Sepia Saturday
I paid a little visit to Kim's Mouse Medicine blog this morning
and saw she was participating in a play-along called
Sepia Saturday
So I decided to jump into the photo pool
with an ancestor picture of my own.
Let me introduce you to Johan August Jonasson Blomgren
(known to his descendants as August Blomgren)
and his fetching bride Charlotta Jonasdotter.
They were my mother's paternal great-grandparents.
August was born in 1833 in Halleberga Parish, Kronoberg County, Sweden.
Charlotta was born in 1833 in Madesjo, Kalmar County, Sweden.
They married on April 11, 1857 in Madesjo.
Swedish parish records tell us that August was a blacksmith.
He probably also farmed. Charlotta bore eight children: Emilie,
Jonas Joseph, Carl, Adolf, Wilhelmina, Frans,
Anna Charlotta, and Aron Gottfried Blomgren.
Emilie, Carl, Adolf, and Frans all died in childhood or adolescence.
As the family accumulated funds, each of the older children
was sent to the United States. Each sibling went first to Nebraska,
where August's brother Jonas "James" Blomgren was living.
James worked for the railroad and helped the boys find jobs.
Wilhelmina worked as a nanny for a local family
and I suspect Anna did the same.
By the first decade of the 1900's, all four kids had worked their way to
the west coast, either eastern Oregon or eastern Washington.
All proudly became American citizens.
August apparently wanted to become an American, as well.
He filed "leaving papers" with his Lutheran parish
and actually traveled to the United States in the 1880s or 1890s.
I don't know how long he stayed or how many of the children
he visited. I don't know if he saw his brother
he visited. I don't know if he saw his brother
in Dannebrog, Nebraska. Since he was traveling by train,
he probably did. But at some point,
he probably did. But at some point,
he went back to Sweden.
His wife was adamant that she wouldn't leave her homeland.
August died in Sweden sometime after 1907,
because there is a 50th Anniversary photograph
of them in front of their home taken that year.
of them in front of their home taken that year.
Parish records of deaths for that time period
aren't available so I don't know the date.
Charlotta died in February 1923 in Madesjo.
She was just six weeks short of her 90th birthday.
Comments
Terribly sorry to read about your dear cat. it's always difficult to part with a pet....true love there.
I must find out how to put the photo groupings together.