Swedish Second Great Grandparents

We are returning to our Swedish Ancestors and concentrating on Grandma Petzinger's Mother's Father and family.  The last blog was all about  Carolina Magnusson.  And as I mentioned there, her last name comes from her Dad - Magnus.  His full name was Magnus Gabrielsson (guess who his father was?).  He was born November 8, 1826 in Blekinge Sweden - southeast coastal town.  His father was a tenant farmer and he became a farm laborer in 1844 and 1845.  But on October 30, 1846 at the ripe old age of 20, he joined the Navy.  He had brown eyes, black hair, medium physique according to his papers.  Because Swedes carry so many of the same names, the Navy assigned an additional last name - often it was the same name of the person who served the farm or village previously.  And so Magnus Gabrielsson became Magnus Gabrielsson Lots.  Lots can be translated as Pilot.

Sweden at this time had a an unusual Navy - every large farm or small village sponsored a Navy Sailor, providing him with a home, a small piece of land, seed, a few animals, etc.  They served on ships from the Navy War Base in the nearby city of Karlscrona and were known as Boatsmen.

Magnus married Anna Martha (aka Marta) Mårtensdotter on December 26, 1850.  Anna Marta was born April 17, 1830 to Mårten Andersson and Maria Jonasdotter in Blekinge.  They had 11 children born between 1851 and 1875, with our great grandmother, Carolina the second youngest.  All but one survived through adulthood.  Their children were known as Gabrielsson (not Lots) and wives always kept their own last name. 

Magnus retired from the military as a Canon Commander November 9, 1886 and he died two years later.  Once he retired from the Navy, he lost his home and support, which may explain what happens with his youngest children after his death.

Most of the boys grew up to be tenant farmers - only one became a Boatman.  Carolina's sisters' lives resembled a daytime soap opera.  The oldest daughter, Ester married Sven Peter Svensson and she lost two children in infancy.  Then lost a third as a toddler and within a few days was on a ship to America, leaving her husband and sole surviving child in Sweden, never to return.  The last child died a year later from measles.  I have not found anything about her life in the States.

Her much younger sister, Karin had an out-of-wedlock son.  The father had been in America and when he returned, he acknowledged the child, and they married and lived with her parents.  They had another child, and then he left again for America.  While he was gone (I don't think he returned, but I can find no info on him in the States), Karin became involved with Sven Peter Svensson, her sister's husband whose wife had left him.  They had a child, Sven acknowledged being the father, but they never married - probably because they both were already married to missing spouses!

The third youngest daughter, Maria Sofie had an out of wedlock child, Jon Emil in 1887.  When he was three years old, she left for America without him.  She married Thomas C. Sorensen in Bennington, Vermont in 1891. 

She was followed to America by our great grandmother, Carolina, in 1891 and the youngest sister, Emelie in 1893.  They apparently ended up in Bennington Vermont as stated on Emelie's Boston passenger list showing that Carolina paid for her ticket and she was joining her sister Maria in Bennington.

Carolina married our great grandfather Louis Stuart (Johann Friedrich Ludvig Stuhr) in 1893 in Troy, New York.  I have yet to find how they met, but they settled for a a couple of years in Bennington before permanently moving to Bridgeport Connecticut in 1904.  Interestingly, their first and last children (Emil and Alma) were born in Bennington, but Grandma (Thora Sophie) was born in Troy.

Their widowed mother, Anna Marta lived until 1915 in Blekinge, Sweden, dying of frailty old age.  I do not know if she ever again saw her children who went to America or her American grandchildren. 

The next post will continue with Magnus' parents, Gabriel Petersson and Elin Måansdotter.