-grandfather, and the most recent immigrant in my family tree. I  wondered about his life in Sweden, about his family there, and what made him decide to come to America.

Albert and wife Josie in Renton, WA
Photo shared with me by my cousin Thomas Timson

To find out where he came from in Sweden, I started with the records I had already found here in the US. A handwritten note listing his parents as Eric Johnson and Johanna Peterson was my first hint. It had been recorded by the wife of Albert's grandson, but I didn't know how she got the information. The Washington State death record lists his father as John Erickson and his mother as Johanna Peterson and gives a birthdate of May 22, 1869. Again, I don't know who the informant was. Albert was listed in census records for the years 1900-1940, first in Mahaska County, Iowa and later in Washington state, with Sweden as his birthplace and his immigration year as 1887 or 1888.

While reviewing the records I had already seen, I followed a shaky leaf hint on Ancestry where I found Albert's marriage record in Oskaloosa, Iowa. It gave me an earlier account of his parent's names, and he was likely the informant.

Marriage record of E. A. Erickson, born in Sweden, father Erick Johnson, mother Johanna Pearson.
Ancestry.com. Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1940 [database on-line]. Iowa Department of Public Health; Des Moines, Iowa; Series Title: Iowa Marriage Records, 1880–1922; Record Type: Textual Records

That led me to this:

Ancestry.com, Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1859-1943 [database on-line]. 
From Swedish Church Records Archive; Johanneshov, Sweden; Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1880-1920; GID Number: 100004.22.44000; Roll/Fiche Number: SC-521; Volume: 309; Year Range: 1869

Or, more specifically, this:

Birth record from Östra Vingåker parish, Södermanland, Sweden shows Eric Albert, born 22 May 1869, to Eric Jansson and Johanna Charlotta Pehrsdotter of Starrhult.

This birth record matched the birthdate on Albert's death record. After a short lesson on patronymic naming patterns, I realized I had struck gold. Now I had the PLACE and the Swedish spellings of his parent's names - Eric Jansson and Johanna Charlotta Pehrsdotter.  The remaining records that I found on Ancestry didn't include images, which I wanted to see, so I hopped over to www.FamilySearch.org to see if the images were there. Most of the records for that parish have been digitized, but are available for viewing only at a Family History Center, affiliate branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Luckily, there is a church nearby that I can visit to view those restricted images.

In 19th century Sweden, the church was responsible for recording all the families within each parish. Household Examination Books were kept by the church to follow each parishioners religious education. These records are a genealogist's dream! Each family member is listed under the head of the household by name and, in most cases, full birth dates. Each book covers a number of years and notations are made if a person moves, marries, or dies during that period. Having the full birthdate for an ancestor is a key piece of information when looking at these records. Because of the patronymic naming patterns in Swedish families, many people have the same name. For example, Eric Jansson's children were all given a first name, then the boys assumed Ericsson as a surname and the girls would be called Ericsdotter. I wanted to take my ancestry back another generation, so I was looking for a household with a father Jan or Johan that included a son Eric and a household with a father named Pehr or Per with a daughter Johanna. Quite literally, there is one on almost every page. Thank goodness the priests included birthdates!

In Gillershult, the family of Johan Persson, 1832-1836.

In Lilla Tholtorp, the family of Per Nilsson, 1832-1836.

Equipped with the birthdates and names of their parents, I was able to find the birth records for Eric Jansson and Johanna Pehrsdotter:

Eric, along with twin sister Johanna, was born to Jan Pehrsson and his wife Stina Pehrsdotter
 in Gillershult on the 5th of July, 1831.

Johanna Lotta was born to Pehr Nilsson and his wife Anna C. Olsdotter
in Lilla Toltorp on the 10th of September, 1833.

Now that I had some basic information to get started with the Swedish end of the research, I decided to try a subscription Arkivdigital.com. I paid for a month and dug in. By recording the names and birthdates, moves from one village or farm to another, and looking at birth, death, and household records, I have been able to expand the family tree from knowing virtually nothing about Albert's family to this:

My tree from Albert now includes five more generations in Sweden. Amazing. All of these families lived in the Östra Vingåker parish of Södermanland or in the neighboring province of Östergötland (where I haven't even begun researching yet!). It appears that they were all tenant farmers. When children were old enough to work, they often moved to other farms as farmhands (male) or servants (female) until they were married.

I still haven't learned why Albert made the decision to come to America.

1887, Sweden, Emigration Registers, 1869-1948. Lehi, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
Original data: Göteborgs Poliskammare, 1869–1948, Landsarkivet i Göteborg; Norrköpings poliskammare; Huvudarkivet Polisen in Helsingborg; Poliskammaren i Malmö Överståthållarämbetet för polisärenden 1 (ÖÄ): Äldre poliskammaren (Stockholm 1869-1904); Överståthållarämbetet för polisärenden 2 (ÖÄ): Poliskammaren (Stockholm 1905-1940).

S. S. Orlando, Wilson Line steamship built 1869 at Hull, England by C. & W. Earle.
from Illustrated London News, April 2, 1870 p. 336
http://www.norwayheritage.com/gallery/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=10&text=&imageid=395&box=&shownew=

On October 14, 1887, at the age of 18, he boarded the S. S. Orlando in Göteborg, alone, heading to Hull, England. His final destination was listed as Oskaloosa, Iowa. There were a few other young men from his parish boarding the ship that day, but he was the only one heading for Iowa. It's clear that he had a specific plan in mind when he left his family and homeland behind.