Still Waiting for That Time Machine: Facts Can't Explain Everything

The internet is such a wonderful tool that we tend to forget that you still can't solve every problem. It's such a thrill to find scans of the original birth records, enlistment papers, or hand-written census reports! I've been researching ancestors in Sweden as well as the more famous early Americans, and I've discovered some amazing stories that I'm pretty sure neither my father, on the Swedish side, or my mother, on the half-Scottish side, knew.

My Swedish grandmother was the most upright person imaginable, without being the least bit starchy or stuffy. She was very religious, but she felt that it was her private business and didn't preach. She loved having a good time, and my father described her admiringly as being "always a good sport" no matter how much her two witty sons teased her. However, as it turns out, her background held a secret that astonished me; I'm sure my father didn't know about it and I wonder if my grandmother did. But what I have discovered has given me insight into her character.

Carolina aged about 43

For it turns out that not only was her mother, Carolina, my great-grandmother, "almost" illegitimate herself -- her parents, strongly influenced by the local clergy, were married a couple of months after she was born in 1850 -- but my grandmother's older half-sister, Elsa Maria, was undeniably illegitimate. One might even say deliberately illegitimate; Carolina was 29 when her first daughter was born, and when the time came she left the provincial city where she lived, Falu Kristine, and went to a large and anonymous hospital in Stockholm, where the birth was recorded with no father's name given. And there doesn't seem to be any way to find out who it might have been; clearly Carolina wanted nothing to do with him and in fact was, remarkably, an independent working woman already -- this in 1879. She supported herself as a baker, or more specifically in Swedish "Brodbakerska" or bread-baker.

Baking the Bread by Anders Zorn

Somehow Carolina met my great-grandfather, Carl Erik, who was widowed with three children, and they married -- just in time, as their son was born 7 months after their marriage. Their daughter, my grandmother, was born 13 months later, and then another

 Carl Erik aged about 22

unexplained thing happened -- Carolina took her three children and moved back to Falu Kristine where they lived separately from her husband until her sudden illness and death fourteen years later. There was no divorce, and seem to be no written records of why this happened.

Carolina's older daughter, Elsa Maria, took her stepfather's name but was not happy at home. She was a small, pretty girl, with curly dark hair, and extremely courageous as well, for she decided to leave Sweden and emigrate to America alone, at the age of nineteen. She went first to Minnesota, where she met another Swedish emigrant and married him, and the couple eventually settled in Spokane, Washington. My grandmother was about ten when her sister left for good, and I believe they lost touch completely, and neither knew what had become of the other.

I was so glad to find out so much about my great-aunt's story, for she had a happy marriage and family life, and is remembered with love by grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But so much mystery remains about the life of her mother, that strong-minded woman, Carolina. How was she able to live independently in Sweden in the 1870's? What circumstances caused her to have an illegitimate child at 29? How did she meet Carl Erik? (I suspect it was church-related, which is a little weird in itself.) Why did they marry in haste and then separate?

Unfortunately, wonder as I might, none of these questions are likely to ever be answered, unless one of the principals involved kept a diary or something, which is highly unlikely. The family were Methodists, so the local Lutheran pastor who was responsible for keeping town records apparently wasn't involved when the couple decided to separate. No one involved ever wrote any letters that I've heard about.

I think what I know of this story does explain a bit about my grandmother; when, after her mother's sudden death, she returned to live with her father at his lovely traditional home in the country, her older sisters welcomed her with open arms, and she was grateful for their affectionate acceptance all her life. She adored her father, and the feeling was mutual; he was a very successful owner of a busy foundry, but he was loved by his children and very much a part of their lives. Her sisters taught her all the traditional skills, like cooking and sewing, and she became exceptionally good at all kinds of needlework. For her traditional values were a liberation; living with a mother who lived apart from her husband must have caused a certain amount of gossip and tension, which I'm sure she would have hated.

Breakfast Under the Birch Tree by Carl Larsson
(notice the dog sitting at the table)

On the other hand, she was very artistic, and eventually attended the Folk-Art School founded by the Swedish artists Anders Zorn and Carl Larsson, where the staff included Gerda Romson and Meit Skeri, who are both being rediscovered as artists today. She loved the school, and kept in touch with many of her friends there even after marrying and emigrating to America. She had wonderful taste, and was never without some ongoing needlework project. But she always rejected the bohemian lifestyle that had become fashionable in Sweden in her youth, and always sincerely attended church and kept to the strait and narrow. And I think I now know why; her mother's life was a warning to her.

I'll probably never know much more about my great-grandmother. Records can explain some things, I'll admit that. But until that time machine comes along, we'll still have to accept unsolvable mysteries.

(An interesting piece about the Swedish art/folk art world that meant so much to my grandmother: Carl Larlsson Friends and Enemies)

The Scarlet Letter: Not Quite So Puritanical, It Seems

On the other hand -- my brave Mayflower ancestor, John Howland, who married the orphaned Elizabeth Tilley and had 10 children also, later in life, had to pay a fine for having an affair with woman not his wife.

Hester Prynne wearing The Scarlet Letter

So he wasn't exactly Mr Sqeaky-clean! He wasn't there for religious reasons; he just needed a job.