Kajsa Johannsdotter
An Epidemic, A Survivor, A Farmhand, and a Marriage.
Looking for Osterlund
Kajsa Johannsdotter, or Kaisa Johannsdatter, seated 1909; with a daughter, Anna Matilda (Osterlund) Widing, Sweden. This photo identified by Britsie Murray, an Osterlund.
Family stories.
Kajsa's Story:
Kinnekulle, Sweden. Now a nature preserve, geologically interesting mountain plateau, with a long history of towns, churches. Kajsa Johannesdotter story begins here? Or not?Kinnekulle Epidemic
Or was it elsewhere, and the family, such as was left, came to Kinnekulle somehow.
Or was it elsewhere, and the family, such as was left, came to Kinnekulle somehow.
For family records: Recalled by Dag H,
told to and recorded by HW in 2010, and sent here.
Dag H is B's sister
Dag, or Dagmar, is speaking to Britsie. Damar is since deceased. Britsie, a cousin, reports to Helene, the wife of another cousin, Philip Widing. Helene writes it down. The only changes we make are to clarify who the people are, as best we can.
"The Osterlund family came from the small village of Kinnekulle, on the eastern side of Lake Vanern, province of Ostergotland. There is a mountain named Kinnekulle, with tourist information on top, and, I think, a park. It is said to be very beautiful. We have some old photographs of people, not the place itself.
"Anna Matilda Osterlund Widing was the middle daughter among seven children – two died in infancy – whose father was Anders, I think, Osterlund, and Cajse or Kajse Osterlund. We use Kajsa here.
"The older sons of the seven went to the US, and eventually sent for their mother, Kajsa, and siblings. They, Anna – later Widing; Selma – later Sjostrom; Otto and Josephine came to Philadelphia. The older brothers ended up in the Midwest.
"The story is that Kajse’s parents were landowners and had a farm. The “red plague” as the family called it, maybe typhoid or scarlet fever, swept the village when Kajsa was a young girl. Her parents and siblings died. She survived, nursed through it by a young farmhand, Anders (not sure of first name) Osterlund. They married and had nine children, seven surviving.
"When Kajsa was pregnant with the last, Josephine, Anders cut his hand ploughing. He developed tetanus, and died of lockjaw. He left his young widow with seven children. Anna Matilda (later Widing) was sent out to live with another farm family and to work for them. She developed very strong work habits which stayed with her the rest of her life. I don’t think she enjoyed that family very much, but she did learn to be very self-reliant.
"All this was told to me when I was a child by Aunt Anna herself. I also saw a typed version as typed by my mother, who knew and remembered Kajsa, who lived in the US until she died in 1921 or 1922 (it was 1922)."
Family tree may be in the files now in boxes at PW’s house. Kajsa died in Philadelphia.
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Conversation with Britsie 2011.
She does not know how the name changed from Andersson or Andersdotter, as the names would have been in Sweden, to Osterlund when the family moved here. Kajsa is also listed as an Osterlund at that time.
...................................................................................
Similarities in family names and elements of other families' stories -- to show how hard researching is, with spellings so variable. Is Kajsa Johannsdotter in this record the same as Kajsa Johannsdotter in another. Is Per the same as Peter (yes, same name, but perhaps not same person)
For example, on the western coast of Sweden, north of Goteborg, is an island where a diary was kept in the 19th Century by one Jakob Jonsson, 1795-1879, of Prastbacka Farm, Rora Parish, Orust Island, Buhuslan.
It is edited and translated by Anders Gustavsson, see http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol43/gustavsson.pdf.
Jakob Jonsson's includes the story of his third daughter, Anna Britta, who lived on the farm. Jonsson "shared the work" with the "halftenbrukaren" (half-owner) named Olle Olsson and Olsson's family.
Anna Britta married farmer Per Olausson in 1873 (not the same as the Olsson's), and Per Olausson moved in and shared the farm, Prastbacka, with father-in-law Jakob Jonsson. [Does this mean that the household was
a) Jakob Jonsson,
b) Anna Britta and her husband Per Olausson, and also
c) Olle Olsson and his family?
Olausson later managed the area's hearse, making it available as needed, for a fee. 1870: scarlet fever epidemic.
The epidemic devastated Olle Olsson's family, the halftenrukaren: nearly all his children died, eldest daughter Matilda also finally died. 1871 - typhoid.
Anna Britta also became ill, finally recovered after nearly two months.
Augustana College has a center for Swedish studies, immigrants, and stories like these, see Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Rock Island IL, see http://www.augustana.edu/documents/swenson/newsletter/SCN2003.pdf
.............................................
* Osterlund is clearly the surname named for Kajsa's husband here, as given, and children, but how did that come about if the parents were Kajsa Johannsdotter and Anders Peter Olausson. The children would be Andersson or Andersdotter. If the children took the American surname idea, perhaps Olausson was hard to understand and they went to Osterlund. No idea. Osterlund it is, but I'm curious. *
Kinnekulle: see ://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1989808/kinnekulle.html/ Kinnekulle is spelled phonetically as Chinicoola on the Tree. Try a search for that, with a Ch, and you won't find it.
.............................................................
* Update January 31, 2011. We may have our answer as to the origin of "Osterlund" -- see NYT, In In Sweden, a Swede by Any Other Name. In Fact, Many Swedes, ://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/world/europe/01stockholm.html/. The article notes that for the last 100 years or so, people have simply adopted new names, with government permission of course -- not just any name -- to get away from the --son or --dotter tradition, and all its repetitions. Thank you, New York Times/
We enjoyed looking up the tradition, here, so will keep this reference it just for that. Here is the older post, Osterlund intact, just in case our situation is not just an arbitrary renaming at all, but a more exciting reason.
.....................................................................................
Conversation with Britsie 2011.
She does not know how the name changed from Andersson or Andersdotter, as the names would have been in Sweden, to Osterlund when the family moved here. Kajsa is also listed as an Osterlund at that time.
...................................................................................
Similarities in family names and elements of other families' stories -- to show how hard researching is, with spellings so variable. Is Kajsa Johannsdotter in this record the same as Kajsa Johannsdotter in another. Is Per the same as Peter (yes, same name, but perhaps not same person)
Orust Island, Rora Parish, near Goteborg. Bohuslan.
For example, on the western coast of Sweden, north of Goteborg, is an island where a diary was kept in the 19th Century by one Jakob Jonsson, 1795-1879, of Prastbacka Farm, Rora Parish, Orust Island, Buhuslan.
It is edited and translated by Anders Gustavsson, see http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol43/gustavsson.pdf.
Jakob Jonsson's includes the story of his third daughter, Anna Britta, who lived on the farm. Jonsson "shared the work" with the "halftenbrukaren" (half-owner) named Olle Olsson and Olsson's family.
Anna Britta married farmer Per Olausson in 1873 (not the same as the Olsson's), and Per Olausson moved in and shared the farm, Prastbacka, with father-in-law Jakob Jonsson. [Does this mean that the household was
a) Jakob Jonsson,
b) Anna Britta and her husband Per Olausson, and also
c) Olle Olsson and his family?
Olausson later managed the area's hearse, making it available as needed, for a fee. 1870: scarlet fever epidemic.
The epidemic devastated Olle Olsson's family, the halftenrukaren: nearly all his children died, eldest daughter Matilda also finally died. 1871 - typhoid.
Anna Britta also became ill, finally recovered after nearly two months.
Augustana College has a center for Swedish studies, immigrants, and stories like these, see Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Rock Island IL, see http://www.augustana.edu/documents/swenson/newsletter/SCN2003.pdf
.............................................
* Osterlund is clearly the surname named for Kajsa's husband here, as given, and children, but how did that come about if the parents were Kajsa Johannsdotter and Anders Peter Olausson. The children would be Andersson or Andersdotter. If the children took the American surname idea, perhaps Olausson was hard to understand and they went to Osterlund. No idea. Osterlund it is, but I'm curious. *
Osterlund-Widing-Sjostrom Tree from 1970's: Reunion Cape May NJ. Kajsa Johannsdotter and Anders Peter Olausson, Seven Children named Osterlund (Anna Osterlund,m. Philip Widing at top)Kinnekulle: see ://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1989808/kinnekulle.html/ Kinnekulle is spelled phonetically as Chinicoola on the Tree. Try a search for that, with a Ch, and you won't find it.
.............................................................
* Update January 31, 2011. We may have our answer as to the origin of "Osterlund" -- see NYT, In In Sweden, a Swede by Any Other Name. In Fact, Many Swedes, ://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/world/europe/01stockholm.html/. The article notes that for the last 100 years or so, people have simply adopted new names, with government permission of course -- not just any name -- to get away from the --son or --dotter tradition, and all its repetitions. Thank you, New York Times/
We enjoyed looking up the tradition, here, so will keep this reference it just for that. Here is the older post, Osterlund intact, just in case our situation is not just an arbitrary renaming at all, but a more exciting reason.
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