Swedish American Genealogist Volume 27 | Number 1 Article 1 3-1-2007 Full Issue Vol. 27 No. 1 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation (2007) "Full Issue Vol. 27 No. 1," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 27 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol27/iss1/1 This Full Issue 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]. (ISSN 0275-9314) A journal devoted to Swedish American biography, genealogy, and personal history Nils William Olsson 1909 – 2007 Volume XXVII March 2007 No. 1 CONTENTS My Father – Nils William Olsson ......................... 1 by Chris Olsson Copyright © 2007 (ISSN 0275-9314) Many thoughts on Nils William ........................... 3 Swedish American Genealogist Bits & Pieces .......................................................... 13 Publisher: President Bush’s New Sweden Ancestry Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center Disproved ............................................................... 15 Augustana College, Rock Island, IL 61201-2296 by Peter S. Craig, F.A.S.G. Telephone: 309-794-7204. Fax: 309-794-7443 E-mail: [email protected] Research at the Archives of Arkhangelsk ....... 17 Web address: http://www.augustana.edu/swenson/ by Margarita Choquette Editor: Elisabeth Thorsell Letter by “Stenbo gubben” ................................. 21 Hästskovägen 45, 177 39 Järfälla, Sweden by John Norton E-mail: [email protected] The 444 – Sandin-Tillner Family Statistics ..... 25 Contributing Editor: by Norman “Pono” Sandin Peter S. Craig. J.D., F.A.S.G., Washington, D.C. Handwriting Example, XIII ............................... 28 Editorial Committee: H. Arnold Barton, Carbondale, IL Michelle Pfeiffer’s Ancestors ............................. 29 Dag Blanck, Stockholm, Sweden by Dick Eriksson and Bo Lindwall Dennis L. Johnson, Pottstown, PA Ronald J. Johnson, Madison, WI Solution to the Handwriting Example, XIII ... 33 Christopher Olsson, Stockton Springs, ME Priscilla Jönsson Sorknes, Minneapolis, MN Book Reviews ........................................................ 34 Swedish American Genealogist, its publisher, editors, Genealogical Queries ........................................... 38 and editorial committee assume neither responsibility nor liability for statements of opinion or fact made by Interesting Web Sites ........................................... 39 contributors. The Last Page ........................................................ 40 Correspondence. Please direct editorial correspon- dence such as manuscripts, queries, book reviews, announcements, and ahnentafeln to the editor in Sweden. Correspondence regarding change of address, back issues (price and availability), and advertising should be directed to the publisher in Rock lsland. Subscriptions. Subscriptions to the journal are $28.00 per annum and run for the calendar year. Single copies are $8.00 each. Swenson Center Associates are entitled Cover picture: to a special discounted subscription price of $15.00. Photograph of Nils William Olsson from 1995. Direct all subscription inquiries to the publisher in Rock Island. (Photo by Bengt Thorsell). In Sweden the subscription price is 225.00 Swedish kronor per year for surface delivery and 275.00 kronor per year for air mail. This subscription fee may be deposited in a plusgiro account: 260 10-9, Swedish American Genealogist, c/o Thorsell, Hästskovägen 45, S-177 39 Järfälla, Sweden. My Father – Nils William Olsson BY CHRIS OLSSON Photo by Chris Olsson. Nils William Olsson died 20 March Albin and Mathilda (Lejkell) Olsson. received a commission as lieutenant 2007 at the age of 97. He had been in All four children were born in the (j.g.), later lt. commander, and was failing health for several years, Seattle area but after their mother’s assigned to the U.S. Legation in mostly from the effects of Parkinson’s untimely death in 1913, when Nils Stockholm, Sweden, as assistant na- disease, and had lived with severe William was only four years old, the val attaché from 1943-1945. scoliosis for a number of years. Since family returned to Sweden until After the war he returned to the 1998 he had lived with his wife Dag- 1922. In that year Olsson and his University of Chicago and obtained mar at the Mayflower Retirement family re-immigrated to the United his Ph.D. in 1949. In 1947 he took a Center in Winter Park, Florida. States, settling in Sharon, Pennsyl- leave of absence from academia to Despite his health problems, he and vania. He was placed in kindergarten serve as executive secretary of the his wife had been able to live more at age 13 because he only spoke Swedish Pioneer Centennial, then or less independently until just Swedish, but by the end of his first being organized in Chicago to com- before his death. school year he had advanced to the memorate the 100th anniversary of Olsson will be missed mostly by his 6th grade. He graduated from high the arrival of the first significant immediate family: his wife Dagmar, school in 1929 and began his college Swedish immigration in 1845. (The daughter Karna Barbro Olsson and studies at North Park College (now celebration was delayed until 1948 her husband Philip Brown of Belfast, North Park University) in Chicago. because of WWII.) Maine, twin sons Nils Greger (Greg) He finished his undergraduate In 1949 he received a post-doctoral and his wife Carolyn Olsson of Aus- degree in 1934 after attending both grant for additional research in Swe- tin, Texas, and Pehr Christopher Northwestern University and the den, taking his wife and children (Chris) and his wife Deborah Berg- University of Minnesota. with him. He had married the for- man of Stockton Springs, Maine. In After several jobs in the Chicago mer Dagmar Theodora Gavert on addition, Olsson is survived by four area, he was hired as admissions June 15, 1940, a marriage that lasted grandchildren: David Anders Carl- counselor and instructor in Swedish almost 67 years. They had daughter son and his wife Sarah (Findley) at North Park in 1937 and later as Karna in 1942 and twin sons Greg Carlson of Belfast, Maine, Lars Gav- assistant in Scandinavian at the and Chris in 1947. ert Carlson and his wife Julia Carl- University of Chicago in 1939, in- Returning to the United States, son of Hilo, Hawaii, Jonas Erik Carl- structor in Swedish in 1945, and Olsson joined the United States In- son and his wife Michelle Lutz of San assistant professor in the Germanics formation Agency in 1950. He moved Francisco, California, and Lily Department in 1950. His budding with his family to Reykjavik, Iceland, Marlain Olsson of Austin, Texas. academic career was interrupted by to serve as 2nd secretary and cultural There are also three (now four) the December 7, 1941, attack at affairs officer at the American Lega- great-grandchildren. Pearl Harbor and only a few weeks tion there. Two years later he was Olsson was the oldest of four child- after that event, he enlisted in the posted to the American Embassy in ren born to Swedish immigrants Nils U.S. Navy and, after basic training, Stockholm, Sweden, where, now as Swedish American Genealogist 2007:1 1 a foreign service officer, he served the University of Chicago was on an by Augustana College, Rock Island, more than four years as Attaché and Icelandic saga. He was a founder of IL. He continued to edit SAG until Public Affairs Officer, later 1st Sec- the Swedish Pioneer Historical So- he retired in 1997. retary and Consul. In 1957 he was ciety (now the Swedish-American Olsson received numerous honors assigned to the State Department in Historical Society) in Chicago in and awards throughout his life. Washington, D.C., and served in 1950, an outgrowth of the Swedish Noteworthy were two awards re- various capacities until 1962. In that Pioneer Centennial. Probably his ceived in 1968 and 1969. In 1968 he year he began his last overseas as- most outstanding accomplishment was granted an honorary doctoral de- signment as 1st Secretary and Coun- was his more than twenty years of gree from Uppsala University in selor for Political Affairs at the Amer- research on Swedish immigration Uppsala, Sweden, and in 1969 he ican Embassy in Oslo, Norway. In which resulted in his magnum opus, was named “Swedish-American of 1966 he was again stateside, serving Swedish Passenger Arrivals in New the Year” by the Northern and South- in his last State Department assign- York, 1820-1850, published by the ern Divisions of the Vasa Order of ment as diplomat in residence at Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden, America in Sweden. Indiana University in Bloomington, in 1967, and Swedish Passenger Arri- Nils William and Dagmar Olsson Indiana, retiring a year later. vals in the United States (except New moved to Winter Park, Florida, in In 1967 he was appointed execu- York), 1820-1850, written with the 1981 and continued to live indepen- tive director of the American Swedish late Erik Wikén, published in 1979. dently until 1999 when they moved Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, In addition, Olsson wrote numerous into a retirement village in Winter a position he held for six years. In articles, monographs, and other Park called The Mayflower. They had 1973 he helped organize the new academic papers, dealing mostly their own apartment until late 2006, Swedish Council of America, and with Swedish immigration, personal when health concerns and other then served as its first executive history, and genealogy. His proudest afflictions made a move to the nur- secretary from 1973 until 1984. achievement was probably his sing care section of the Mayflower His interest in Sweden and Scan- launching in 1981 of a new quarterly necessary for both of them. dinavia was prominent throughout magazine Swedish American Genea- his life. His doctoral dissertation at logist which is still being published The Olsson family around 1998.