Sweden and Swedish Ancestry

Comment

Comment by Lynn Anderson on September 19, 2009 at 12:38am

When you search for a person, ALL the facts you know may be helpful. Everything. And --where-- the data came from may give a clue how reliable it may be. Data recorded at the time of the event is better. Example... birth records are good. They are posted by official recorders at the moment. Another... death certificate data about the person's origins are reported often by people who have only hearsay. And no one checks how reliable it is. I even have misgivings about cause of death... my mothers death certificate. I would say she died of cancer but the certificate does not mention it.

Everything we research is another -fact- to add to the probability.

Sorry for carrying on. If genealogy was easy we would type in a few names and the computer would spit out everything and we could go away happy.

Comment by Lynn Anderson on September 19, 2009 at 12:19am

Richard,
Comments on your comments.
[Johannes and his wife were NOT from Norrland]
Just thought I would ask. A similar name arrived in USA May 1902 but was from Västranorrlands län.

[So from here on they would be using the name John, Eva, Julia, Edith and George?] We can only assume. The census taker may have Americanized the names. But I will guess the family made the change since the 1920 census is the same names.

[In the 1920 census Edith is nowhere to be seen? Or has she married and moved on?] Probably the latter but we dont know from the evidence. Census takers only count people AT THE SITE when they visited the household. For example... If she was still resident there but off to college, she would not be counted at the house.

[And they are all gone by 1930? Or is it just that they have slipped through the cracks?] Indexing of the census are far from perfect. And USA is abig place.

[I understand that obits in the US is a rather good source of information.] People like to list lots of relations in obits but no one says you need to spend the money for an obit. And in a big city who might read it. I did an obit for my father but I am a genealogist and wanted to leave a record. With computers they are getting a lot easier to search.

Not finding more on the Fick brothers was a disapointment. It is such an unusual name. May be they thought so too and changed it. My search was by no means exhaustive. It was just what I could do in a visit to the library.

Comment by Sue Pearson Greichunos on September 18, 2009 at 11:03pm

Hello, Richard ~
I, too, was researching your ancestors on Ancestry. I didn't get as far as with the Fick brothers as Lynn did, however. I, too, could not find Johannes & Eva in 1930 Census. For obituaries, try the Chicago Tribune, founded 1847. During the late 1800's to early part of the 20th Century, it was called the Chicago Daily Tribune. There were also: Chicago Daily Journal, Chicago Evening Post, Chicago Record Herald (later called Herald Examiner), the Inter Ocean, and the American. But the Chicago (Daily) Tribune is the longest standing. In latter 20th Century, there is the Chicago Sun-Times.

Comment by Richard Dahlqvist on September 18, 2009 at 10:39pm

Hi Lynn!

It was nice of you trying to help me.

I answered your "questions" the same way you asked them, by using the numbers.

1. Looking forward to the information.

2. That seems to be my Artur Hilding Fredrik Fick.

3. That seems to be the correct Axel Leonard Fick.
And yes, they are brothers.

Information about Johannes and family:

Johannes and his wife were NOT from Norrland.
Johannes was born in Högseröd, Skåne (Scaniae) and Eva was born in Fägre, Skaraborg.

I can understand their reason to make their names more "american".
Neither Hansson nor Nilén is that easy for americans to pronounce.

So from here on they would be using the name John, Eva, Julia, Edith and George?

In the 1920 census Edith is nowhere to be seen? Or has she married and moved on?

And they are all gone by 1930? Or is it just that they have slipped through the cracks?

If both George and his mother died in Cook County, IL, in which newspapers would I go and look for their obits?
I understand that obits in the US is a rather good source of information.

I'm going to send you my email-addy in a pm to you Lynn.

And btw....A huge thank you for the help!

Comment by Lynn Anderson on September 18, 2009 at 8:48pm

Richard,

At the library I looked for your people on Ancestry.com which has US Census images on line with indexing. They also search some other data base files like Emihamn, Social Security Death Index, some state death indexes, etc.

1 Johannes Hansson Nilen *1871 (also Nelen and Nylen)
Found a bit of his family... more later.

2 Artur Hilding F Fick *1903
Found one - ship arrival in New York 26 Aug 1929 on Drottningholm from Göteborg. Him?

3 Axel L Fick *1905
Emihamn matches your emigration date and shows him from Hinneryd in Kronobergs län.Perhaps that was your source. Are Artur and Axel brothers?

Back to Johannes. He went by John Nelen in US Census records (understandable). Were they from Norrland???

In the 1910 census John and Eva Nelen show up at 1748 West Ohio St with him as head of houshold. He is machinist at a machine shop. Daughter Julia (all records show Julia) is a bookkeeper at an office. Julia E 17, Edith Ed 12, George J 8 and Emil Bergquist 22 brother-in-law, a tie-cutter in the neckware industry. There neighbors were Christina (looked like Christian to me but listed as female) a Norwegian, with children Minnie 13 and Roy C 11. They may be sharing the rental unit.Not sure. In Chicago ward 14 Cook county, IL.

In the 1920 census we find John Nelen 48, Eva Nelen 47 and Julia 25 and George 18. They were living at 5627 Justine St with John as a machinist in the automobile industry. Julia is a clerk at [looks like "Boston" to me] store ??? George is a carpenter in a coffin factory.

Interestingly Julia is listed as married but no sign of a husband. (Note that Eva shows as male.) All four show as arriving in the US in 1902 and becoming naturalized citizens in 1908. In Chicago ward 31.

I found no sign of them in 1930 census!

In SSDI (Social Security Death Index) I found a death for George Nelen with your birth date. He died [no date] November 1982 at Burbank, Cook, IL zip code 60459. SSN 325-03-1554 (I suggest you note this. It may be helpful later.) Another listing shows 28 October 1982 as death date. Ask me about this if you want.

Cook County IL death index 1908-1988
An Eva Nelen died 27 Nov 1926 file number 6031955. Probably her, which would explain why I did not find her in 1930.

Hopefully attached you will see images of 3 pages.
(i will have to email them to you. If someone wants to see census pages, email me.)

Comment by Richard Dahlqvist on September 17, 2009 at 2:25pm

Hi!

Been helping a few people here a couple of times. Love all the members here. All nice and helpful.

However, now it's my turn to ask for help. And I hope my questions aren't that problematic.

I would of course love any and all information you guys could help out with, but I do understand that would to big a task.

So first of all, I would love to get my hands on the different census data for my targets.
If you guys could make a pdf or even a print screen of the different censuses I would be grateful.

My targets are as follows:

Johannes Hansson Nilén (b. 20 March 1871, Sweden)
His family was with him:
Eva Charlotta Nilén (b. 31 October 1871, Sweden)
Judith Charlotta Elisabeth (b. 25 August 1894, Sweden)
Edith Ingeborg Evelina (b. 13 March 1898, Sweden)
Gösta Johan Georg (b. 22 May 1901, Sweden)

They emigrated on 6 August 1903, destination New York.
Arrived in Ellis Island, New York 8 September 1903 on the ship S.S United States.

Their final destination was, according to the Ellis Island record, the home of O Bergqvist, 5731 Carpenter Str., Chicago IL.

Next target is:

Artur Hilding Fredrik Fick (b. 8 July 1903, Sweden)

Emigrated on 17 August 1929.
Destination: Chicago, IL.

Axel Leonard Fick (b. 28 August 1905, Sweden)

Emigrated on 28 April 1928.
Destination: Chicago, IL.

As I said, would love to start with the information from the censuses.

Comment by Sue Pearson Greichunos on September 15, 2009 at 2:37am

P.S.~ I've bought tapes to learn, dictionaries, etc., but it's not easy wrapping my Midwest American tongue around some of those Swedish vowels! I'd like to learn a little conversational Swedish anyway to experience the heritage of which I am so proud, and to not be the "Ugly American" when I visit someday. :)

Comment by Sue Pearson Greichunos on September 15, 2009 at 2:34am

Very cool, Annelie! Thanks!

Comment by Annelie Jonsson on September 15, 2009 at 1:36am

For you who like to learn swedish.

At Lingofriends you can teach someone your language and in exchange you can learn swedish . It's free.

Comment by Annelie Jonsson on September 10, 2009 at 4:56am

One of the best swedish websites in genealogy is the Swedish Genealogy Federation's Rötter http://www.genealogi.se/.

An other is Hans Högman's Genealogy and Historical Site http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/swegen.htm

/Annelie

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