Family History Kids

Scott was asked to give a short talk for the junior primary class at church on Sunday. The topic was connecting with ancestors, so we decided to print out pictures so he could make a 4-generation pedigree chart. This is something that I had wanted to make with him for a long time, so I'm glad we had the chance. He loves crafty stuff, so he was happy as a lark while cutting, pasting and labeling. At one point he said, "I'm doing family history work. That's pretty good for a child, right?"



Later that day our home teachers came over and shared a message about doing family history work. Scott had another opportunity to show off his new family tree chart.

We also told them about some of the family songs that we sang at family reunions over the years. Gary recorded them and the kids listen to them on their music players in their rooms. Scott's favourite song is Ghost Riders in the Sky. Katie is a big fan of Kage's version of "Going Home", which she sang at Grandma STA's funeral in 2004. Recently, Katie has been singing "O That Anderson Clan" around the house a bit. Since we had been just talking about it, I tried to capture her singing it on video just before bed. This was poor timing on my part, as she had just started to snack on pretzel sticks.



Kids always want to see the video right away, and Katie is no different. We watched it a few times and she laughed so hard that he peed her pants a little bit and we had to rush off to the bathroom. So funny.



Not to be left out, Scott also wanted a video. But instead of singing a family history song, he wanted to sing "Everything Is Awesome" from the Lego Movie. This one was also hilarious to watch, but fortunately everyone had already visited the facilities and there were no incidents.

They're smart and they're quick,
And they meet every test.
O That Anderson Clan!

Visiting Gramma Gloy

Our kids had never been to Aberdeen to visit Great Gramma Gloy's house until this year. We spent an afternoon with her during our trip. There is no place in the world like her house. The rooms are decorated with countless trophies from Grandpa's many hunting expeditions in Africa. I thought the kids would be more intimidated by the stuffed leopard or massive horned beasts than they were. I remember being a bit uneasy about it all as a small child.







Equally fascinating is the children's playhouse in the back yard, which was built at the same time as the main house from the same materials. It is the perfect size for kids to have fun for hours. At first Scott didn't see how the house could be interesting for a boy like him. However, 30 minutes later it was nearly impossible to drag him out of there to go eat lunch.









Lunch at Grammas? Does it get any better than that? The jam and rolls were to die for. Gramma talked to us a bit about the history of the town, and how she has lived there pretty much since the beginning. She said she has probably lived there longer than anyone else. She once was Justice of the Peace. Grandpa Cliff was a long-serving Mayor in town. She taught at the high school forever. She IS the town of Aberdeen, as far as I am concerned.



The kids loved playing in the basement with all the indestructible die-cast metal toys that were there when my dad was a boy. The name "Marc" is still etched in the metal beam above their heads -- a lasting reminder that boys will be boys.



Afterwards, we visited the Aberdeen Cemetery to see Great Grandpa Cliff's grave. The kids had never really been to a cemetery before, so it was a learning experience for them. In order to keep them occupied while we talked with Gramma, I let them each have a camera. The headstones in that section of the cemetery are now very well documented.

My photos







Scott's photos





Katie's photos





Before leaving town we made a stop at Wallace Drug, which was owned by my great uncle Frank. Uncle Frank wasn't at the counter (he retired in 1995), and the arrangement inside is a bit different than I remember, but they gave us a great deal on our ice cream, which is exactly the sort of thing I remember about the place.



It was a magical afternoon in Aberdeen. We need to come back soon. We love you Gramma!

Swedish Family History

The Anderson family has been quite interested in my great great great grandfather Johan Anderson, since he is our pioneer ancestor who brought his family to Utah and cemented the Anderson surname into the family tree. Since Johan's family were the first to join the LDS Church, and they didn't join until they moved to Denmark, the rest of the family in Sweden has less of its family history done.

Johan's parents (Anders Petterson and Stina Goransdotter) had 9 children, but only 4 of them lived to adulthood: Andreas Johannes, Petter, Johan and Anna Stina.


Hamneda Church - Built in 1889-1892

Anders and Stina moved around a bit after they got married in 1824, but in 1842 they settled into a farm in Backaryd Norregard in Sweden, and never moved again ('ryd' means clearing, and Backaryd was near the village of Back; 'norr' means north, and 'gard' means farmyard or homestead). Backaryd is near the western banks of the river Lagan, which is one of the longest rivers in southern Sweden and an important trading route since Viking times.

Their little spot was called Ekebro ('oak-bridge') and it was big enough for 2-3 families to live there and work the land. The records indicate that they were very poor. Twice the local priest of Hamneda Parish wrote notes in his survey that he had issued warnings to them about possible neglect, given their destitute state. Add to this their sadness at the loss of 5 children, including 3 girls in a row who never reached the age of four (each was named Gustava). Their four surviving children moved away when they came of age, but Johan and Anna Stina eventually moved back with their families to work the farm (I don't know where Petter or Andreas Johannes went exactly -- still working on that).



Johan Anderson
Johan and his wife Nilla moved back to the farm between 1851 and 1856 and stayed there until 1866. In that year they moved to Aarhas, Denmark, where they joined the LDS church (1874) and then ultimately moved to Benjamin, Utah in the mid-1880s. When Johan passed away in 1905, Nilla followed her children to Taber, Alberta, Canada. She died in 1909 (more detailed history about Johan Anderson is available online).

So that was Johan's story in North America. But what happened to the rest of the family back in Sweden?

Anna Stina (Andersdotter) Storgaard
While Johan ran the family farm in Sweden, his younger sister Anna Stina lived in the outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark, where she married a Danish man named Lars Storgaard (apparently, Swedes and Danes can understand each other quite well -- although Norwegians can understand each of them better than they can understand each other). They lived in Denmark near Aarhus for about 8 years, where 3 boys (Anders, Frederik and Johannes) were born in the villages of Harlev, Framlev and Folby, respectively. After Anna Stina's parents both passed away (Anders 1860, Stina 1865), then Anna Stina moved back to the farm with Lars and the 3 boys.

Lars and Anna Stina's move from Denmark to Sweden came shortly after the Second Schleswig War, which was waged in 1864 between the Danes and the Prussians & Austrians. Denmark lost and ceded a considerable amount of territory to the Prussians. I think times were pretty tough and pretty uncertain in Denmark in those years, likely prompting the family's move back to Sweden. At the time, Aarhus was the second largest city in Denmark and prior to the war it likely had a lot more opportunity when compared to the small farm in the middle of nowhere in Sweden. As noted above, when Johan & his family left for Denmark in 1866, they also went to the Aarhus area.

Amanda (Larsdotter / Larsen) Hagman
After Lars and Anna Stina settled into farm life back in Sweden, Amanda was born in 1870. The boys all moved away when they came of age (Johannes moved to London on Feb 2, 1887), but Amanda remained on the farm until she married a soldier named Hans Alfred Johannson Hagman in 1891. They had a son named Lars Johan Reinhold Hagman just a few months later (read into that what you will). The newlyweds started living in spot #2 at Ekebro, which must have been a smaller cottage on the farm, because everyone seems to have started there and worked their way over to spot #1 (probably a bigger house) as they became more established.



Hans Hagman
Hans Hagman was born on May 16, 1869 in Denmark, but moved to Sweden where he eventually enlisted in the military (Ljunby Company) at the age of ~18. He lived in Halmstad, on the Swedish west coast until Dec 3, 1888, when he moved 70 km inland to Hamneda. He was about 21 years old when he married Amanda in 1891. He likely continued his military service until the family moved to Canada in 1892. He became a Canadian citizen in 1896.

Moving to Winnipeg
Lars Storgaard & Anna Stina left for North America on Apr 6, 1892. Amanda and Hans left for North America in the same year, settling on a farm in the area of Winnipeg, Manitoba (Selkirk). Sadly, their first son Lars Johan Renhold Hagman died on 15 May 1892 in Winnipeg, at the age of only 4 months. By 1915 the family would come to reside at 451 Martin Avenue in the city of Winnipeg proper and have 11 more children who all survived to adulthood. The last available appearance of the family in the census is in 1911, when all but two of the children had been born.



World War One
Hans and at least three of his sons (William, Albert and John) enlisted in the Canadian military at the outset of WWI, as depicted in the newpaper photo below from Jan 18 1915, taken in Salisbury, UK (the first wave of Canadian volunteer soldiers spent that winter training in the mud and drizzle of Salisbury). Hans served with the 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers and was injured and sent home. The details of his medical discharge are currently unknown. Hans then enlisted again in June of 1915 to serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, although he provided his age as 3 years younger than he actually was. Based on his enlistment info, by that point his occupation had changed from farmer to woodworker. The Canadian Virtual War Memorial has no results for any war dead with the surname of Hagman, and it appears that the whole family made it home from the war -- quite a feat, given that they were among the first to volunteer, and the Canadian Expeditionary Force took massive casualties in these early conflicts. John Hagman was discharged with a gunshot wound to his leg, but re-enlisted in Jan 1918 to serve in Canada-only duty until July 1918. Sgt William Arnold Hagman returned to Canada aboard the ship Adriatic from Southampton to Halifax on 10 Sep 1919. He had been in active service for 5 years. The eldest son, William, served in England and got married in 1818 to Florence Playford, who was working in a munitions factory near Canterbury.





Calgary Connection
I found it interesting to note that Hans and Amanda had a daughter named Annie Wilhemina Hagman who married an Irishman named Alexander Cuffe, had four children and passed away in 1956 in Calgary. She was buried in the Queen's Park Cemetery. It boggles the mind that a little cottage in the tiny hamlet of Backaryd in Sweden has multiple pathways to my home town of Calgary.

Great Fun With Great Uncles: A Family History Success Story

In March of this year our Stake President challenged us to find a family name by June 4. I was a bit overwhelmed, because I had printed off my fan chart and it was completely filled 8 generations back. I had no idea where to start. On March 17 I was sitting in a church meeting when I got an email from my uncle Doug in Naperville, Illinois, that said:

"Dear Family Members,
I am taking a break from work on BJA's Personal History to do some family history research.
Goals:
1. To identify family members who have deceased.
2.To take their names to the temple for ordinance work.
Are any of you doing work or would you be interested in doing work in this?
With love,
Doug"

Within moments I replied:

"Doug,
This is my most earnest desire. Show me the way. I am a total novice.
D"

Later that evening (just before I went on stage for a church production) Doug sent me instructions on how to access original records maintained by the Lutheran Church in Sweden. These parish clerical surveys were equivalent to a census prior to the 1900s.

We worked together to dig through records in search of information. Eventually, I migrated further along the branch he had targeted and started searching the parish records for another set of Swedish relatives that lived in the early 1800s, and I struck gold.

I found the clerical surveys for my great-great-great-great grandfather's family on the farm in Ekebro, Backaryd Norregard, Hamneda Parish, Kronoberg County, Sweden. Tracing through 60 years of records I saw his children grow up, leave the farm, then return to the farm with their own families, who then repeated the cycle.

In the end, I was able to connect their daughter Anna Stina (my great-great-great-great aunt) with her Danish husband Lars and their four children (three born in Denmark, one born in Sweden). The three boys born in Denmark had already had their temple work done as temple file extraction names, but I was able to connect them all together and then request ordinance work for two names: Lars and the Swedish-born daughter Amanda.

My neice and nephew in St. George, Utah, printed off the names and took them to the temple to do baptisms and confirmations this week. Thanks uncle Doug!