Category: Elma Georgina
The mystery
Johanna worked at an inn in Torbjörntorp north of Falköping at the end of the 1860s. I am pretty sure that’s where she met Karl Adolf’s father, whoever he was.
The owner of the Inn was Adolf Ruckman. The son of a minister who’d been forced to resign for drunkenness, Adolf started out as a bookbinder, became a singer and an actor, and then an inn keeper. His sister and her husband owned Viken, the property outside of Falköping where Johanna and her family lived when she was young.
I have no idea what kind of relationship Johanna had with the Ruckman family. But she did name two of her children after two of the ten Ruckman kids: My grandfather, Karl Adolf, and his younger sister Elma Georgina.
Johanna
The first time Johanna moved away from her family to work was in 1862. She was 18 years old. She moved to Slättäng, in Sandhem southeast of Falköping. Two roads met in Slättäng and there had been a local court and an inn there for a long time. It seems Johanna was a maid at the inn. We can’t know for sure what kind of work she did, but likely household jobs like cleaning and/or kitchen work. She gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Olivia, on Feb. 13, 1864. The little girl died in May the same year.
My grandfather Karl Adolf was born in Falköping in 1871, and his sister Elma Georgina in Stora Malm in 1875. Johanna moved around Falköping several times with her father and younger sister Ada during those years. I haven’t been able to trace all her moves. Even tho Elma is noted as having been born in Stora Malm some distance away I haven’t been able to find Johanna in that parish.
Former staff lodgings at Horns säteri, Överenhörna.
After Johanna’s father Anders died in September of 1875 Johanna and her two children moved to Horns säteri, in Överenhörna. That’s where Johanna met Josef Larsson Kratz, who she would later marry.
More accomplished researchers would probably not give up before they’d been able to trace Johanna’s every step across Sweden. For one thing, there might be clues as to who Karl Adolf’s and Elma’s fathers were in the household records. I’ve decided to let the mystery be, for now.
Josef Larsson Kratz, soldier
My great grandmother Johanna married in 1878. She was 33. By then she had given birth to four children. One girl, Augusta Olivia, had died as an infant in 1864. My grandfather Karl Adolf was 7, his half sister Elma Georgina was 3. Hulda Josefina, who’s father was Johanna’s new husband Josef Larsson Kratz, was a few months old.
Starting when she was a teenager Johanna had worked as a maid in many places. Johanna and Josef met when they were both working at a large farm in Sörmland. Josef was 20 years old, and in the fall of 1878 he became a soldier. He was given a small croft, Löfnäs soldattorp, close to lake Mälaren outside of Mariefred. Everyone moved.
The remains of Löfnäs soldattorp, Toresund, Sörmland. The second Mrs. Kratz lived here until the 1930s.
Josef Kratz was the last soldier at Löfnäs. My father’s older sister, who was born in 1907 and knew her father, Karl Adolf, well, said that soldier Kratz was “not kind”.
Monday July 13, 1896
These are notes made at Ellis Island when the S/S Island, the ship that had left Göteborg on June 23, 1896, arrived. Passengers are listed as having embarked at Fredrikshavn on the Danish coast across from Göteborg, but we know that some of them had been on the ship since Göteborg. The Swedish passengers are at the top of the page. They are listed in the same order as they were on the manifest taken in Göteborg.
The page is torn where Elna G. Nilson’s name would be, right below Gustaf Larson. Following her line to the right we can see her final destination, New York. Most of the young men are listed as farmhands, and the young women as servant girls. I’m guessing Elna was another servant girl.
Elna had traveled in the aft, rear, of the ship. She brought one piece of luggage. On this part of the page alone four people are listed as having died on the voyage across the Atlantic. The first digit indicates the date, July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The second digit is a code for the cause of death. I haven’t been able to figure out what they mean.
My father has told me that his father, Elna’s brother Karl Adolf, was a seasick sea captain. I get seasick too. I wonder what three weeks on a ship across an ocean would have been like.
I hadn’t figured out that Elna’s name had disappeared in the worn fold of the piece of paper hadn’t it been for more experienced researchers. It seems obvious to compare the names on the list created when they departed from Göteborg to the list that was taken down when they arrived at Ellis Island. But I didn’t think of that. Instead I cursed. The records are well organized, but you never know. The paper trail is important. I needed to know that Elna arrived in New York, or else I would have lost her.
For a very long time this note was the last I knew of Elna’s whereabouts. She disappeared in New York, into what I imagined was a hot summer day, or a warm summer’s night.
Monday June 22, 1896
This is the ship manifest listing the names of those traveling from Göteborg to New York on June 23, 1896 on the S/S Island. One of the passengers was Elna G. Nilson from Österåker, Södermanland. Elna was my grandfather’s younger sister. Before emigrating she had been working as a maid on a farm in Österåker. She had been baptized Elma Georgina, but most records have her name is spelled with an ‘n’, Elna.
Elma was born without a known father, but unlike her brother she didn’t use their stepfather’s last name, Kratz. In Sweden in those days you could chose a last name for yourself, no questions asked. Elma picked Nilsson for reasons we will never know. Maybe she knew who her father had been, and wanted to use his name. Maybe she named herself for a friend. Either way, as a teenager she clearly didn’t want her stepfather’s name.
On June 22, when the list was created, they hadn’t yet left Göteborg harbor. Anticipating their lives in America one change had already been made: All names ending in -son have had one ‘s’ eliminated. Andersson has become Anderson, Larsson is Larson, and Elma Georgina Nilsson Kratz is now Elna G. Nilson.
All that aside, tho, look how young these emigrants were: 16, 23, 17, 18. Elma was 21.