I had intended to go through all my Saunders County probate records in chronological order but discovered this morning that I had skipped over John Martinson. So let’s back up to 1901 and take a look. John Martinson was my great-great-grandfather on my dad’s maternal side. He was born in 1833 in Sweden with the […]
Colonel Hans Mattson and the fateful spruce tree
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be digging into some of the information I brought back from Sweden. First up is Colonel Hans Mattson. To review: my great-great-grandfather, John Martinson, came to America in 1869. He was from Skoglösa farm in Önnestad parish. One of his traveling companions wrote a diary (“The Aspengren Diary”) about […]
Norra Strö, Ales Stenar and Skivarp
We began our day with Sunday Mass at Norra Strö kyrka, where Dad’s great-grandmother Nilla Svensdotter was baptized in 1836. The inside of the church was much like Marbäck, with lots of folk-painting on the ceiling. Our presence at the service doubled the attendance! We wonder if this is typical of church-going in Sweden these […]
We, who were from Skoglösa
Today was spent exploring our Mårtensson heritage. Dad’s grandmother obn his mother’s side was Hulda Martinsson, and her father Jöns (John) came to America in 1869. John came to America with a group of men from Skoglösa farm in Önnestad parish. One of his fellow travelers, Nils Aspengren, wrote a diary about their travels. His […]
To Kristianstad
This morning, our first stop was at the Småland Museum complex in Växjö. They have an Emigrant Museum there that focuses on the mass migration of Swedes to America that began in 1859. I picked up on a few little factoids worth passing along: – First, for those of you in the Matinson clan, […]
