Search | Advanced Search | Search Families | Search Site| Title | Vigor research purchased by Me. Vigor November 2006 | |
| Short Title | Vigor research purchased by Me. Vigor | |
| Author | Jill Seaholm and Andreas Henninger | |
| Call Number | Fr3494 | |
| Repository | Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center | |
| Source ID | S1919 | |
| Text | This is in response to your research request. The following sources have been searched for information concerning Gerda Cecelia Nelson and Carolina Sophia Nilsdotter: records of Andover Lutheran church in Andover IL; Swedish emigrant database Emibas; Swedish passenger index database Emihamn 1869-1930; Genline-Swedish parish records online; Ellis Island records online 1892-1924; 1903 emigrants from parishes in Älvsborgs Iän (county); 1890 & 1900 Censuses of Sweden. We started our search for Gerda in the US church records in Andover IL. There we found Gerda Cecilia living with her husband Arthur Edvin Vigor and there two kids Gertrude and Esther. Although the writing was unclear in all of the copies, we figured out on the screen that it says that Gerda was born in Wanersborg (modern spelling Vänersborg) which is in Älvsborgs Iän. From there we looked for Gerda in the emigration databases Emihamn and Emibas, but unfortunately could not find a match from Vänersborg. Emibas specifically does not often go past 1895 for Vänersborg. Next we turned to Genline, our database with Swedish parishes online in which we searched for Gerda in Vänersborg birth records in Älvsborgs Iän, but were not successful. We then went to the Ellis Island records and found Gerda arriving 7 Nov. 1903 aboard the Campania out of Liverpool. The people making this searchable Ellis Island index could not read her hometown, but we could see that it said Vässanda-Naglum, Elfsborgs, Iän, which was a great clue. We weren't able to make the printout any bigger than the enclosed. We were then able to find her leaving the port of Goteborg in Emihamn. Not yet 100% convinced that we had the right person, we tried Emibas once more and failed (Vässanda-Naglum does not go up to 1903 on Embias), then went to the annual lists of emigrants from parishes in Älvsborgs Iän and found her listed as leaving Vässanda-Naglum, this time with her middle name Cecilia and year of birth to clinch it. Vässanda-Naglum and Vänersborg are both part of Väne härad (judicial district) and Väne's parishes' birth record extracts are grouped together in records for 1887, so using Genline we just started going through all of the Väne births looking for a Gerda Cecilia born on 26 April. We found her birth record in Trollhättan parish (Genline ID #100015.113.2600), and her parents matched the names that you provided: Bernhard Nilsson and wife Kristina Karlsdotter. Bingo. We are unable to read the name of the place where they were living within Trollhättan. We had a little time left on this request and went to the household examination records for Trollhättan and found three huge record books for that time period, but luckily each one had a place name index and we found that the village/farm of birth was Onan, and we found the family on p. 281 of book AI:6(2697.8.21900). Bernhard was b. 25 Nov 1855 in Fuxerna parish in Älvsborgs Iän, Kristina was b. 17 May 1854 in Sunnersberg parish in Skaraborgs Iän, daughter Kristina Bernhardina was b. 6 Jun 1881 in Lidkoping parish in Skaraborgs Iän, the rest were born in Trollhättan: Karl Johan on 24 June 1883, Axel Edvin on 25 May 1885, and Gerda on 26 Apr. 1887. The family moved to page 362 in 1888, so we followed them there (AI:6, 2697.8.30000) and found one new child, Gustaf Adolf v. 6 Dec. 1888. Really short on time, we looked them up in the 1890 & 1900 Censuses of Sweden. Enclosed are the results. Gerda's mother died sometime between 1890 & 1900 because her dad is a widower. We could not find the two oldest children in 1900, so they could have emigrated or...we simply could not find them. There is also a new child born in 1891. This is the full four hours for this request. * This is in response to your research request concerning Carolina Sophia Nilsdotter: we started our search in Genline in the records of Horn parish in Östergötlands Iän and her husband Swan August Vigor of Tirserum (a.k.a. Tidersrum) parish in the same Iän. Unfortunately, the 1834 year's birth records were not available for Horn. A fire in 1860 destroyed parts of their records, and their first birth records are for 1843. There are no birth or household examination records for the time period around Carolina Sophia's birth, so we cannot go further with her. This is the web site of the Östergötlands Iän genealogical society: http://www.ogf.info/ It is mostly in Swedish, but near the bottom in the middle column is a place that says "In English (pdf). You can write a not or a question in our guest book." We recommend that you do that. Perhaps someone with the same ancestry has done the research in some other way. Also consider joining the Swedish computer genealogical society "DIS." We have a link to it on this site www.augustana.edu/swenson/links.html under the heading "searchable sites." We were able to locate the birth record of Swan August in Tidersrum parish (C:3, 391.19.67300). According to this, Swan August (in Swedish Sven) was born 26 Jan 1832 to Widmund Wigur (a grenadier) and Anna Maja Gustafsdotter. The name of their farm appears to be Svantesgård. We found a Svantestorp in a place name listing that we have, but there is unfortunately no place name index in the household examination records covering 1832 (AI:8, 1828-1835). We started to look for Svantes-_____ page by page, but the Genline subscription takes 8-10 seconds for each page to download, so it will take too much time to pursue in that way. About to give up, we decided to see if the next time period (AI:9) had a place name index, even though it did not say that it had one. By complete luck, it did, and we found the page number for Svante's torp/croft, and there was the Vigur family (AI:9, p. 183, 391.11.9800). The Livgrenadjar Widmund Wigur was b. 20 Oct. 1796 in Kisa. The children, all born in Tidersrum, were Peter Gustaf b. 12 Sep. 1818, Isais Magnus b. 5 Mar. 1821, Gustava Cathrina b. 3 Jul. 1823, Johan And. b. 26 Aug. 1825, Carl Fredric b. 3 Sep. 1828, Sven August b. 26 Jan 1832 and Aron Alfrid b. 26 Sep. 1840. Anna Maja Gustafsdotter was listed as ofardig och sjuklig (crippled and sickly). Widmund had moved to Tidersrum from Kisa parish in 1813, the year that he married Anna. Down below this family we see the son Peter Gustaf again. He had moved from the 3rd line above to Horn parish in 1837, and had moved back in 1838 to the line below. He moved out again in 1838 to Linkoping. Below him is the daughter Greta Lisa, so she must be the oldest child of the family. She must have moved out in a previous record book and back in when they were using this book. She was b. 1 Mar. 1816 in (possibly Vastra Eneby) parish. We went to the birth records for Sven August's parents and found them both easily (Widmund is an easy name to pick out). Widmund was b. 20 Oct. and baptized 26 Oct. 1788 in Kisa parish (pronounced SHEE-sah). His parents were Nils Widmundsson and Greta Nilsdotter of Granstorp (C:3, 317.18.98300). Moving on to the Kisa's first household record book (1798-1800), we found the family at Granstorp (AI:1, 317.25.66600). Nils Widmundsson was b. in 1754 in Kisa and Greta Nilsdotter was b. in 1756 in nearby Hagerstag parish. There is a brother Petter Gustaf b. 1796 in Kisa and apparently a sister farther down, Anna Maja b. in 1784 in Kisa. To go back once and for all as far as the records would allow, we looked for the births of Widmund Vigur's parents: we found Nils Widmundsson's birth in Kisa (C:3, 317.18.87300). His parents were Widmund Jonsson and Anna Nilsdotter or Fagerhult. Nils was b. 23 July and baptized 24 July 1754. We went to the Hagerstad births looking for Greta Nilsdotter, and found terrible handwriting (copies enclosed the all of 1756). We looked through them and could not find a Greta, but could easily have missed her among the scribbles. Back to Sven August's mother, we found Anna Maja Gustafsdotter's birth in Kisa. She was b. 27 Oct. and baptized 30 Oct. 1796 (C:3, 317.19.1000). Her parents were Gustaf Gustafsson and his wife Maja Lisa Axelsdotter of Kisa (the village in Kisa parish). Unfortunately, that brings us to a stop because we could not find Kisa listed in the place index for Kisa (AI:1), and there were too many pages to go through one by one. We have also used the full four hours for this request now. This is the end of the line for these particular branches. We hope that this information can be helpful to you. | |
| Linked to | Maja Lisa Axelsdotter Christine Carlson Anna Maja Gustafsdotter Gustaf Gustafsson Anna Mathilda Nelson Axel Edvin Nelson Bernhard Nelson Carolina Sophia Nelson Gerda Cecelia Nelson Gustaf Adolf Nelson Karl Johan Nelson Kristina Bernhardina Nelson Greta Nilsdotter Karl Unknown Nils Unknown Aron Alfrid Vigor Carl Fredrick Germundsson Vigor Gustava Cathrina Vigor Isais Magnus Vigor Johan Axel Herman Vigor Peter Gustaf Vigor Swan August Vigor Nils Widmundsson Anna Maja Wigur Greta Lisa Wigur Petter Gustaf Wigur Widmund Wigur Family: Widmund Wigur / Anna Maja Gustafsdotter | |
| Documents |  | Vigor research, November 2006 Page 1 of 3 of the report on research done by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center in late 2006. |
 | Vigor research, November 2006 Page 2 of 3 of the report on research done by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center in late 2006. | |
 | Vigor research, November 2006 Page 3 of 3 of the report on research done by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center in late 2006. |