Grandchildren Who Immigrated

I have given some dates for Samuel's children who came from Sweden to the United States. Inger Sofia Backman and Abraham Kristiansson also had children who immigrated. These children assumed the name Chistensson in their American records, sometimes with diverse spellings. Because none of their children passed the name down I will will use this spelling.

I have reported Samuel's children as they immigrated, let me add a little for these children of Inger Sofia's.

Kristina Octavia, who would marry Axel Alfred Carlson, is given a pleasant article in www.familysearch.org by Crystal Noel Taylor (dated January 2014). This article gave me some information I had not recalled seeing previously, and for which I am grateful to gain.
In ArkivDigital [Lundby BI:4 (1885-1894) Image 390/page 34] we find the Utfyttnings-Längd record #134 on August 21, 1888, stating Kristiansson, Kristina Oktavia, local girl, going to N. Amerika. She would be 19 that year. In the same record Johan Edmund is also reported to be leaving that parish.

Sven Albert, I believe I have found enroute Copenhaven to Hull as Christensen, Sven, foster child, aged 10. Dates and age fit with my record, but I cannot determine with whom he is traveling as a foster child. Did he come with returning missionaries as William did? Also, I cannot find his passage from Liverpool to New York (the route I presume was used) and as yet I cannot determine where he lived when he arrived. He was 10, he must have stayed with someone. He was in the Sixteenth Ward in Salt Lake City when he died in 1885.
Johan Albert died, aged 23, from an injury while doing railroad work in northern Utah, and was buried in Brigham City.
Edit, left Sweden at age 19, as reported in the Lundby records [ArkivDigital, Lundby BII:2 (1906-1927) Image 56/page 102] on September 24, 1909. She married Carl Johansson before passing away at the State Hospital in Provo.


With these we have our American family. We do not break our ties with Sweden, as we will see, but will soon be a family "born in the USA".

Leaving Sweden, utflyttade, Six: Axel Emanuel

Referring again to www.familysearch.org, in Axel's profile, a submission by Nickolas Burt, is the history provided to John Burt as [part of a genealogy program in Sweden. This is the record which gave us the history going back to Anders Larsson, tax collector and mayor of Uddevalla.
This record reports that Axel went to work in Hisingen at Rambergs Bruk.
I have been unable to exactly identify this place; however, Hising is identified as the country's third largest island, and the original site of what became Göteborg. An internet search for Rambergs Bruk gave me a few axe making foundries- which is not unreasonable, but again, I cannot confirm this.
This article goes on to say that due to the persecution LDS members were subjected to that Axel went to sea in 1862, never returning to Sweden.
Axel - Charlie - settled in New Orleans, later migrating to Utah.

Utflyttade, part 5: John Peter

Except that we know John Peter Backman came to the United states with his nephew Gustave Hilmer Backman, I find no record of his departure. Peter had gone to sea, working the great waters between Sweden and Great Britain, possibly at greater distances, as well. Gustave's memoir states that Peter intended to leave the seafaring life in Liverpool in 1877, that the two of them stayed with Peter's sister Charlotta in that town.

They sailed aboard the Ship Wyoming, with a large company of Saints, the group presided over by Elder Udall, a missionary returning to the States. The journey would last ten days and was uneventful, generally. Gustave reported seasickness in himself, and he was not alone, but they group cleared the medical checks on arriving in New York and were on the westward train shortly.

We have this from Jackilynn Latin, in her biography of Peter in the www.familysearch.org profile:

At the time of John Peter’s departure for America he was engaged to a girl named Augusta Stein of Sweden. Her family, all converts to the church, moved to Utah prior to 1877. Once John Peter’s bags were unpacked, he posted a letter to Augusta, requesting that they meet and set a date for their marriage. Several days later, Augusta’s father came to him and unfolded the sordid tale of Augusta’s suicide due to involvement with another man.

When the sad swain’s anguish had abated somewhat, he remembered another comely miss named Matilda whom he knew in Sweden.

Flyttade. Number 4: Charlotte Christina

Charlotta Christina Backman was born 2 October 1839 in Ljung parish in Göteborg och Bohus län, Sweden, the eldest daughter of Sven and Inger Backman.

Several families stopped at the home in Liverpool, England, of Charlotta and her husband Johan Ferdinand Abrahamsson, who, here in the United States was known as John F Anderson. I have not found the marriage record, however, family histories say 1857, in Grinneröd. I do find Charlotta moving to Göteborg as early as 1860, and as yet have not found John there.

John was the son of Abraham Fredriksson and Johanna Jänsdotter, born in Langelanda, Sweden, on September 13, 1843.

John was a mariner, like Charlotta's brothers, and it may for this reason that they were in Liverpool. Certainly they provided a place to rest and renew family ties with their home there.

We do find them together on the ship, Wyoming, departing Liverpool the 19th of April 1879 to arrive in New York the 30th.

John had a younger brother, Martin, who also had gone to sea and would travel to Idaho to visit John and Charlotta, with the outcome of meeting and shortly, marrying Charlotta's sister Lena.

While Charlotta and John did not raise children of their own, they were close to Lena's even -or because- of her early death in 1891.

Utflyttade och Inflyttade, 3: Maria Carolina

I have an account in https://www.familysearch.org which I refer to often. It is called - if only to myself - fact checking check. When I find something in this record, I look to see where the researcher found it, and then I go to that source to confirm, and then I return to family search and submit the document if it has not already been done, so that a new researcher  can check out that source themselves, and fact check my fact check. I do not take this lightly.

This last statement does not mean I don't muddle the puddle. Neither does it mean I am always correct. A dose of self doubt encourages my careful and repetitious study. I try not to overdose. And still, I encourage you to check for yourselves if you have questions.

Today I unhinged a husband from Maria Carolina - Lena - on the Family Search file. I try to not undo someone else's work if I can  add a correction or update instead. The marriage to Sven Vilhelm Anderson could never be confirmed, through many checks, including LDS Ordinance checks, which I cannot access, but a kind, sincere missionary did check to confirm that dates and names did not jive.

Of course I did not eliminate the man, he seems real enough in someone else's family, just not Lena's. If I can take such an action, I realize someone else can do likewise when they find a record I overlooked that changes the report of our family history. I say: Wonderful!

In Grinneröd Parish, Maria Carolina's birth is noted as occurring at Fokeröd on the 22 of September 1848, with christening on the 24th, her mother was 35. Living on a few different farms as she grew up, Lena would eventually live in the City of Goteborg after a stay in Lundby where her sister Inger lived. The growth in inflyttade creates a challenge for today's researcher (or, maybe just me), but we find Maria Carolina Backman in Göteborgs Karl Johan, Göteborgs Oskar Fredrik and Hagga parishes, some of these not due to her movements but the realigning of parish administration.

In Karl Johan parish Lena married Andreas Nilsson on the 1st of May, 1870, in the witness of her brother and mother. I used this record as verification that there had been no earlier marriage, as had been suggested in the record I spoke of earlier.

Sweden's Household Records  span a decade, plus or minus, and reflect changes in notes, crossing out, page changes etc. One record, from ArkivDigital online, in Göteborgs Karl Johan BI:3 (1861-1869) image 238/page 468 [1869 In- och Utflyttnings-längd ör Carl Johan Församling.] has the birth of her daughter Beda, and possibly one more,  and her marriage and her birth all pressed into the space around her name, making it a very busy box.

A later record listing the household with husband Andreas Nilsson in Oscar Fredrik suggests Lena and Beda are no longer in the parish in 1886. I took this to mean they left in 1886, but have learned that when the parish closed out the book for that reporting period they, simply, were no longer members of the congregation. This makes the later report of Maria Caroline [sic] being baptized in Salt Lake City in 1877 the more reliable.

But I have not yet found WHEN she left Sweden. Could she have also stayed with Charlotte in Liverpool? This information will come to light, in time and add another step in her story.

An Interesting Find, After a Chance Comment

I asked one of the Missionaries at the LDS Family History Library where I might find an emigration date. When he learned they were LDS converts, he said, "Well! Look at the Branch records!"
As I am not a member of the church, it had not dawned that since I was looking at Lutheran records I might very well look at LDS records! Thank you, Elder!
These records were cards on microfiche, and referred to filmed records as well:
          Inger Backman, baptism 17 Aug 1863, immigration 4 Aug 1880
          Samuel C. Backman,baptism 26 Jul 1961, immigration 24 Jun 1878
          Charlotta Backman, baptism 27 Apr 1864
          Axel Backman, baptism 25 Jan 1864
          Inger Backman Christensen, baptism 6 Aug 1871
          Johan Petter Backman, baptism 24 Feb 1862
          Anna Johanna Backman, baptism 24 Sep 1861, immigration 24 Jun 1878
          Anders S. Backman, baptism 13 Jul 1879, immigration 5 Aug 1880
          Gustave H. Backman, baptism 13 Jul 1874, immigration 1877
          George S. Backman, immigration 24 Jun 1878
          Anna W Backman, baptism 19 Jun 1878, immigration 24 Jun 1878
          Berta K. Backman, immigration 24 Jun 1878

There are names not in this list, some dates missing. But I have a new resource.

Inger Sofia Backman Christiansson does not have an emigration date, because, as I've now had varified, she remained in Sweden. At Lundby. The Branch records list a death date, 23 Jul 1897. This does not match other records I have read.

As I will not do an utflyttade article for Inger, let's look at what I have learned of her family now.

Again, I must thank the other Backman researchers for their kind sharing. Jacki Lynn Latin and Kristin Richins have added much to my understanding of this family. I lean heavily on ArkivDigital online.

Inger Sofia Backman left Grinneröd when Inger Dahlberg Bacakman did, it appears they were the last to leave for the city.

Inger met a widower, Abraham Kristiansson, whose wife had died in 1866 leaving husband and child, Carl Magnus. Inger and Abraham married in Lundby the 5th of June 1867.

Abraham Kristiansson was born in 1838 in Orust.

I find a record with a daughter Ida Josefina, and have no reason to doubt that, but have not yet confirmed it myself, through records. She was born 1867, in Lundby. The family moved where there was work for Abraham, but Lundby would be home mostly.

The family grew: Kristina Oktavia (1869), Sven Albert (1872), Johan Edmund (1875), Elin Konstantia (1880), Ann (1883), Emma Axelina (1886) and Edit (1890). All were born in Lundby or Carl Johan, both parishes in Göteborg. Carl, Ida, Elin, Anna and Emma would pass away in Sweden, where Inger Sofia is found in the Lundby Dödbok on September 5, 1918, followed by Abraham on the 28th of June, 1920.

Moving: Flyttade, 2, Johan August

Johan August:

Johan August was born the 25^th of May, 1837 in Restenas, Resteröd Parish, Gotebörg och Bohus län county, Sweden. He was at home, under his parents until 1857 according to the household records at Grinneröd 1851-1861. He became a mariner; perhaps, as his father died in 1853, this was one way to help support his mother and his younger siblings.

I have had the impression that the entire family joined the LDS faith in Sweden, and remained, at least nominally, associated with that organization. The memories posted in the FamilySearch profiles tell us that August and Charlie (Axel Emanuel) left their sea lives independently, the elder in Canada, the younger in New Orleans, and then, just as unaware of the other’s decisions, both found themselves in Utah.

We read that August was “re-baptized” in the Sixteenth Ward in 1877. This appears to have been a matter of course for many immigrants, at least no explanation was given otherwise. Carolina - Lena – had the same ordinance performed in that record, at the same time.

John August did not marry until he came to Utah. When or how he met Sarah Elizabeth Duncan I have not learned, on the 1880 U.S. Federal census they are married, living in Centerville, Davis County. I do see that her father had the neighboring farm.

Inger lived with August and Sarah when she arrived in 1880, making something of a rough ride for the young bride. An immigrant from Scotland, and several years younger than her husband, her mother-in-law may have seen her as a child (at seventeen, perhaps she was), or at least needing direction. Under August’s FamilySearch profile a short look into this dilemma is recounted by one of their great-granddaughters.

Utflyttade och Inflyttade: Moving, Out and In, Samuel

Samuel Christian:

An 1861 convert to the LDS Church early in that faith’s presence in Sweden, Samuel began earnestly the preparations for migrating to North America, and Utah. Samuel’s third son, Gustave, in his autobiography speaks of his father being gone long hours during the “work week” and then, on Sunday keeping long hours in church service. The autobiography I refer to here, I have tried to transcribe and download to my tree on www.familysearch.org as a memory/document in Gustave Hilmer Backman’s profile.

Using the Household Records of Sweden on ArkivDigital, we see that Samuel left home and returned, perhaps getting training in the interim. His parents were supported by the parish; a trades skill would have augmented the household’s purse. Later, leaving again when it was his turn to start a family, Samuel married a young woman from - using that same database – a few pages away. I cannot tell how close by the two families were, but Anna Johanna Andersdotter was indeed only a few pages away in my research.

Samuel and Anna were not alone in leaving farmsteads for the cities. After marriage, they found themselves in Göteborgs Karl Johan parish. Here Samuel worked as a tinner and they lived in a two-room residence. They would move, over time to accommodate Samuel’s work, with children being born in various parts of that city. Gustave, tells us he was born in Masthugg. One home was a combined venture with other Mormons, hoping to parley a portion of their incomes into sufficient means to “gather” with the saints in Utah.

This would finally come to fruition in the later 1870s, when two sons would be sent off while they could still go on half fare: Gustave in 1877, traveling with John Peter, Samuel’s brother, and William later in the same year, with a returning LDS missionary. Samuel, Anna, George, Annie and Bertha followed in 1878. They settled in the 16^th Ward of Salt Lake City. Records of this ward include Samuel’s siblings, John August, Axel Emanuel, Maria Carolina and John Peter.

Bertha died after a measles outbreak within a few months of arriving. Anders came in 1880. I have learned that Sven A. Christiansson, Inger Sofia’s son passed away in this ward, in 1885.

Family life continued much as it had in Sweden, once everyone got here. Samuel found work in the shops of the U. C. railroad, in which he was a foreman; as well as in major community projects, notably making copper spires on the LDS Salt Lake Temple (LDS Biographical Encyclopedia). A 1903 Salt Lake City directory has the advertisement: “Samuel C. Backman, TIN and COPPERSMITH” with spouting, roofing and all kinds of repairing done at the lowest prices, as well as plumbing, steam and gas fitting. “SATISFACTION GUARENTEED.”          

Both the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia and Pioneers and Prominent Men have profiles of Samuel c. Backman, the former noting that he was “an active elder of the Fifteenth Ward,” and further, that a year after joining the LDS Church he had been ordained to the office of Priest and then of Elder, adding, “He had presided over the Göteborg branch for four years and preached considerably in that neighborhood.“ Samuel was ordained a High Priest prior to his death.

He emigrated in 1878, coming on the steamship “Nevada” leaving Liverpool June 29, 1878, and arriving in Salt Lake City on July 18, 1878. A good description of this vessel is given in Ships, Saints and Mariners, An Encyclopedia of Mormon Migration, by Conway B. Sonne. More can be found by the same author in Saints on the Seas.

Anna Johanna Andersdotter – Anderson, in the American record – was born May 13, 1830 in Myre, Grinnerod Parish. Her parents were Anders Andersson (b. 1801) and Marit Svensdotter (1797); she was the middle of seven children.

Anders, Gustave, George and William all worked while living with their parents, and Anna took in lodgers, as she had in Sweden. Annie remained at home until her first marriage, to one of those lodgers.

Coming To The United States

My next steps will be to find the dates of departure/arrival, and with those, hopefully I can divine some of the conditions and circumstances of the journeys.

Returning to Gustave Hilmer Backman and his journal, we know that he with John Peter traveled together.

He says of this, “father’s brother John P. Backman, who was then a sailor between Gotenborg [sic] and Liverpool, was making his last voyage. Intending to leave the service upon reaching Liverpool, and then continue to Utah; arrangement was made that I go with him and we left Gotenborg [sic] on the 12^th of May, 1877, and arrived in Liverpool on my birthday, May 18, 1877.”

Prior to leaving Europe nephew and uncle stayed in Liverpool with the latter’s sister, Charlotte and her husband John Anderson. They sailed on the ship Wyoming. I have learned from a file from https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu that they did travel with an organized company of 188, headed by David K. Udall. This file carries additional sources.

Gustave tells us later that his younger brother, William traveled in the fall of the same year, making the trip with Mormon Elders returning to Utah.

In July 1878, Gustave’s parents came to Utah, bringing his brother George, sisters Annie and Bertha. They traveled aboard the steamship Nevada, departing Liverpool June 29, arriving New York on July 10. There were 577 passengers in their company under John Cook.

I have found the record of Inger coming in 1880 in another source, this source tells us she traveled on the steamship Wisconsin, leaving Liverpool July 10 and arriving in New York July 21. Inger was part of a company of 710, their church leader being Neils P. Rassmusen. I believe I see Carolina Maria Neilsson on that voyage, as well. Anders (Andrew, Samuel’s son)) came the same year, in September, leaving Liverpool on the 4^th and arriving on the 16^th. His ship was Nevada, traveling with John Rider’s company. I have not yet discovered other family members with these two, but both scenarios are possible, that they traveled alone but for the fellow migrants.

Family researchers have found that Axel – known as Charlie – came in through the port of New Orleans and Johan Auguste through Canada, neither knowing this of the other at the time. Charlie happened upon Lena – Carolina -  while on the street in Salt Lake City. I have found a reference in the census that Lena’s husband came in 1881, this is also the year that their first child was born in Idaho.

An interesting note – because I enjoy them – Axel’s wife was in the company with Gustave and John Peter as they crossed the country, having been in New York the year previous, to earn money to come to Utah. I don’t know if the marriage to come was already in the works, or not.

Charlotta and John Anderson, who had opened their home in Liverpool also came to America. Census records show1879 and 1880, but again I have not located the ship or company if they did travel with such.

I have made some fairly obvious errors in family history, I am old enough to accept that. For a long time, I was certain Inger Sophia had come to America, stating it quite assuredly when we met in Midway, Utah to form a Backman Family Organization. I was so sure, that it was only in my study and research for this blog that I have found records showing I was wrong. If you take anything from my writing, take this: you will find errors in family history research. At least, try not to make them. 

A correct record is a great endeavor.

Whence Our Ancestors Came

The history of Sweden inhabits our story. I have not studied it in an orderly manner, but rather by looking for historical events as needed to write more than names and dates. Give yourselves an opportunity to learn whence our ancestors came.

Some of the oldest petroglyphs in Europe are found in Sweden. The people of that region are people of migration, moving north as the ice receded and south as the population exceeded its capacity to sustain itself. Or west across the seas and east into Europe. Our people have been there a very long time.

We clothed ourselves for warmth in skins and woven plant fibers; we fished, hunted, dug and gathered food for sustenance; we agreed on alliances for safety and went to battle in their absence. We explored forests and coasts and rivers.

Water plays a part for all of us. When frozen, we skied across it; when open, we sailed across it.

The west coast of Sweden, along the Katagatt Sea is broken into many, many islands and fjords. Orust, one of the country’s largest islands, sits across Havstansfjord, to the west of the communities of Udevalla, Grinnerod, Myckleby, Resterod; these are parishes that we will see often in family research.  Orust has a similar coastline, all this the result of glacial activity and the subsequent melting at the end of the ice age. Lane-Ryr lies eastward, nearer to the country’s largest lake, Vanern.

This stone-laden land (or wet lower elevation areas) was cleared for small farming, and the development of kommuns, loosely connected, that allowed groups of farmers to help and rely on one another. In some areas, the forests were the source for banding together. Others fished the shallow sea or ventured further out for deep sea hunting and trade. Sweden had its own variety of Vikings, too, so that there was trading (yes, and raiding) anywhere with a coast! Not all farmers owned the land they tilled. One family history refers to Sweden’s own variety of share crop farmers, topare. Many records identify pigans, female servants, probably tasked with drudgery. The widow risked the poor house (my phrase).

Climate and environment have never been far from the experience of the people of Sweden. Early 19^th century saw a series of weather related food disasters with their resultant health concerns. Failed farms drove unemployed farmers into cities, where the industrial revolution was creating its own inequities and health concerns.

Sweden was, at one time a very powerful country, with subjugated peoples and territories, even competing with Poland and Russia. As a monarchy, it developed land owning classes as well as non-landed working classes. Early on, saw fault with tyranny, moving to elect its kings, taking on the landed church, and even its sister states of Denmark, Norway and the Baltic States. For more than a century it was the dominant power in northern Europe, according to the history in my Travel Sweden book, gaining strength in Finland, and northern Germany, as well. Family alliances have made it into world news more than once.

A constitution ‘came into force’ in 1719, from this same book, which is described as a parliamentary democracy. There came cultural shifts as well, even the declaring of a national costume.

This is the Sweden our family lived in.

Our Family in Sweden, Part 3

I find Inger Dahlberg’s birth at Lane-Ryr, Göteborg och Bohus lan, recorded as Okt. 9, 1813 and christening on the 10^th. Her parents Johannes Bryngelsson and Kerstin Bryngelsdotter. The mother was 24. Birth was at Skäleröd. The household on the farm Tegelbruket included Elin Svensdotter, the sav mor, or step-mother. In this record – household record, 1812 to 1815 – the Dahlberg name is used, though it wasn’t in the birth record.

Another record – Household Record, 1814 to 1819 -  shows the family has left this farm and gone to another as of 1815. The gothic script is difficult to read, but it may be that the family moved to Anfasterud, a farm in the Dals-ed parish, in Älvsborg lan.

I identify the sources I used here because they are at odds with other family histories. The parents’ dates given here are: Johannes, 3/5 [1]787 and Kerstin, [1]790.

Dals lan, Alvsborgs lan and Bohus lan are all connected at the northern part of today’s Västra Götaland county. A quick glance at parish maps shows familiar placenames: Grinneröd, Myckleby, Udavalla, Resteröd, Lane-Ryr, Stora Lundby. In effect, farmers did not move far.

Not until farms failed did moving farther away make sense. 

Our Family in Sweden, Part two

While I continue to look through records in Sweden I will present this short family record of Swen and Inger.

Samuel Backman married Charlotta Bruhn in January 1812.

On October 1, 1812 Swen’s birth was recorded at Lilla Lunden in the Resteröd Parish. I believe I am seeing him as the fourth child, but only Britta is named as being born in 1809. I am uncertain if she was born of an earlier marriage, this record makes a point that she is a sister of Swen.

In the next record, Ana Marie and Sofia Christine are included, having been born at the same place, but the record notes that they have all moved to Turebacken, another farm in the parish.

Charlotta passed away in Turebacken on the 29^th of April, 1823. There is a note that she died of “colik” and was buried on the 8^th of May. Samuel married Elin Hansdotter in December 1824, at which time Ana Marie and Britta are no longer in the household, with Ana’s name crossed through, suggesting she had died.

I must thank those family historians and genealogists who came before me. I mean no disregard of their efforts when I try to locate and read the same original documents they have obviously used.

Two family trees I have come upon www.ancestry.com are Dahlberg/Fogelberg/Borneus Slakttrad and Kennington Nelson Family Tree. These have given me direction for my search. These sources, with others, show Inger as the eldest of seven children born to Johannes Bryngelsson Dahlberg and Kerstin Bryngelsdotter.

In DISBYT, self-acknowledged as a secondary source, I find Bryngel Persson, believed to be the father of Kerstin, in Toftedal, Älvsborgs lan. His parents are listed as Per Anfastsson and Chirsti [sic] Nilsdotter. He is the third child.

In Stora Rinnane I find a household record with Per and Kerstin living at the same place as their son Ander Parsson. In another record, I found the July 26, 1717 birth of Per, the son of Anfast Bryngelsson and Ingrid Sigfridsdotter in that parish.

 The deaths of Kerstin, on June 26, 1795 (or 1796) and Per, on January 26, 1797 each occurred in Stora Rinnane, Töftedal, Älvsborg lan.

These short histories have much information missing still. Because my main activity over several years has been to identify the descendants of Swen and Inger, I am going to go forward with that. I have enjoyed the study of Swedish records. Challenging as it has been, when I have realized I found another item it has been thrilling. I invite you to do this for yourselves.

Our Family in Sweden, Part One

One pedigree chart from www.familysearch.org extends back several generations of Swen Backman’s paternal line. Recently I have found an alternate pedigree that shows Inger’s pedigree extending several generations back. You can see that our family research has no single conclusion. Nor is there one single researcher; this, a note “to self”.

My usual project is to give an accounting of five generations of descendants in a  family, which for me would be Samuel Backman and Anna Anderson. Most of my Utah Pioneer ancestors are within five generations from me. Because Inger Dahlberg Backman did come to Utah I am using her as the common ancestor for this blog, and this makes it a six-generation project.

Let’s look back to the beginnings. Through the 18^th and 19^th centuries we were farmers, usually. And, usually, we were farmers on someone else’s land, so it was not uncommon to change farms here and there. Generally, I have found us in Älvsborg lan or Göteborg och Bohus lan, there were families also in Dals lan, which later was absorbed by the other two

Bohus was the name used for the county until 1700, when the designation was changed to Göteborg och Bohus lan and so it remained until 1998. The modern county is Vastra Gotaland, within Bohuslan Province.

Before the 11^th century there were only small kingdoms throughout Scandinavia. With the advent of Christianity strong leadership wrought more control and order in the north lands. At about this time there were two notable kingdoms, one from which the national name, Sverige was derived and another in what is now Vastra Gotaland, our ancestral homeland. Skone, the very southernmost part of Sweden, was under the control of the Danes.
Prior to emigrating, several of the children of Inger and Sven had moved to Gothenburg, engaged in work there.

Gothenburg was founded in the 17^th century, developed with influence from the Dutch, Scot and German allies of the monarchy. Shipping became all the more vital to Sweden as the industrial revolution and trade expanded. Gustave Hilmer Backman, in his recollections talked of the adaptations his family made to economize, writing that if they were poor, it was never shared with the children. Still, rye bread (which I take to mean course) with lard was sometimes a meal, and bread with butter a luxury. Sam and Anna would take fine clothing to a pawn shop for cash in hand during the week and reclaim it for Sunday. Famine, due to political and environmental events, during the 1860s probably drove increasingly more work-seekers into Gothenburg so that employment may have been stressed, certainly food supplies were. Immigration to America -or Canada, Great Britain or Australia was spoken of on farms, in the factories, the ship yards, and the docks. Sweden lost hundreds of thousands in the nineteenth century to this.

Add a new religious fervor.

When the LDS Church made converts in Scandinavia there arose the desire to join up “in Zion.” By the time our family began to plan for this gathering, the Zion they envisioned was Utah. Gustave Hilmer, Inger’s grandson was one of the first.  His uncle, Johan Peter Backman, had been in the Royal Navy for several years before 1877 hoping his wages would enable him to come to Utah.  He brought Gustave (who could travel at half-price) with him, as there was no way to purchase passage for everyone to come together.

They departed Gothenburg May 12, 1877 and traveled by boat and rail to Liverpool, England (I presume: the path often was Sweden to Denmark by sea, over the isthmus to the English Channel by rail, across to Hull, England by sea, rail to Liverpool and from there by sea to America). It is possible that Johan Peter sailed with his ship to England, if I read it correctly he planned to leave the navy at Liverpool.

It was six days before they arrived in Liverpool where they stayed with Charlotta, Johan Peter’s sister, and her husband, John Anderson. A little over a month later they landed in Castle Garden, New York, and two weeks later arrived in Salt Lake City. Many families donated to the Perpetual Immigration Fund or pooled money with other members of the LDS Church; Samuel, along with family efforts, had taken part in a group who pooled resources to buy property from which they could withdraw shares to make the expenses for the journey.

In time, most of Inger’s children came to America; settling both in Utah and Idaho. The last of the second generation passed away in 1924. They are memorialized from Santaquin, Utah County, Utah northward to Annis-Little Butte, Jefferson County, Idaho.

I would enjoy the thought that my record of this family is correct. Experience has taught me that I need help with that: when – not if – you find an error, tell us all; you can even do it here. If you have a question about this story ask it here, I hope someone will know or find an answer.

I have a little cheat sheet for using the Swedish alphabet. If I ever figure out how to use it here, I will. I enjoy being able to spell names and places correctly in my research, next perhaps I will learn the correct pronunciation!

The Backman Families: Sweden to America

Coming to Utah in 1880, Inger Johannesdotter Dahlberg, mother of our Backman Family deserves no less appreciation than the “pioneer” mothers of some other - indeed, of some of our own other collateral family lines! Inger was my third-great grandmother.

Inger traveled a large part of the world to live out her life in communities that would continue to know needs and hardships for several years in the foothills above the Great Salt Lake. The Rocky Mountain Kingdom, someone has called it. This is the pleasant community of Centerville, only minutes north of Salt Lake City today, with the ‘old highway’ US-89 Main Street and tree shaded neighborhoods on the bench. It looks out on new neighbors rather than the farmland of half century ago; the farmland and the Great Salt Lake with its distinctive Antelope Island that I remember from the 1950s, and continue to be touched by today.

Inger was born in Sweden early in the nineteenth century. My record says 1813. Her home was on the west coast, in the Dalsland region. Her parents were Johannes Bryngelsson Dahlberg (1785 – 1845) and Kerstin Bryngelsdotter (1784 – 1866). For a long time, my record would go no further back than this on her line. (My record is a personal ancestral file (PAF). I will try to share my sources as I go.)

I have jumped over one hundred years; 137, to be exact – so let me slow down, and let you catch up with a story I think worth telling. It is your story as much as mine. I do not claim to hold the sole rights to this story. I certainly will learn more as I repeat it, because I will stop to fill in blank lines, confirm or correct information, and sometimes maybe even forget my purpose and wander off into other stories.

In 1833, when Inger was about 20 she married Swen Samuel Backman in Goteborg-Bohuslan, also on the coast of Sweden. Swen – Sven – was born in 1812, to Samuel Persson Backman and Charlotta Christine Bruhn (1784 – 1861 and 1775 – 1823, respectively).

Swen would pass away in Sweden in 1853, leaving Ingrid with seven children aged 18 down to toddler. In February 1855 Inger had a daughter, Augusta, who passed away the same year in April; this information is found in ArkivDigital, a Swedish genealogical site, in the household record. There was no second marriage.

The Backman children were Samuel Christian, Johan Auguste, Charlotte Christina, Axel Emanuel, Inger Sophia, Carolina Maria and Johan Peter.

While researching correct spellings, and confirming dates, I came across two Backman family historians: Jacki Lynn Greaves Latin and Cindy Jarvis. Each has submitted family stories to the family trees in www.familysearch.org which is the program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Anyone can open a no-cost membership in this program. The histories can be found under the various members of Inger’s family. One, for which I cannot find authorship is found under Axel Emanuel Backman (Charlie), and gives an account going back further than I had seen before, in the Bruhn lines.

Living near the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City has been a great asset, I encourage you to use it as well. Oh, the helpful hands, eyes and minds you will find!

This Backman family is a living family, not an historical note; we lose from our number each year and gain anew each year. It is unlikely we will all meet each other in person, but I believe that we each continue this story in our own lives and can pass it on as we go.