Swedish American Genealogist
Volume 29 | Number 4 Article 5
12-1-2009 Roots in reverse Lilly Setterdahl
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Recommended Citation Setterdahl, Lilly (2009) "Roots in reverse," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 29 : No. 4 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol29/iss4/5
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Roots in reverse
Some people come from Sweden to the U.S. to trace their roots!
BY LILLY SETTERDAHL
We are used to Americans seeking kept the car until he returned. While roots in Sweden and Swedes search- staying at the motel, he got in touch ing for relatives in America, but we with Judy and Dave Johnson of seldom read about roots in America. Moline (no relation), Mike Peal of Yet, fifteen percent of the Swedes East Moline, and myself. I didn’t who immigrated to the U.S. returned meet him then, but talked with him to their homeland. If they had Ame- on the phone. I asked Mike Peal to rican-born children, they, too, made help Kurt find his grandfather’s the move.1 grave in Riverside Cemetery, which Kurt Persson, Uppsala, Sweden, he did. has roots in Moline, Illinois, but no Kurt, who is a hobby shooter and relatives. “My mother was born here, belongs to Uppsala Skytteklubb, had and I feel at home here,” he says. Why brought his gun that needed a new else would he visit four years in a row part (kolv). So one day, he walked into and stay for extended periods? When a gun shop in Moline, got his gun he first came to the Quad Cities in fixed, and was invited to practice tar- 2006, it was to walk in the footsteps get shooting with the owner, who is of his mother and maternal grand- of German heritage. That meeting parents. Since then, he has become developed into a lasting friendship. fond of the area. On his fourth visit Kurt also belongs to a military his- in the fall of 2009, I sat down with tory book club and is well read about him and asked him a few questions. the wars of the world. Kurt towers over most people. His Anna Elvira (Vera) Johnson. Photo by K complexion is fair and his hair and Tracing ancestors & A Wikner, Wenersborg (Vänersborg, beard are white. When he returned to the Quad Cities Sweden). in 2007, once again staying at Super not know how she met Oscar, who The first visit 8 and renting a car, I took him to the had emigrated Aug. 19, 1887, from He says that the first time he came Rock Island Historical Society in Frändefors, Älvsborgs län, to Moline to the area he stayed two weeks at Moline, where we found that Kurt’s when he was 20 years old. Oscar was the Super 8 on Rt. 5 in East Moline. grandfather (morfar) Oscar Johans- born Mar. 16, 1867, in Disingstakan, He drove himself from O’Hare Air- son (Johnson) worked at People’s Frändefors. A judge married them at port in Chicago in a rented car and Power and Gas Company as a fire- the Rock Island Courthouse Aug. 31, man (perhaps stoker) and lived at 1889. 19th Avenue & 16th Street in Moline. Kurt’s mother, Elvira (Anna El- I also took Kurt to the Swenson Cen- vira, also called Vera) Johnson, was ter at Augustana College where we born Sep. 17, 1891, in Moline. She and found that his grandmother, Mat- her older sister, Hanna Adina, at- hilda Sofia Nilsdotter, had immi- tended Sunday school at the First grated to Waseca (county and town) Lutheran Church in Moline. Kurt in Minnesota, April 15, 1887, at the inherited two religious books from age of 23. Kurt says that a Swedish his mother: Jesus: Mästaren med den farmer in Waseca had advertised for lärda tungan, Biblisk Bildbok för help. She was born Nov. 23, 1863, in Barn med text af E. A Zetterstrand, Kurt Persson. Ölmstad, Jönköpings län. Kurt does published by the Lutheran August-
8 Swedish American Genealogist 2009:4 ana Book Concern, Rock Island, Ill., class neighborhood at Vasastaden, in and presented to Elvira Johanson by northern Stockholm, where his fa- Svenska Ev. Luth. Söndagsskolan, ther worked as a deliveryman for a Moline, Ill., Christmas 1900 and a brewery. chapter book, Tattine by “Ruth Kurt attended business school, Ogden” (Mrs. Charles W. Ide) with and his first job was as a typist at twenty-two illustrations, published SKF (the ball bearing factory), where by Henry Altemus Company, Phila- he typed up orders until he moved to delphia (n. d.). Frances Smith gave supplies. For about ten years, he and the book to Elvira at an unknown his wife were egg producers on a date. Other mementos from America large scale outside Enköping. His last in Kurt’s possession include Indian employment was as a security guard arrows. at Carolina Rediviva Library, Upp- Kurt’s morfar, Oscar Johnson, died sala University. Oct. 22, 1893, in Moline at the age of Kurt is a widower with one son 26. The officiating minister at the and one stepdaughter. Upon his re- funeral was the pastor of First Lu- tirement in 2006, he sold his house theran Church in Moline (Rev. Hem- and moved to a suburban condo. borg). Oscar was not a member of the Being free to travel, his favorite des- congregation. Tattine, published in 1898. tination is Moline. He has visited Ke- The widow and her two daughters wanee, Andover, and Bishop Hill, Il- then lived in a house in the 15th block Back to Sweden linois, and the Buffalo Bill Museum of 7th Avenue in Moline that still In December 1903, they returned to in Le Claire, Iowa. His English has stands. Kurt found the house in 2007. Sweden with Mathilda’s children improved quite a bit since he was How his grandmother supported Adina, 14, and Elvira, 12, and bought here the first time. herself and her children is an open a 20-acre farm at Karlstorp, Väners- His cousin, Arne, joined him brief- question. Having been a widow for näs, located on an isthmus in Lake ly in 2008. It surprised Arne that three years, she married her de- Vänern to the east of Vänersborg, Kurt had made American friends. ceased husband’s brother, Edward Älvsborgs län. Kurt likes the Quad City area and Johnson, born in Frändefors, Dals- It bothers Kurt that they didn’t says that it’s easy to make friends land, Mar. 9, 1870. He had emigrated erect a tombstone for Oscar before here. “I have more friends in Moline from Disingstakan, Frändefors, in they left. “After all, they had money than I have in Sweden,” he says, and 1894 to Moline, where he worked for to buy a farm,” he says. He is now adds that in Uppsala, all the other Deere & Co. as a “fitter.” Edward back in Sweden and intends to drive hobby shooters are younger people. married Mathilda Jun. 27, 1896. The to Vänersnäs and locate the family family lived at 11th Street & Fifth farm and possibly also his morfar’s Avenue in Moline, near First Luth- birthplace in Frändefors. eran Church, but that house is no While the family lived at Väners- Endnote: longer standing. näs, Kurt’s mother, Elvira, married Nils Axel Persson, a cousin of hers 1) Swedish national remigration rate. from Jönköping. Their two eldest In the 1930s, one of every three children were born in Vänersborg, a emigrants returned. For Frände- son in 1922, and a daughter in 1924. fors, where Kurt’s grandfather was Kurt says that his father was sup- born, the remigration rate was 27 posed to take over the farm, but when percent, 1881-1931. he heard from a brother in Stockholm that there were jobs in the capital city, he took his family and moved to The author: Lilly Setterdahl Stockholm. 3452 Fourth Street Mathilda and Edward then moved East Moline, IL 61244 to Bålsta (Yttergran socken) in Upp- Ph. 309-755-2858 land, about 50 kilometers northwest E-mail:
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