Leaving Sweden in 1888 or 1889

Dear grandchildren,

Great to be able to talk to you - not possible for everyone up here to have connections on earth. I am very grateful up here in my heaven even though my secretary has been very busy with earthly matters for a while now! As I passed away in 1870 I would not otherwise have been able to tell you this story which is about to happen in 1888 or 1889. My secretary has digged into different sources and this is what went on:

Göran's sons #1 and #2, Oscar and Johan August with families (The Oscarson's and the Goranson's).

August and Oscar, my oldest boys where harving along on the soil of Hovdinge. Around them people started to plan for new futures across the ocean, leaving with ships taking months to arrive in the new land over there, bringing baskets with food which should last until land was in sight again. I guess that they dreamed of new richer land with future possibilities, leaving poverty behind.

The Lutheran Church, deciding how to live your life was also a reason for many to leave. We know that the priest had power. He regularly visited the homes, demanding food for everyone in the village, forced to come to the "Husförhör". That was a meeting, hold to check up on the inhibitants in the congregation. The age and the names where written down alongside with the knowledge of the Bible which was to be checked up on the meetings. Accounts were also hold about the attendance at church services. Thanks to this we can go back in the church records and know when the kids where born and where people moved. In every home there was probably a copy of collection of sermons by Luther. My secretary has a copy given as a gift in 1902 when a boy by the name of Simon Karlsson, one of my grandkids, was a candidate for confirmation (Luthers huspostilla, 1907).

From this book the following words (p 359):


"The servants may not be indifferent but must carefully do what their masters tell them and may not let bad company keep them from doing so. It should not be so that when the father or mother tell their child to do something, or when the master or his wife tell the servants to do something, they do not do what they are told, but do something else like going for a walk, playing or drinking when they should be working. Every time such obedience is done, the evil one is there and he should not be followed."

The military service forced upon all young men was also a reason to leave. My sons, however, were far beyond that point, being grown up men when leaving Sweden with their families in 1889.

We can only guess the amount of courage needed to leave what was well-known to face an unknown future in a place where you did not speak the language. But they had friends and people from the area of Ljungby who had left earlier. From 1869 to 1889, during a period of 20 years, 400 people emigrated from Ljungby according to the records of Emihamn. One of them was the brother of August's wife Christina. His name was Anders Gustaf Salomonsson. He left as early as in 1880 when he was 18 years old. Children of siblings to my wife Katrina, i e cousins of August and Oscar went too.

We therefore presume that August and Oscar had people they knew in South Dakota, White Rock as they went there to settle. If you would like to see the very white rock probably giving name to the place and read more about this place which now is a ghost town, use this link http://www.randyolson.com/book-interactive-1.htm We know that they also lived in Chesterton, Indiana for a couple of years to work.


My secretary finds the names of 33 people leaving the area of Ljungby in 1889. Among them was August's wife Anna Christina, 28 years old with the kids Gunnar 6, Carl Henrik 5, Teofil 3 and Betty 1. Her younger sister Anna Cathrina, 21 came along. I guess she was helping with the kids as August was not with them. I cannot remember but my secretary assumes that he went ahead to arrange for the family to come. She cannot find him in any registers.

Leaving the year of 1889 according to the register Emihamn was also my son Oscar, 42 and his wife Carolina, 42 with their six kids: Göran 16, Edward 15, Anna 13, Amanda 11, Elisabeth 8, Esther 6 and Ruth 3. I seem to remember that Oscar and his oldest son Göran, later called John, went ahead together with August's family on the same ship and then later the same year sent for the rest of the family.


And before ending today, a little girl was born to August's family the same year they arrived to their new country, in 1889. She was called Miriam and look like this when she grew older.
Back to reality for my secretary, she has a life to live you know. First on the agenda is cleaning the windows. My descendants from Canada are soon knocking on her doorstep and she is eager to make a good impression!


Yours truly, Göran Danielsson.