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.