Anna-Maria Andersdotter (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 52 theme: "Memorable")

Wrapping up 2025 and looking ahead to 2026! Can something in the future be presupposed to be memorable? In anticipation of something that  is planned for 2026, I am going out on a limb saying that our visit to the Swedish home parish of my 3rd great grandmother Anna-Maria Andersdotter (or Andreasdotter) will indeed be memorable.

Anna-Maria's home parish of Uddevalla was originally a part of Norway when it received its town privileges in 1498. The original Norwegian name was Oddevald. A current map shows its proximity to Denmark and Norway; it would have been a strategic position to control in times of dispute among these three countries. In fact, it changed nationalities a total of 7 times! In 1658 it was ceded to Sweden as part of the Treaty of Roskilde, but Norway invaded the following year. The Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 returned it to Sweden where it has remained since. 

Location of Uddevalla - Google Earth

Anna was born 8 May 1800 in Uddevalla parish, Vastra Götaland (now part of Göteborg och Bohus), Sweden. Although other members of my mother's paternal Swedish line came from other remote areas of Sweden, our intended trip to Norway enables very easy train access from Oslo to Uddevalla, making Uddevalla the location of our soon-to-be memorable family history visit to Sweden. 

1800 Birth and baptism record for Anna-Maria Andreasdotter in the Uddevalla kyrkoarkiv 1796-1812, p.72 accessed from Riksarkivet

Anna-Maria's father was Andreas Israelsson and her mother was Eva Maria Bergman. Andreas had come from farther north in Sweden. The couple had married in  Eva Maria's home parish of Uddevalla on 27 December 1795. 

After the marriage, the couple lived for a few years in Uddevalla. Their first two children were born there (first, a son named Israel after his paternal grandfather, then Anna-Maria). In March of 1803 when Anna-Maria was just 3, the family moved to Kroken farm, Laxarby, shortly before the August birth of their third child, Anders, named for his maternal grandfather. Tragically, Eva-Maria died of complications relating to that birth. For 4 years, Andreas remained a widower with three very young children before he married again in 1807.

The 1803 move to Kroken had otherwise been a fortuitous move for them, causing them to evade a major fire in Uddevalla in 1806 when the whole city burned to the ground making 4000 people homeless. This was not the only time Uddevalla had suffered such a loss. It burned to the ground a total of 6 times. After the 1806 fire, the city had to be completely rebuilt and was done in a planned grid-like pattern. By the time the Industrial Revolution arrived, the city had recovered and was able to establish a cotton mill with 10, 000 machines driven by steam. A match factory was also established, and later a shipbuilding industry that had built over 200 supertankers by the time it closed down in 1986. 

As far as I am aware, none of my family members have lived in Uddevalla since the early 1800s. When Anna-Maria Andersdotter grew up in the Laxarby area, she married Anders Svenson and had a family of 8 children with him. (Their second son was my great great grandfather Israel Anderson who emigrated to America in 1854.) 

Anna-Maria's story did not end in Sweden; she and Anders also emigrated in 1868 to America to join Israel and other children. Below we can see Anna-Maria, 68, and daughter Eva, 20, listed among the female passengers on the ship City of London that sailed from Sweden on 16 April 1868 and arrived in New York City on 25 May 1868.

Passenger List from the City of London voyage of April-May 1868

An 1874 death record has been located for her husband Anders Svenson in the church records for Lake Mills, Winnebago, Iowa, but no record has been located for Anna-Maria.

Earlier Uddevalla Ancestors

1.    Anna-Maria's mother Eva Marie Bergman was born in Uddevalla 16 June 1771 and baptized the following day. 

1771 Uddevalla Church Records for birth/baptism of Eva Maria 

As mentioned earlier, she died at age 35 from complications of childbirth at Laxarby after the family moved from Uddevalla.

2. Eva Marie Bergman's father was Anders Bergman born at Uddevalla, Sweden about 1739. On 21 June 1767 he married Maja Skredberg Jonsdotter at Uddevalla. 

1767 Uddevalla church records for marriage of Anders Bergman and Maja Skredberg Jonsdotter

Anders died at age 60 on 14 July 1799 and was buried a week later.  Cause of death believed to have been lungsot (tuberculosis).

Uddevalla Death and burial record for Anders Bergman 1799

 

3. Eva Marie's mother Maja Jonsdotter Skredberg was also born in Uddevalla. She was born 2 February 1740 and baptized at Bäve Kyrka, Uddevalla. She and husband Anders had 3 children: Jon, Eva Marie and Christina. Maja lived out her life at Uddevalla, dying there on 27 March 1806 and being buried 3 April 1806.

1806 death and burial of Maja Jonsdtr - from the Uddevalla church records

4, Maja's father was John Jonson, born at Uddevalla and baptized at Bäve Kyrka in 1714. Little more is known about him or his ancestors; he married a woman named Kerstin who was born about 1718. How many more generations lived and died in Uddevalla is so far unknown. 

(One of the most useful research aids for Sweden is the census-like set of documents called Household Examination Records [Husförhörslängder] but they do not begin for Uddevalla until 1812 and cannot assist here.)

 Some Sites of Interest in Uddevalla

• Uddevalla Bridge across the Byfjorden (completed in 2000 and part  of European Route E6)
• Uddevalla Clock Tower built in the 18th century
• Museum of Bohuslän
• Kuröd Shell Banks (the biggest shell banks in the world)

Google Earth Map of Central Uddevalla with some possible sites of interest that should prove MEMORABLE!

Some Resources:

• Family Search Research WIKI for Uddevalla: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Uddevalla_Parish,_G%C3%B6teborg_och_Bohus,_Sweden_Genealogy
• Swedish National Archives: https://riksarkivet.se/en
• Wikipedia article for Uddevalla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uddevalla

Florence Adeline Larson (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 51 theme: "Musical")

Florence was my Dad's first cousin; she was the daughter of my grandfather John Bardahl's sister Sarah Bardahl and husband Olaf Larson. Florence was the middle of their 3 children, having been born at Elbow Lake, Grant County, MN on 2 June 1902. The family had moved to North Dakota by the time she was 8 years old. 

Florence graduated from High School in Valley City, N.D.  A good violinist, she went on to study music at the Fargo College Conservatory of Music. After graduation, she taught violin at Wesley College at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. While there, she met Merritt Wain Johnson who was the head of the Piano Department. The couple married on  3 August 1929 in Grand Forks.

1929 North Dakota Marriage License and Certificate

It has been suggested that the marriage was based less on romance and more on Merritt's compassion in trying to rescue Florence from an unhappy situation. She had suffered from tuberculosis and had been confined to a sanatorium for some period in her earlier life. It had made her so miserable that she described it as a prison and swore she would never go back if the disease returned. Her health was not robust. She must have felt safe and protected with Merritt. 

The couple had no children. No doubt Florence enjoyed seeing the early musical success of her sister's daughters who were billed as the "Clark Kiddies".  Florence would not live long enough to see them achieve great fame under the name of  "The Clark Sisters" and later as Tommy Dorsey's "Sentimentalists". 

Florence belonged to the Delta Sorority and Sigma Alpha Iota, a musical sorority, and  to music clubs in Aberdeen and Grand Forks. Music was her life.

Sadly, her health did not permit that life to be a long one. She died of kidney disease at the age of 33 and is buried in Riverside Memorial Cemetery in Aberdeen, South Dakota. 

Florence Larson Johnson stone, photo courtesy Khoward of findagrave.com

Some Resources:

Findagrave Memorial for Florence Adeline Larson Johnson at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106395837/florence-adeline-johnson

The Bardahl and Nelson Portraits (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 50 Theme: "Family Heirloom")

 

Carl and Karen (Nilsdatter) Nelson (top); Anna (Elton) and Hans Bardahl (bottom) 

My paternal great grandparents have been watching over my shoulder as I've written each of these weekly stories this year. I treasure these portraits for the way they connect me to them through my father who scoured antique stores for years to find their large domed glass frames. His older sisters, in a crafting fit, had apparently removed the original frames to make table tops, probably long since discarded. Fortunately they hadn't thrown out the pictures! 

Three of my Dad's four grandparents had died by the time he was born in 1926. Because Dad's parents had moved to Canada from Minnesota, Dad only got to meet his remaining grandmother Anna one time, that when he was 4 years old. I suspect his longing for his unknown American grandparents provided his determination to see their portraits properly framed again. 

When my Dad passed on, my siblings very graciously agreed that I should be the one to take these family treasures. I have always appreciated this gesture from them.

As for the ancestors in these portraits:

1. The Nelsons

Carl Nelson was born in 1839 in Norderhov, Ringerike,  Buskerud, Norway. In 1866 he married Karen "Carrie" Marie Nilsdatter who had born nearby in 1842. The following year, the young couple moved to America. They farmed in the area of Erdahl, MN. where they raised a family of 8 children, the youngest of whom was my grandmother Louise born in 1881.

Carl and Carrie Nelson with their 8 children (colourized)

Carl died in 1911 and Karen in 1915. Both are buried in the Erdahl Lutheran Cemetery, Erdahl, MN.

Grandson Ken and his wife Elinor Bardahl at the Nelsen headstone in Erdahl

2. The Bardahls 

Hans Olai Johnson Bardahl was born at Hemnes, Nordland, Norway in 1841. He arrived in North America in 1866, finally settling in the area of Barrett, MN. Anna Ericksdatter Elton was born in 1849 in Vang, Valdres, Oppland and, as a very young girl,  came to America with her family in 1854. She married Hans Bardahl in 1873 in Goodhue County, MN. Hans and Anna had a family of 6 children including son John  born in 1879. Anna had given birth to son Erstein "Steve" from an earlier relationship; he was also part of their family and used the surname "Bardahl". 

Hans and Anna with their 6 children (Steve not present) colourized

Hans died in 1922 and Anna in 1938. Both are buried in the Lien Cemetery, Barrett, MN.

photos courtesy TBurt of Findagrave.com