This article is written 2013.
Magnus Jönsson Lif
A swedish carpenter from the 1800s.
(The number in the text refer to the maps)
Genuine kids males: 25
Ditto female sex: 20
Not true-born males: 3
Ditto female sex:
2
Anders was thus one of the few children this year
who was ”not genuine”. His mother Greta Andersdotter previously had a daughter Ingrid, born in 1788,
she also an ”illegitimate” child.
In the church book for the years 1789-1807 we find
Greta Andersdotter and her children being enrolled
in Möcklehult soldier cottage No. 23. The mother is
listed as a maid. It same goes for another person living in this poor house, Lena Andersdotter, born in
the year 1760. Greta and Lena stay together in the
same place even in the future, and it’s therefore likely
that they were sisters. Greta had another child, the
son Jonas, who was born in the year 1798. According
to the church book Jonas also was born in the soldier
cottage in Möcklehult. However, in this church book,
which ends in the year 1807, all the names are crossed out, ie. the family has moved, this time to Långhult earth cottage (2) in the same parish. They are
here listed in the same church book as before. So the
move must have occurred in the period after the birth
of Jonas in 1798 and before the year 1807. At that
time there were two earth cottages in Långhult. In the
other earth cottage we find the soldier Sven Nilsson
Modig (Brave) and his wife Maria Månsdotter.
Magnus Jönsson Lif.
It happened that a male child was born in a simple earth cottage in the darkest part of the landscape
Småland in the south of Sweden. It was at Christmas
Day 1792 and the place was Möcklehults small cottage in Västra Torsås parish (1). The very next day
he got his name Anders and became Baptist in the
church. The priest wrote in the birth register that this
was the last baptism in the parish that year:
It is in the handwritten church book we see the name
of Greta Andersdotter. We learn that she was born in
the year 1766 and that her first child Ingrid was born
in the year 1788. We also learn that she probable had
a sister Lena who was six years older, born in the
year 1760. Finding more traces of these two people
before in earlier days proves however impossible.
They are not recorded in any older church book and
they are not to be found in the book of births for Västra Torsås parish. What’s worse - they are not in the
big database that Kronoberg Genealogical association has put together for the entire area of the south
of the landscape Småland. As for a researcher in the
family history this is of course a big tragedy! It all
remains a great mystery.
”Not true-born Anders, father unknown, maid Stina
Greta Andersdotter from Möcklehult earth cottage.
Godfathers: wife Mary Andersson, farmman Sven
Månsson, wife Bodil Månsdotter, Maria Månsdotter. ”
At this time it seems not common to have children
outside of marriage, at least not in the Västra Torsås
parish. After the priest had put Anders name into the
church register he made, on the same sheet, a summing up of all children who had been born in the parish in the year 1792:
Maybe they came from a place outside this area,
the Kronoberg area. The two sisters were poor and
1
they never got married. Lena seemed not to have any
children, whereas her sister Greta had three illegitimate heirs to the poor mans life which they lived in.
The youngest child, Jon, born in the year 1798, is
included in the church books but does not exist in the
birth books of Västra Torsås parish from the same
time. The same goes for the daughter Ingrid, born in
the year 1788. We know that she, at the end of her
life, was named Ingrid “Olofsdotter” (Olofs daughter). Any child with that name is however not born in
the area of Kronoberg in the year 1788. This should
indicate that both she and her mother were born in a
parish outside Kronoberg area.
Disappointed not being able to bring the light of
knowledge in these matters we instead look at Greta
Andersson and her life after she and her sister moved from Möcklehult earth cottage to Långhults earth
cottage sometime in the early 1800’s. At this time
there were two simple cottages in Långhult. Through
church books from 1808-1820 the inhabitants step
forward into the spotlight:
In one of the cottages lived the old, dismissed soldier
Sven Nilsson Modig (Brave) with his nine years older wife. For these two the priest has noted the word:
”poor”. In the second cottage lived maid Lena Andersson and maid Greta. For Greta the priest has written down her social status as ”beggar”. Gretas daughter Ingrid was still living at home. Here, in the small,
poor little cottage, in January 15, 1811 she gave
birth to the baby Anna Catrina, carefully noted in the
priest’s book as ”Ingrid´s not true-born daughter”.
Seven years later, Maria was born, another daughter
of Ingrid. It had become crowded in the small cottage. Before the year 1820, however, Ingrid’s brother
Anders moved to the cottage Olofhylte in the same
parish. Perhaps he has moved already before the year
1814 when the soldier Anders Olsson Blad moved
into the little cottage. It is recorded that this man was
”crippled, wounded.”
Overview map of the places that are mentioned in the
article.
house belonging to the farm Långhult in Västra Torsås parish. She was 60 years old and she died as a poor
maid. The cause of death is recorded ”venereal”. Her
sister Lena survived her by only one and a half year.
On December 1, 1820, she died of ”spirit clog”. The
church book says that she was really poor, living in
Långhults earth cottage.
It is difficult to form an idea about the miserable life
that must have exist behind the walls of this earth cottage. Congestion, short of food, diseases ... In March
16, 1819, Greta Andersdotter died in this cottage, a
2
king. Anna Catrina was named “Persdotter” (Per´s
daughter) but in the church records she also has been
noted with the shameful title of ”Not true-born”. She
was born of a twenty-year-old mother a wintry day
in the beginning of the year 1811 in the little cottage in Långhult. Since the little earth cottage was
her mother Ingrid´s home from the end of the 1790s
probably her father, named Per, had lived nearby.
Two days after birth, 17 January, the little one was
baptized. Four Godfathers have been present on this
occasion. We know them all by names. This day was
Magnus Bengtsson and Per Månsson and the women
Ingeborg and Maria Nilsdotter gathered around the
baptismal font in the church of Västra Torsås.
In 1828 Anna Catrina had gone to the priest to announce that she now was so old that she was going
out into the world to serve as a maid. This has been
recorded in the church book of Västra Torup on September 28, and the move took place on October 4.
She went to a farm in the neighboring parish Virestad. Now the young girl began a long life journey
with many breakups.
Notes in the church book from between 1798 to 1807
about Greta Andersson and her children in Långhult cottage.
Five years later, in the year 1825, the old soldier Sven
Modig´s wife died of ”venereal” disease. Despite the
soldier’s obvious disease, he immediately remarried
Greta’s daughter Ingrid and infected, of course, even
her. In the church book from 1820-1832 she is listed
as ”venereal”, something she has not been in previous
church books. Despite this, she gives birth to a son,
Samuel, in the year 1827. Why did she marry the sick
man? She can not have been unaware that he was carrying a sexually transmitted disease. Did Ingrid have
any choice? Would she have been thrown out of the
cottage if she refused? Maybe it was because he, as
an old soldier, received a small sum of compensation
money each year. In a poor home, every small thing
is a gift from God.
Her first work away from home was at Kåraböke
farmhouse (3) in Virestad parish. Here lived her new
master Pehr Jönsson and his family. She had been
contracted for a year and, as usual, the employment
as a maid began in the late autumn, in her case October 4, 1828. A year later, she took her few belongings
and moved to the farm Walid Södregård (4) in the
same parish. For a young maid it was not unusual
to move around a lot but Anna Catrina´s settlement
patterns are remarkable. She would just stay shorter
times at each location - and
she was going to move many
times. Was she lazy or was
she difficult to work with? Her
background in a state of a poor
childhood was perhaps not the
best background. Or was she a
seeker? A young woman who
was trying to get a better life
than the one she grew up with
and therefore was restless in
search of something good in
life? We may never know, but
we feel free to think.
One year later, in the year 1828, there were eight
poor people living in the small little earth cottage:
Sven Nilsson Modig with his seventeen years younger wife Ingrid Olofsdotter and her illegitimate daughters Anna Catrina (1811), Maria (1818) and her two
illegitimate sons Sven (1821 ) and Jon (1825) and the
”true” son Samuel (1827). Her husband Sven died
in the year 1840, and Ingrid survived him for fifteen
years. The last years of her life she seems to have lived alone in the small cottage. After she was lowered
down into her grave in the Västra Torsås cemetery
late winter of 1855, the priest noted her as ”Earth cottage widow, who died because of old age at the age of
67 years”. A certainly very hard life was thus ended.
After only a year of serving
works at Wallid Södregård, Anna Catrina left in the autumn
1830 to start a new work at
the farm Nyvärmeshult in the
same parish. (5) However, a
year later she shifted to a new
In the year 1828 Ingrid’s oldest daughter Anna Catrina, in the age of seventeen, left home to begin wor3
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.
Vinskalle
Bråthult
Högadal
Lindholmen
..
.. . .
..
Flyen
. Nyvärmanshult .
Femlingehult
Nydala
Fanhult
Möllelycke
Grönadal
.
. ..
.
Kåraböke
Lindö
.
.
Tärnin
Björkedal
Björkäng
.
Aspelund
Storaholme
Hålevik
Ekebacken
Lindeboda
.
.
Hästabacken
.
..
.
Rosenborg
Sänneshult
.
Långabrohult
N Uthövdan
.
Slättadal
Kyrkön
.
Kasernen
Knihult
Åbogen.
Kråkön
.
Bullerum Djursh
.
Godhult
Agnshult
.
. .
.
..
Härlenäs
Ljusadal
Bockholm
. ..
... .
.
Ljungdalen
Näranshult
.Högavång mentioned in Låkhult
.
.
MapNedraön
of .
places
in the landscape of Småland. The numbers refer to locations
the article.
gslund ..
.
.
.
orpGränsö
.
. Repatorpet
.
Ekåsen
.
Björkenäs
..
Ledet
Lidsberg
Fållen
Östratorp
.
Olofstorp
Speleboda
.
..
Marielund
Lilla Hyltan
.
Holmen
11?
7
6
8
1
2 9
10
13
4
3
12 16?
14?
5
15
4
place; to the neighboring farm Nyvärmeshult No.1.
Here she worked as a maid for two years before it
was time to another move. As a twenty-two year old
woman, she now returned to her childhood parish of
Västra Torsås. Now she had found work at the farm
Opparyd Brogård (6). Perhaps it was here that the
love struck her!
Nilsson in Sjöboholm, Stockhyltan”. Suddenly, it is
another man in the game! Who was that man?
Sjöboholm was a small cottage belonging to the farm
Stockhyltan in Västra Torsås parish. In the church
book there is a note that this small cottage was newly
built in the year 1837. The man who built it was the
farmhand Nils Nilsson, born in 1812. He married May
19, 1839, in Skatelövs church with five years older
Stina Persdotter. It is interesting that the bride came
from the same farm as Anna Catrina herself worked
at during the year 1838, namely Torp Storegård.
On the farm there was a farmhand, Peter Håkansson.
In autumn 1837 the two decided to work together
and to leave the peasant on Brogård and move over
to the neighboring parish Skatelöv. Here they got an
employment on the farm Storegård in the village of
Torp (7). Their stay on this farm was however not
long-lasting. We do not know what happened but
after only one year, which was the usual minimum
time for employment at that time, both were leaving
the peasant in Storegård and moved back to the same
farm as before, Brogård in the village Opparyd (8).
However, a year later, in 1839, Peter chose to leave
this farm for a farmhand employment by Juror Per
Larsson at his farm Myreberg. Anna Catrina remained at Brogård.
Perhapse we can summarize the events like this:
Anna Catrina and Peter leaves Opparyd Brogård in
the autum of 1837 to serve together at another farm,
Torp Storegård in the neighboring parish. There Stina
already served as a maid. Maybe Anna Catrina and
Peter had a relationship but this ends when Nils Nilsson in the year 1838 shows up and love arise between him and Anna Catrina. They became betrothal
and Anna Cathrina moved in autumn 1838 back to
the neighboring parish, perhaps waiting while Nils
is building the new small cottage for them to live in.
Now Stina take command and Nils and she got married. Anna Catrina, a disappointed woman, then goes
to the priest in Västra Torsås, telling him that she has
been deceived and that the betrothal was broken.
Their joint movement - can it be that love has arisen?
When they moved the first time in the year 1837,
Anna was 26 years but he was only 19 years. Such
age difference do not seem to have been an obstacle in the agrarian society at that time – it was not
unusual that the woman was older than the man in
a marriage. If we are playing with the idea that love
has been behind, then we must continue to wonder
what happened since they later separated. Maybe we
have the answer for this in the note that the priest in
Västra Torsås made in the church book for the period
1832 to 1839. Here he recorded, after Anna Catrina’s
returning in 1838, ”Dissolved the betrothal with Nils
In the summer 1840 Anna Catrina got pregnant. The
father of the child was named Jöns but we don’t
know anything more about him. The child receive
the title ” Not true-born” in the church book. In early
1841 Anna Cathrina left her post at the farm Opparyd
Brogård and moved back to her childhood home, the
small earth cottage Långhult (9). Here her first child
Magnus was born March 7, 1841. Three days later,
Notes in the church book from between 1808 to 1820 showing the inhabitants in the little cottage at Långhult. Here is
mentioned Ingrid’s illegitimate daughter Catrina.
5
Map of the farm lands belonging to the farm Tullanäs, Västra Torsås parish. You find the soldier cottage mentioned in
this article just south of the road to the farm under the name “Enganäs” at the map’s upper part.
the mother took her child throw the snow-covered forest to the church of Västra Torsås. Here Magnus was
baptized. Witnesses around the baptismal font was
Olof and Elin Rolig from Kittlag cottage, the farmhand Sven Svensson in Kråketorp and the wife Maria
Olofsdotter in Granhult.
belonging to the farm Tullanäs (12). Now this small
soldiers cottage became her and her son Magnus new
home. Her husband Jöns was a soldier at Kronoberg
regiment, regimental number 159, company number
21. The enrollment list from that time show that Jöns
Lif had become a soldier September 24, 1840. His
height was 5 feet 11 ½ inches. He had taken over the
small soldier cottage after the former older soldier
Jöns Tull, born in the year 1786, and his wife Britta
Lisa Jonasdotter. Here, in this small cottage under the
low ceiling, more children now would be born: Sven
1846, Maria 1848, Greta 1850 and Ingrid 1854.
In Anna Catrina’s childhood home the stepfather, the
old soldier Sven Nilsson Modig, just had died. Left
in the home are Anna Catrina’s mother, the 53-yearold Ingrid Olofsdotter, Anna Caterina’s 16-year-old
half-brother Jon Svensson and 14-year-old half-brother Samuel. For Anna Catrina the stay in the cottage,
however, is very short. The very next year, 1842, she
found a new work, this time at the cottage Södra Flyholmen belonging to the farm Stockhyltan (10). But
after two years, she move again, this time to the cottage Strömstorp belonging to the farm Kärrsgård in
the village Grimslöv (11).
However, soldier Jöns Sigfridsson Lif died in a tragic
way August 29, 1862. ”In insanity he hung himself”
it says in the church book. Although his suicide the
51-year-old soldier was ”as usual honestly buried.”
Normally, a man who had killed himself should not
have been buried in the church cemetery. After the
man had died, his wife and all of the children had to
leave the soldier cottage. It was in winter time, on
November 4, they had to move to the small cottage
Björkelund, belonging to the farm Horsakulla. (13)
Four years later, in 1866, they had to move again, this
time to the small cottage Winshult (14).
So at last she finds a love that would prove to hold.
On November 4, 1845, she got married in Västra
Torsås church. Beside her stood a man at the same
age as herself, 34 years old; the soldier Jöns Sigfridsson Lif. Now she could change her title from “maid”
to “wife” and her address to the soldier cottage No. 21
6
Jönsson is inscribed in the parish registers we possibly can suspect that the father’s first name was Jöns. A
man with that name, coming from the village Opparyd where Anna Catrina at that time earned her living
as a maid, is however not known. We have no records
telling us about Magnus childhood, but we know
that when he was nineteen years old, it was time for
him to leave the home. He starts as a farmhand in
the nearby Tullanäs farm. A year later, on November 5, 1861, he however returned to his childhood
home. Here perhaps he himself became a witness to
the tragic incident when his stepfather Jöns Lif hang
himself.
As a soldier’s widow with five
children Anna Catrina has not
had an easy life. Her daughter
Maria had, in the year 1867, left
home for the town Kristianstad
and here she started working as
a maid. However she returned
to the home the following year
and gave June 17 birth to the
illegitimate child Anna Stina
Larsdotter. The same year
the daughter Greta left home
for service in Denmark. The
new built railway to the south
of Sweden made it easier to
seek a future in the neighboring country. On November 4,
1868 Anna Catrina was forced
to move once again, this time
to the small cottage Ängsholm
near the farm Washult in Härlunda parish (15), this time together with two of her children
and one grandchild.
Magnus soon fell in love in Ingeborg Alexandersdotter, a girl ten years older than himself. The two went
to the priest for a marriage license May 30, 1863. But
something happened. There was never a marriage
- even though they have been together for at least
into July 1863. How do we know this? It is all very
simple. Their child Carl Johan was born the following year on April 22 in her home in Fårshult. When
the birth was recorded in the church book it was also
registered that Ingeborg was betrothed with Magnus.
There was however never any wedding.
Anna Catrina only stayed two years in the parish
Härlunda. In autumn 1870 it was once again time
to leave. On October 27 this year Anna Catrina’s
youngest child Ingrid left the home to work as a maid
in Denmark. Seven days later, her daughter Maria
and granddaughter left her and Anna Catrina herself
settle down in the small cottage Winshult near Tullanäs
(16). Here she lived together with the farmhand Jöns
Jönsson, sixty years old. All the children had now left
their mother and Anna Catrina lived with Jöns until he died 24 July, 1879. Alone and abandoned, she
could in old age not cope on her own but had to move
to a poor family in order to live here and try to help as
best she could. Three years later, June 10, 1882, she
died. After a life consisting of no less than eighteen
moves of her home, in June 18, 1882, she finally received a permanent home in Västra Torsås cemetery.
On November 2, 1863, Magnus became a farmhand
for the crofter in Kvarnatorp in the village of Horjeboda. The very next year he moved to the croft Winshult belonging to the farm Tullanäs (14); a place to
witch his mother and half-siblings already had moved. Here Magnus stayed for four years before he
suddenly made the decision to move to Sandsjö parish in Kronoberg area. At that time, if you should
move to another parish, you had to require a moving
approval from the priest. The priest noticed this in
the church book but he also added that Magnus had
promised to marry Ingeborg Alexanderdotter. Magnus had to show a copy of this note for the church
authority when he registered in his new home parish.
There is a problem: Magnus Jönsson visit the priest
to announce that he should leave Västra Torsås parish for travelling to Sandsjö but he never enrolled
in Sandsjö parish according to the church books. Instead we find him in the city of Malmö in the southern part of Sweden. Here he had to go to the church
office to register his arrival. The book says that he
came from Västra Torsås parish, not from Sandsjö
parish.
Anna Catrin Persdotter´s son Magnus and her daughter Ingrid both left the home parish and travelled separately to the big city of Malmö. Here they lost the
contact with each other. Fate however led Ingrid’s
son’s daughter’s son Sven (the writer of this chronicle) and Magnus’s daughter’s son’s daughter Christina
in 1975 to marry each other. The two are therefore,
unaware of the situation before the family investigations were made, in family with each other.
With steam and railway, the thirty year old Magnus
had forever left Småland in the end of the year 1871.
The big city of Malmö loomed. The oldest town area
of Malmö was surrounded by a water channel. Here,
in the old town, he settled at the address Per Vejers-
Magnus was born in the year 1841 in the little cottage in Långhult near Tullanäs farm in Västra Torsås
parish. He was illegitimate but as the name Magnus
7
Photo from Malmö in the 1880s. To the right the street
Humlegatan and to the left the street Grönegatan. It was
in the neighborhood just outside the picture to the right,
in the block Humle, as Magnus and Karin lived for a
short time.
find his name, the priest had removed the title ”farmhand” he wore when he arrived to the city in January
and instead inflicted his occupation as ”carpenter”.
As a carpenter, he may quickly have received work in
the building industry, as for example at the big shipyard “Kockum”. Still at that time there were produced a large amount of wooden ships in Malmö.
gatan 9 in the block north of the Gustav Adolfs torg.
On June 27, 1872, or any day soon after, Magnus had
gone down to the railway station to await the arrival
of a woman from Småland. Here 25-year-old Karin
Svensson from the cottage Sjöholmen in Tröjemåla
village in Almundsryds parish (17) was reunited with
Magnus, the man she loved. She had been divorced
from her former husband Anders Paulsson. The bureaucracy had however delayed the divorce from late
1870 until the final letter from the authority had arrived on March 27 this year, 1872. She also brought
her five-year-son, August Magnus on the train. In
church records he is listed as illegitimate; she got him
before her marriage to Anders Paulsson. Just a few
weeks after her arriving in Malmö, August 24, 1872,
she and magnus walked to the church and they got
married. The priest was Pastor Olin; the church was
St. Petri church in Malmö.
Magnus had found a place for them to live in the poor
mans street Per Vejersgatan. Work he also quickly got
hold in. In the first church book in Malmö were we
The construction of railways after the mid-1800s led to a
revolution in Sweden, not least for the poorer population in
Småland. Now people could more easily go to the big cities. Photo from Malmö Railway station in the late 1800’s.
8
The young people, however,
didn’t stop long in their first
home in Malmö. In October,
1871, a few months after the
wedding, they moved to a
place east in the old town, to
the block “Humle” and the
plot IX Humlegatan 18 just
south of Drottningtorget (the
Queen Square). This property
seems to have been very temporary. Before the year was
done, they had moved residence to another address in
the same block, plot No. XVI,
although it was on the same
street number 18. Why this
move in the same area? Maybe they had the opportunity to
get a larger apartment. Now,
namely, something strange
is noted in the church book.
Suddenly they had responsibility for a foster son. It says
so in the church book: ”Foster
son Gustaf Hasselqvist, born
19 april 1857 in Småland Göteryd”. Who was he and what
relationship with the family
did he have? We don’t know.
the address Petersgränd 6, and here they stayed for a
longer time. The foster son Gustaf got a job at a factory and he therefore could contribute to the family’s
livelihood. It was also in this apartment three sons
were born. First up is John Wilhelm in 1874, followed
by Gustaf Adolf in year 1876 and finally Carl Hugo
in year 1879. The choice of accommodation, however, demonstrates a family in poor circumstances. In
the block “Duvan” and in direct neighborhoods only
families and people in very poor conditions lived.
In the year 1880, however, it seems as if the family had saved so much money that housing standard
could be raised. Outside the water channel, in the
southern suburb, they found a new home in the block
“Trasten”. Here the carpenter Mårten Olsson had
built a new apartment building on the property plot
V, address Flodgatan 9. It was to this address Magnus
and Karin moved with their children. Now the foster
son Gustaf had left them. The idyll of the new home
would soon be clouded. Karin was again with a child
and April 10, 1882, the first daughter of the family
was born. On April 30, the child was baptized in St.
Pauli Church, but a month later she died of whooping
cough. Probably their daughter got her grave on the
”70-kyrkogården”, the cemetery from the year 1870
beside the street Föreningsgatan in Malmö.
Two years after the funeral, daughter number two
was born. In honor of the departed the new daughter
got of the same name, a not unusual practice at that
time. After that it took three years before Karin once
again become pregnant. However, the sand in the
hourglass of her life had almost run out. On March
After barely a year the little
family moved a few blocks
away, to block “Duvan” near
the southern part of the water
canal. Here they found their
now home at the plot XIX at
Behind this block to the left in Malmö is the block
“Duvan”where the family lived for some years.
Photo from the 1880s.
9
17, 1888, the son Enoch was born, but complications
was encountered. On April 8 Karin Svensson died of
a blood clot, leaving husband and a home with five
children. The tragedy was completed when Enoch
also died at home, November 13. The cause of death
was ”croup”.
Now we have to put the spotlight on another woman.
Anna Pettersson was born on January 27, 1860. Her
parents were relatively well-off farmers from the area
Söderslätt near Malmö. Father Petter Nilsson was a
farmer at the farm Stora Svedala No. 19 at Svedala
parish and the mother Kjersti Månsdotter came from
the same parish. As a seventeen year old girl, Anna
had made her way out on her first work at a nearby
farm. After a year she went back home again. In the
year 1875, however, she put her belongings together
and sought out a maid position at Gärdslöv parish
south of Svedala. Four years later, having made a
brief stopover in the old home, she arrived to Malmö.
On October 19, 1883, she went into the Caroli Church
parish office. She was here to enroll herself. Expedition Secretary has that day recorded were she lived.
”Östra Förstaden 24 Litt A”. But from now on it will
be difficult to follow her further on in the church documents. You can’t find the young woman’s name in
the church book for the specified area.
Anna Pettersson.
rish of St. Petri church. Now it is no longer any doubt
as to where she lives. With a scratchy pen the church
man has noted that her home is to be found in the plot
No. III in the block Ripan at Flodgatan 4. The very
next year, however, she moved to plot IV in the same
When Anna Pettersson reappearing in church records, she has moved and lives in St Peter’s parish in
Malmö but she is just about to move once again. On
November 16, 1886, she namely reported to Paul’s
Church parish office that she had moved from the pa-
The farm house Värnhem in the 1880s. In this area Anna Pettersson lived when she first came to Malmö.
10
Photo from the early 1880s taken from the High windmill on “Kirseberget” east of the city of Malmö. Somewhere in the
small houses in the front of the picture, Anna Pettersson had her first home in Malmö.
block. Two years later, she took her simple belongings and moved to plot V in the block “Trasten”.
ved to plot II in the block “Uven”, Södra Långgatan 2/Rörgatan 2. After five years it was time for a
new breakup; this time they moved to plot VIII in
the block Falken, Södra Förstadsgatan 64/Spångatan.
Magnus was then still occupied as a carpenter.
Anna Pettersson now came to live in the same building, but not in the same apartment, as the widower
Magnus Jönsson Lif and all his children. Love arose
between the two and New Year’s Eve 1889 they were
married in St Paul’s Church. A year later carpenter
Magnus and Anna moved to block Ripan, plot No.
IIc, Föreningsgatan 21. The apartment only suited
the family for two years. In the year 1893 they mo-
In this, Magnus new marriage with the maid Anna
Pettersson, a lot of children were born. Actually quite
a lot of children. In the same apartment as Magnus
had lived together with his wife Karin and in witch
their son Enoch was born in March 1888 and died in
Death photo of Magnus Jönsson Lif.
11
November of the same year, Anna gave birth to a son.
In honor of the deceased the new son also was named
Enoch. After moving to the block Ripan the daughter
Tekla Carolina was born in the year 1892. Then, after the family had moved to the block Uven, Anna’s
third child, Maria, was born in March 24, 1894. Once
again, however, a baby had to stand corpse in the
home. After only six months, Maria died at home.
The cause of death is today a rather simple disease:
a slight pneumonia. Already in the following year,
however, their son John was born and two years later,
in the year 1897, their daughter Maria Debora. This
new daughter got the same name as her dead sister
just to honor her memory.
The explanation is given
by the note that the priest
wrote when Tekla Carolina was born in 1892:
”Father said they belong
to American brotherhood
church and refuse of such
reason to baptize the
child.”
The parents obvious belonged to a church outside the Swedish church
but they were still Christians and therefore it
must be assumed that
they have baptized their
children, but this had occurred without control of
the Swedish Church.
Magnus has truly seen to populate the world. With
his two wives he had eleven children of whom two
died in infancy. The children with his first wife Karin
had all been baptized but after he had married Anna
a strange thing happened. When their firstborn was
entered in the parish register in 1890, it was noted in
the book: ”not baptized.” The same came to be applied to all five children in marriage with Anna. None
of the children were baptized in the Swedish church.
.
When did Magnus and his
wife Anna die? You can’t
The back of the death
photo with text.
M2
M3
M6
.
.
M1
M4
.
.
M5
Places in Malmö mentioned in the article:
M9
M1: Kv Blomman, tomt V, Per Vejersgatan 9.
M2: Kv Humle, tomt IX, Humlegatan 18.
M3: Kv Humle, tomt XVI, Humlegatan 18.
M4: Kv Duvan, tomt XIX, Petersgränd 6.
M5: Kv Trasten, tomt V, Flodgatan 9.
M6: Kv Östra Förstaden 24 Litt A, Värnhem.
M7: Kv Ripan, tomt III, Flodgatan 4.
M8: Kv Ripan, tomt IIC, Föreningsgatan 21.
M9: Kv Uven, tomt II, Södra Långgatan 2
M10: Kv Falken, tomt VIII, Spångatan 1.
M7
M8
M10
12
Tekla Carolina Jönsson.
Martin Viktor Olsson.
13
find them in the Sweden death book which must be
because they did not belong to the Swedish church.
However, on the back of a photo of the deceased
Magnus we read, ”Chief carpenter Magnus Jönsson.
Born in 1841 on 7 March. Included in the heavenly
rest d. 18/11 11” (November 18, 1911). The flower
arrangement on this death photo shows that Anna
was still alive because she stands as ”widow”.
The daughter Tekla married November 24, 1910, and
together with her husband, the priest Martin Viktor
Olsson, they had seven sons. Later they chanced
name to Ollermark. One of their children was Filip Ollermark, the father of the wife to the writer of
this chronicle, Christina. Christina’s grandmother’s
grandmother was Anna Catrina Persdotter. The writers grandfather’s grandmother was the same person.
So I, Sven Rosborn, and my wife Christina are related to each other.
The Americans visiting Sweden in the year 1949.
Christina Ollermark with her grandmother Tekla Carolina
Ollermark (Jönsson) in the year 1972.
You can find this articel on Internet in a printable
high resolution at:
www.foteviken.se/pdf/Magnus.pdf
or at:
www.pilemedia.se/pdf/Magnus.pdf
You can use the material anyway without any cost.
Any questions? Then write to the author Sven Rosborn or to Christina Ollermark at:
sr@foteviken.se
or to
info@pilemedia.se.
14
What happened to Ingrid Jönsdotter,
Magnus Jönsson Lif’s half sister?
Ingrid was Anna Catrina Persdotter´s youngest child.
She fell in love with a man and gave December 23,
1879, birth to a son, Johan Wilhelm, the grandfather
to yhe writer of this article. Her husband had left Västra Torsås and traveled to Malmö. Here he worked to
earn money so that he and Ingrid and their son could
go to America. On November 10, 1881, all is set for
emigration. Johan Wilhelm was then 2 years old and
he was then old enough to make a trip to America.
Ingrid goes to the priest in Västra Torsås and got a paper saying that she had permission to leave Sweden.
She travels with her son to Malmö but her husband
was killed in an accident just before their departure
to America.
Ingrid, a poor young woman, then stayed in Malmö. She become a successful trader and had several children with the carpenter Carl Anderson. The
youngest, Sven Gunnar Andersson, was born December 5,1894, and he emigrated about 1920 to America.
Here he married Clara Grip, born in Landskrona in
Sweden, and they settled in Florida. The son Billy
Andersen was born about 1930 and he married Carol
and they got the children Linda, Lee and Bob. The
family lived 1961 in Apollo Beach, Florida. Sad to
say, this is the last trace we have of this family in
America. Even they has roots with the same family
that is described in this article.
Sven Gunnar Andersson and his wife Clara Grip.
Photo from about 1960.
Text on backside of the photo: ”Florida Maj 1961. From the right to the left: Clara, Carol, Linda, Billy,
Bob and Lee.”
15
16