Finding Sissa (And Much More) Lisa Lindell South Dakota State University, [email protected]
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South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications Hilton M. Briggs Library 6-2009 Finding Sissa (and much more) Lisa Lindell South Dakota State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_pubs Part of the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lindell, Lisa, "Finding Sissa (and much more)" (2009). Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications. Paper 22. http://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_pubs/22 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Hilton M. Briggs Library at Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Finding Sissa (and much more) – A journey into the past BY LISA LINDELL In 1997, my article “Searching for There we found a Sissa Jönsdotter are listed on the same page in the Sissa” appeared in the Swedish born in Fogdakärr, Bräkne-Hoby, on village of Agerum.4 Their close American Genealogist.1 Over a dec- the exact date as our Kansas Sissa. proximity explains how they would ade later, I am still engaged in and This Sissa Jönsdotter moved to have known each other prior to Nils’s fascinated by the pursuit of family Gammalstorp parish in 1860 and left immigration to America in 1868 and history. Although I know little Swed- there for America in 1869, shortly the couple’s marriage upon Sissa’s ish beyond a few basic terms and am after my great-great-grandfather arrival in 1869. certainly a genealogy amateur, a Nils Jönsson emigrated from the Even before I became certain of breakthrough in the Sissa search and same parish.3 (Unlike with Sissa, her identity, I had begun searching recent discoveries on a related line Nils’s immediate ancestry and path the Bräkne-Hoby records to find have rekindled my excitement in from Sweden to America were, happi- Sissa Jönsdotter’s ancestry. I was tracing my Swedish roots. In my re- ly, straightforward to track.) able to follow her father’s line back search, I have relied upon the indis- one generation and her mother’s line pensable work of family members, The right Sissa! back two generations. But then I record keepers, and genealogists, and In my 1997 article, I could not state came up against a seemingly insur- have greatly benefited from the with certainty that the Sissa Jöns- mountable barrier, caused by the loss wealth of information and original dotter we had found in the Swedish of critical church records in nine- records now accessible online. records was my great-great-grand- teenth century fires in the parishes “Searching for Sissa” was the story mother. Since that time, however, I of Jämshög (Blekinge län) and of researching my great-great-grand- have discovered parish records which Näsum (Kristianstad län) where mother (the mother of my father’s wholly convince me that we do indeed Sissa’s parents were from. I had al- maternal grandmother). Swedish- have the right Sissa. most given up tracing the line further born Sissa was a Kansas immigrant In two household examination rolls when I serendipitously happened who died in 1887 at the age of forty- (husförhörslängder) from Gammals- upon http://www.jamshog.net/, a 2 one. Surviving her were her hus- torp parish in the 1860s, the Sissa website devoted to the local history band Nels (whom she had married we had traced from Bräkne-Hoby of Jämshög and Kyrkhult parishes. in Illinois) and ten children. The and my great-great-grandfather Nils Scarcely daring to hope, I wrote to youngest was two-week-old Phillop, who, sadly, died a week after Sissa; and the oldest was my great-grand- mother Jennie, who at seventeen was obliged to take on a mother’s role. Sissa’s background Sissa’s ancestry and even her maid- en name were unknown to our fami- ly and presented a challenge to trace. In our search, we consulted obit- uaries (including one initially send- ing us on a false trail), family letters and diaries, church and census re- cords from Illinois and Kansas, and, finally, the Bräkne-Hoby, and Gam- malstorp parish records in the county The Gammalstorp clerical survey (Husförhörslängd), AI:18, [1861-1866] page 379, (län) of Blekinge in southern Sweden. showing Nils Jönsson and his future wife Sissa working at Agerum #42. 14 Swedish American Genealogist 2009:2 the site manager with my dilemma tographs. My father’s font of stories and got an immediate reply, “I can and memories from treasured times help you!” followed in a few days with spent visiting his grandmother about thirty new family names, some Jennie and the family at the Kansas of them going back to the 1600s. My farm were also of great interest. In source for this welcome new informa- 1997, my father had a headstone tion, genealogist Maj-Britt Sundin, placed on Peter’s previously un- has spent over twenty-five years marked grave in Colorado Springs to compiling the family lines of Jäms- honor his grandfather’s memory and hög and Kyrkhult parishioners. What to benefit future generations inter- satisfaction to finally be able to ested in family history. complete the search for Sissa and Following Peter’s lineage back to fully place her within our family his- Sweden, we learned that Peter’s tory.5 mother Elna Ingemansdotter had died when Peter was just five years Another track old and that Peter’s father subse- 7 In the meantime, the difficulties with quently married Elna’s sister Inga. Sissa led to other unexpected results. While stalled on Sissa’s line, I became Unexpected roots absorbed in tracing a related Swed- In pursuing the ancestry of the two ish line, that of my great-grandfather sisters, I have been excited to learn Peter Lundin (the husband of Sissa’s more about my family’s religious and daughter Jennie. His Swedish name: cultural heritage. A sense of person- Per Svensson), which led to intrigu- al connection with events and move- Peter and Jennie Lundin ca 1900. (Lisa ing discoveries and broadened my ments of the past brings history Lindell collection). historical knowledge. fascinatingly alive. Our research ing resided in Malmö in Malmöhus Like Sissa, Peter emigrated from soon uncovered a seventeenth cen- län (now part of Skåne län), and, in Sweden, a young adult, and died an tury German connection. 1712, came to Jämshög. There, he untimely death. After arriving in Peter’s third great-grandfather America in 1886 from Väghult in Lorentz Christian Schöning was born served as klockare for forty-five Kyrkhult parish, Blekinge, Peter in Germany (likely in Brandenburg) years. The klockare (literally “one settled in Gypsum, Kansas, and in 1681. Unfortunately, information who tolls the bells”) was the parish found employment with the Missouri about his ancestry is yet unknown. clerk or sexton. Schöning’s duties Pacific Railroad. He married Jennie After immigrating to Sweden, Schön- included teaching the children and in 1895, and the couple moved to youth of the congregation. Upon his Colorado, where Peter continued railroad work. In 1904, while working as a section foreman near Colorado Springs, Peter was fatally injured in a fall from a building. He died at the age of forty-four,6 leaving Jennie with three young children and another child on the way. Jennie, who was once again shoul- dering weighty family responsibility, moved back to Kansas and success- fully raised her children on a farm near Assaria in Saline County. Peter’s background As I began work on Peter’s family, research already done by family members proved invaluable. My un- cle had traced one line of Peter’s ancestry back five generations, and both he and my father have pre- Jämshög church, photo from about 1900. Picture from “Kulturmiljöbilder,” at served many family papers and pho- http://www.kms.raa.se/cocoon/bild/public_search.html Swedish American Genealogist 2009:2 15 death in 1761 at the age of eighty, St. Petri and producer of the first Schöning was buried in the main Danish hymnal (Malmø-salmebog- aisle of the Jämshög church. Jöran en), published in 1528.9 Johan Öller, in his account of Jäms- hög parish published in 1800, com- They were Danes! mended Schöning’s exemplary in- This Danish reference brought to struction, beautiful handwriting, and light a part of Scandinavian history 8 thoroughness and honesty in his job. of which I had been previously unaware. In going back in time, I Online sources found that my Swedish ancestors and The ready online accessibility of their fellow citizens had unex- primary sources and email com- pectedly turned Danish. Southern- munication has been of tremendous most Sweden belonged to Denmark Drawing of Lund Cathedral by S. Abild- help in my research. Through this until the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. gard from 1753. Source: http:// means, I was able to establish with Thus, my seventeenth-century pro- www.kms.raa.se/cocoon/bild/ public_search.html certainty the ancestry of Lorentz genitors changed nationalities, even Schöning’s wife Anna Catharina though they remained in the same closely connected it to the towns of Corvin, my sixth great-grandmother. location. northern Germany, bringing in ships I was especially fortunate to receive In researching these new Danish bearing not only trade goods but also the generous assistance of Blekinge ancestors, I came upon Baltzer Ja- the Protestant faith.