Birth Record of Kerstina Jönsdotter, 1834

Today, I pieced togeth­er a few more facts about my Swedes, using Ances­try, Find­A­Grave, and the fam­i­ly his­to­ry I have tran­scribed and post­ed on this web­site.

My great great grand­moth­er, Kjer­stin Jöns­dot­ter, was born 6 Feb­ru­ary 1834, accord­ing to the “His­to­ry of Swan John­son Fam­i­ly or Nance Coun­ty Nebras­ka” writ­ten 102 years lat­er by the eldest child of her eldest child.

I have now seen the record of this birth, on Ances­try (which recent­ly incor­po­rat­ed “Swe­den Church Records, 1500–1937” from their acqui­si­tion last year of Gen­line).

This record also tells me that her father’s name was Jöns West­ers­son, her moth­er’s appears to have been Elna Nils­dot­ter. Ker­stin was chris­tened three days after her birth, on 9 Feb­ru­ary 1834 in Gus­tav Adolf (Viby), Kris­tianstad län, Swe­den. Her god­par­ents appear to have been Anders Mar­tins­son and Kar­na West­ers­son.

The fam­i­ly his­to­ry lists a sis­ter, Kar­na, who immi­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca thanks to her broth­er-in-law (Swan, my great great grand­fa­ther). Swan sent mon­ey not only for her pas­sage, but also for that of her hus­band, Nels Ahlm, 3 daugh­ters, and son. In the Val­ley View Ceme­tery list­ing for Kar­na Ahlm (Find­A­Grave), her birth date is giv­en as May 1841. Going back to the Swedish records on Ances­try, I find her in the list­ings as being born to Jöns West­ers­son and Elna Nils­dot­ter, 11 May 1841, and bap­tised on 13 May, both events hap­pen­ing in Gus­tav Adolf (Viby), Kris­tianstad län, Swe­den.

I can tell already that these Swedish records are going to pro­vide a great deal of infor­ma­tion. I have yet to real­ly delve into the house­hold exam­i­na­tions, which are like cen­sus records, but kept by the church on an annu­al basis.…