anders andersson (update)

I have been meaning to look at the household examination records on SVAR, the databases of the Swedish National Archives, to see if they made available online later years for Blidsberg. As I noted in my last blog post on Anders Andersson, Jeff's 3rd great grandfather, I was only able to find him in these records up to 1883 in Brunn, as Ancestry and Genline only had up to that year in their household examination records. I finally checked SVAR (you need to activate at least a 3 hour subscription on SVAR, so I was waiting until I knew I had at least a couple of hours in a row free). I was in luck, their household examination records for Blidsberg and Humla went up to 1900. Maybe now I would be able to find Anders' death date, as this would be listed in the household record if he died during his residence in one of the parishes.

I was not sure where to start to find Anders, as I did not know which village or farm within Blidsberg he had moved to. Sometimes you can find the village name if you find them in the "moving out" or "moving in" records, but these were not available online for the year 1883 for these parishes. My only choice was to start browsing through the pages of the household examination records for Blidsberg 1880-1900. Luckily I found them very quickly, on page 5, living in the location of "Sluntom" in Blidsberg. Their son, Frans Wilhem, soldier, and his wife are living in the same village or farm of Sluntom, listed right below Anders on the record. The record shows that Frans was living in Blidsberg with his parents until 1890, then they all moved to Humla for a short time, and Frans alone moved back to Sluntom, Blidsberg with his wife. Anders and Maja stayed in Humla after they moved there from Blidsberg in 1890.

When Anders moves to Humla in 1890, he is 65 years old. Anders and Maja were easy to find in the Humla household record as the page number was noted on the Blidsberg record when they left. They are found on page 96, living in the village of Storemberg? (difficult to read) A death date is given for Maja of November in 1898. Soon after, in 1899 at the age of 74, Anders leaves this village for another one in Humla, Odegard. Anders only lives without his wife for another year and a half, as I found his death record in Humla on May 18, 1900. He was 75 years old.

I wrote a little bit about the churches in Humla and Blidsberg in my last post. The church in Blidsberg was built in 1868. Since Anders moved back to Blidsberg in 1883, living there for 7 years, he and his wife would have attended the church that was built and is still standing today.

picture by Daniel E on kyrkokartan.se website

Since Anders also lived in Humla for the last 10 years of his life, he would have attended the new church there as well, built in the 1880s. I am guessing he also would have been buried here with his wife who also died in Humla. I do not know much about the burial customs in Sweden, but I think everyone was buried in the Church graveyard. I would assume this would get pretty crowded quickly, so I wonder if everyone gets a stone, or how they manage the amount of burials. Humla is not a very populated parish though, with only about 2-4 burials a year at that time; so perhaps this was not much of a problem.

picture by Ake Fagerlund on kyrkokartan.se website

Since I now know that Anders is living during the 1890 census, I checked it again to see if I could find him. This time I just did a search for Anders with a birth date of 1825, leaving out the parish of birth. I am actually not sure why I did not do this before, I guess I did not have as much confidence that he was living at this time and gave up too quickly. Anyway, he was listed in Humla with his wife Maja, with a birth place of Humla (which is incorrect). He was not listed in the 1900 census though; he must have died before it was taken. He was alive however to see his daughter Emma off to America in 1892. For some reason it makes me happy to think he knew about this big change in one of his children's lives. I have not found any other evidence that any of his other children moved to America. Two of his sons became soldiers and his other daughter married a soldier. Perhaps they felt an attachment to Sweden being in the military. The oldest son Johan was not a soldier, but was at least living in Blidsberg by 1891 according to the household examination records. (I did not find Anders' son Johan in the 1900 census).

anders anderson

Anders is my husband's, Jeff, 3rd great grandfather. The Swedish naming tradition was to add "son" or "dotter" to their father's first name to create their last name, so Anders' father was Anders Pettersson, and Anders full name is Anders Andersson. Anders' mother's name was Lisa Svensdotter (daughter of Sven). Married women kept their family names throughout their lives. Since Anders has such a common name, I have to make sure I have the right Anders Andersson in the records I find. Fortunately, the Swedish records provide birth dates in most of their records, which makes it much easier to distinguish between two people with the same name, even in the same area.

Anders was born April 26, 1825 in Blidsberg, Sweden, where he spent his childhood with his family until he was 27 years old. He was the second to youngest (youngest boy) of five, with only one sister who was 10 years younger than he. He never knew his oldest brother Johannes, as he died when he almost one year old. On the Household Examination records, Anders is found living with his family at Åslyckan, Blidsberg, Sweden. (During the period of 1827-1828, his family is listed at Västra Alarp in Blidsberg.) These two locations within Blidsberg are most likely farm names, where families lived and worked. The Household Examination records are great records to find your families in Sweden, as you can really pinpoint the location of your ancestor on old and current maps of Sweden (note 1).  The archives of the National Surveying Office's website lantmateriet, has historical maps of Sweden with farm and village names within the parishes.  I wrote about this website in another post.  After looking at the historical Blidsberg map, I was able to locate the current location of the two farms Anders grew up on using Google maps, as shown below.


Map of Blidsberg, Sweden
Anders childhood homeland (1825-1852)
left arrow is Åslyckan, right arrow Västra Alarp
View Blidsberg, Sweden in a larger map

One thing that sticks out for me after looking at the current satellite maps from Google is the lack of houses on the farms, usually only having one house on a large area of farm land. Sometimes there are more than one family listed on the farms in the household examination records, which probably meant more than one family was living together in the same houses. I wonder what the houses were like. I believe that many of the farmers were tenant farmers, leasing land and house from the owner of the farm land. There is a great article on the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies' websiteTraceing Your Swedish Roots, under the "Life in Old Sweden" section. The article is titled Torp and Torpare - An Analysis by Nils William Olsson, which discusses the evolution of the "topare" in Sweden; giving insight into what life may have been like for Anders. I am not sure if records exist for who owned the farm land that Jeff's ancestors lived and worked on. Maybe this information can be found on tax lists, as explained on Tracing Your Swedish Roots website, under the tax records section.

Blidsberg seems to be a fairly small rural area in Southern Sweden. At the time Anders lived here, Blidsberg was part of Alvsborg County. I could not find any books on google or worldcat.org on the history of Blidsberg, Sweden, so I did not find much information on the parish. There is a book at the Family Search Centers, Min barndoms Blidsberg på 1880-talet, about the history of Blidsberg parish in the 1880s, but it is written in Swedish, so probably would not be that useful to me, but maybe it contains some pictures.

I am always interested in the churches that our ancestors attended, as sometimes the church is still standing and it is great to get a glimpse of any part of our ancestor’s lives. Anders lived only about 1 mile from his Lutheran church in Blidsberg. There is a beautiful picture of the Blidsberg Kyrka (church) on the photo website Panoramio taken by Sture Björnson, here. I was not sure this church was the same church that was standing when Anders was alive, so I searched a bit more to see when it was built. I looked for Blidsberg in the LIBRIS catalog of the National Archives of Sweden and found the following book, translated title, Blidberg old and new church: a short history: [100 anniversary 1870-1970, which of course is written in Swedish, not much help to me. I love that the LIBRIS catalog has a link to search Google and Google Books using relavent search terms. (I did not have much success finding links by searching Google independently – perhaps because of the different language). After clicking on these links, I came across an informative website and more pictures of the church at Blidsberg, on kyrkokartan.se. According to this website, the church currently standing in Blidsberg is not the church that Anders grew up attending, as it seems to have been built in 1868, by which time he was living in the parish of Humla.

Anders was 27 in 1852, when he left Blidsberg for Humla, with his new wife, Maja Lena Petersdotter. They did not travel far, as Humla is only one parish North of Blidsberg. Anders and his family lived for about 15 years at Sodra Torpet in Humla, having five children there. They moved within the parish of Humla after 1867, first to the farm Mellomakoyen until 1872, then to the farm Gunnarp until 1875, then to Nickabo until 1879. The farm of Nickabo also has his son, Alfrid, listed above him as a "soldat", or soldier. Soldiers lived in certain areas of the town, and were supported by the town (note 2). Perhaps when Anders son Alfrid became a soldier, they moved to this area with him.


Map of Humla, Sweden
farm locations for Anders Andersson and family 1852-1879

View Humla kyrka in a larger map

Much of Anders adult life was spent in Humla, so I decided to do the same search in LIBRIS for the church in Humla, and found the following book in their catalog, Humla Church, written in 1984. I again clicked on the Google link to search for webpages about the church and found the following, also on kyrkokartan.se. Another good website on the history of the church at Humla is here. This website states that the church standing now at Humla was built in the 1880s. Since Anders left Humla in 1880, it was not the church that Anders would have attended. Anders probably would have seen the new church though, as his children were still living in this area at that time. The website also states that the church that was previously at Humla, the one Anders would have attended, was actually from the 1100s. I would have loved to have seen what that church was like. I did also find a little bit of general history on the village of Humla on the website of Farfars Handelsbod (Grandpa Handelsbod).

In 1880, at the age of 55, Anders and his wife left Humla, where they are found in the 1880 Census in Brunn, with their youngest son, Frans Wilhelm. In the census, Anders' occupation is "arrendator", a tenant farmer or leaseholder. This is most likely Anders occupation through out his life. Brunn is about 14 miles south of Humla, closer to the city of Ulriceham. I am not sure why they would move to this area after being in Humla for 27 years, especially since most of their children were still living in Humla and Blidsberg with their families. The only connection I have found is that his younger sister, Helena Kristina Andersdotter, is living in Brunn with her husband and children during the 1880 census. The houshold examination for Brunn has Anders on the farm of Bjorkelund until 1883. While searching on the internet for information about this area, I came across Ulricehamns Kommun's website with an interesting page on the natural history of the Ulriceham area, which gives much history of the land.

The Brunn household examination shows that Anders and Maja left Brunn in 1883 to Blidsberg, the parish he grew up in. I have lost track of them after this move. The household examination records and "moving out" records on ancestry.com and Swedish Genline end here for all the towns I have mentioned, so I was not able to find where in Blidsberg Anders and Maja were living. (note 3)

The 1890 census on SVAR only lists one Anders Andersson (Anders Petter Andersson) born in 1825 in Blidsberg, living in Orebro parish of the county Orebro, as a widow. I did not find a Maja Petersson in the 1890 census. I am not sure if this Anders is the correct one, but Orebro is 129 miles north of Blidsberg. This seems like a long distance to travel to find work. To narrow down who this Anders Petter Andersson is, I checked the birth records in Blidsberg 1825 to see if there was another Anders Andersson born in Blidsberg that year. There actually was another Anders born that year in Blidsberg, with a middle name of Petter. This most likely is the Anders living in Orebro in 1890, not my husband's ancestor.

Since I did not find Anders in the 1890 or 1900 Swedish Censuses, I think he probably died between 1883 and 1890. I searched through the Brunn, Blidsberg and Humla death records up to 1897 but was unable to find a record of either Anders or Maja's death. I know that his daughter, Emma, moved to America in 1892, I wonder if he knew this before he passed and what he thought of one of his children leaving Sweden. (UPDATE : see next post about death of Anders)

notes :
1. Household examination records for Sweden can be found online with a subscription on Genline and Ancestry.  You need to know the parish your ancestor was from in order to use these records.  These records were kept for each family in a parish for the purpose recording their knowledge of catechism each year. The records allow you to follow your ancestors through moving within farms and in and out of parishes.
2. Information on soldiers in Sweden from the book: Clemensson, Per, and Kjell Andersson. Your Swedish Roots: A Step by Step Handbook. Provo, UT: Ancestry, 2004.
3. I believe later household examination records for these areas are available at the provincial Archives of Landsarkivet i Göteborg under the National Archives of Sweden, Riksarkivet, in Sweden; as long as the records are 70 years or older.(UPDATE : see next post)

to do :
1. Look at the legal records of the time kept at the judicial district level. The judicial district for Brunn, Blidsberg and Humla is Redväg. The Family Search centers do have microfilm available for this distrcit, but do not seem to go past the year 1860. Some of these records available at the Family Search Center for this district also include land divisions, mortgages, and criminal records, so it would be worth looking through in case Anders or his family is mentioned.
2. Find tax records for the land and farms Anders lived and worked on.
3.   Find Swedish records after 1883 to locate where Anders Andersson and his wife Maja were living in Blidsberg (Household Examinations at archives, provincial Archives of Landsarkivet i Göteborg, or National Archives of Sweden, Riksarkivet). (UPDATE : found 1880-1900 household examination records for Humla and Blidsberg on SVAR - see next post)
4. Find where and when Anders Andersson died. The National Swedsh Archives, Riksarkivet, has the following (as noted on the Archives Section of the Swedish Roots Website):
"Copies of all birth, death and marriage records from 1860, copies of the clerical surveys for every 10 years from 1860, and also copies of church records from all Sweden are kept in the microfiche reading room, which moved in 1998 to the new facilities at Arninge, just north of Stockholm (see info below). The microfiche are available up to 1930, due to the 70 year secrecy law." (UPDATE : found death dates for Anders and Maja - see next post)
5.  See if any other of Anders' children, or Anders himself, went to America as their daughter Emma did in 1892 with her husband (Jeff's great great grandparents). (UPDATE : found some more information on children - see next post)


books on topic:
1. translated title: Ulricehamns municipality. D. 2, Blidberg, Dalum, Humla, Kölaby and Timmele parishes and Ulricehmans city of Brunn and Vist former parishes

freeman french

Freeman French is one of those ancestors that would have been nice to find a diary of his daily life. (actually, finding one for every ancestor would be nice too). Freeman lived during an interesting time in American history; I would love to know what he thought about everything going on around him at this time.

Freeman is my 4th great grandfather. He was born April 24, 1801 in Hingham, MA to Nathaniel French and Sarah Chubbuck. He seems to have grown up in South Hingham, where he was the middle child, having two older brothers and two younger sisters. His father was a packetman working at the Hingham packet station in Boston. (note 1)

Freeman was about 24 years old when he had his first son, Henry Freeman French in September of 1825, still living in Hingham. The date is interesting, as he did not marry Joanna until December of 1826, again in Hingham. If these dates are correct, I am sure it was difficult to have a child before marriage. It is nice to see that they stuck it out together though, and continued to have a large family of at least 8 children.

Freeman and his family lived in Hingham until at least 1830, when he is located in the census in Abington. By 1841, when he and his wife Joanna had their 5th child, Lydia, he had moved his family to South Scituate. Maybe he was struggling to find a place of their own, moving from Hingham to Abington to South Scituate. They seem to have settled in South Scituate, which eventually became Norwell in 1888. South Scituate is very close to South Hingham, where he grew up. Maybe he felt the need to be closer to his mother as she was getting older. Freeman's father died in 1819, but it looks like his mother died in April of 1843 (note 2).

Freeman not only moved his family a couple of times, but he also had a couple of professions; changing back and forth between shoemaker and farm laborer (note 3). I am not sure how common this was, but it does seem strange to me that he did not have a consistent profession. His property value as listed in the censuses is usually lower than others around him; it does seem they may have struggled a bit. He still supported his children though, even after they were married and had children of their own. The 1850 census shows his daughter, Joanna, and her husband and child living with them. Also in 1850, his son Henry and his wife are living with them. Their son Benjamin is still living with them at the age of 36 in the 1880 census. Freeman also opened his house to someone outside of his family in 1880. In the census there is a John Gurney, a 27 year old shoe finisher, living with them. Maybe he was a boarder to bring in a little extra money, or maybe Freeman was just helping him out. Regardless, the household never seems to be a lonely one. I tend to think of Freeman as a welcoming and friendly man; a happy person even though he may have been struggling a little financially.

Since Freeman is listed in the 1880 Census as living in South Scituate, I looked up the historical land ownership map on ancestry for this area. I found him near Accord Pond, bordering the town of Rockland.




Freeman was alive during many changes in American history. Around the 1830's in Massachusetts, there was a stirring of feelings rising against slavery. In 1831, The first abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, was published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison. Freeman's daughter, Lydia (my 3rd great-grandmother), actually married into a family, the Cowings, which had ties to the abolitionists and Garrison (note 4). Perhaps it was a philosophy also held by the French Family. Freeman was about 59 years old when the Civil War broke out, therefore he did not fight in the war. His family, as most Massachusetts families, supported the cause though with at least one of his sons, Benjamin, enlisting at the age of 18, with the 39th regiment. Benjamin received a disability discharge only a couple of months after enlisting in 1862, and applied for a pension in 1885 (note 5). Freeman also had three nephews give their lives in the Civil War, 2 as prisoners. (note 6)

Technology was also changing the world; especially in 1876, with Alexander Graham Bell demonstrating the first telephone in Boston. I do not know if Freeman actually ever saw a telephone before he died, but he most likely did not have one in his home. I wonder what he thought about the invention and all the changes that were occurring during his lifetime.

Freeman lived 88 years, dying on March 2, 1889 in Norwell, about 2 years after his wife Joanna died. During his life, he was probably close to his children, as they did not move far from home. He unfortunately had to see three of his daughters die in their 20s; some of them had children of their own. He was fortunate enough to know at least 12 grandchildren; unfortunate to have 4 of these grandchildren die; 3 in infancy, one at the age of 10.

I wrote a blog post about Freeman's wife Joanna, noting that they were probably buried at the Liberty Plains Cemetery in South Hingham as that was the closest cemetery to their home. I did finally get a chance to go to Liberty Plain Cemetery. Luckily it was not too large to walk through, and I was able to find the gravestones of both Freeman and his wife. The three daughters that died at young ages; Sarah, Mary, and Pamelia, are buried near them. I was happy to find them all together.



notes:
1. Bouvé, Thomas T, Edward T. Bouvé, John D. Long, Walter L. Bouvé, Francis H. Lincoln, George Lincoln, Edmund Hersey, Fearing Burr, and Charles W. S. Seymour. History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts. Hingham: Pub. by the town, 1893. (vol 2; page 237)
2. death date for a sarah french, aged 74, in 1843 in south hingham - matches approximate birth date of sarah chubbuck (freeman's mother)
3. 1840 - agriculture; 1850 - shoemaker; 1860 - farm laborer; 1870 - shoemaker; 1880 - past laborer
4. Lydia's husband's great aunts (Susan, Sarah and Maria Cowing) had involvement in the abolitionist movement - wrote about them in a post here.
5. Benjamin W. French. Historical Data Systems, comp.. American Civil War Soldiers [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
6. Freeman's brother Nathaniel had three sons that died in the civil war, Nathaniel, Henry and Charles, the latter two as prisoners. Information from The History of Hingham book from note 1, (vol. 2, page 238)

to do list:
1. any probate records for father Nathaniel or mother Sarah? probate for Freeman? (UPDATE: Plymouth County Probate is online at familysearch - none listed for Freeman or his mother Sarah; probate for wife Joanna written about here, and father Nathaniel will be posted soon.)
2. any land records for Nathaniel, Sarah and Freeman

samuel raymond and sylvia dunham

My 5th great grandfather, Samuel Raymond, married Sylvia Dunham on May 21, 1798 in Middleborough, MA (note 1). This date is recorded in the Town of Middleboro Vital Records Index: 1649 - 1945, on the Middleborough's Public Library Digital Library section. The Vital Records of Middleborough, as published on americanancestors.org, states that their marriage took place on either April 21, 1798 or May 21, 1798. I am not sure which date is accurate, I would have to look at the original records. On the May 21st entry, the top entry on that page states "A list of marriages solemnized by Rev. Joseph Barker", who was from the First Congregational Church of Middleboro, Massachusetts. Information on this church is included in the book First Church in Middleborough, Mass., which is available on ancestry.com. There is also a discussion of different sections of Middleborough and other churches on page 63 of this book. Oddly, I did not find Sylvia or Samuel's names on the catalog of members in the First Church from this book on ancestry (note 2).

The record of their marriage states Samuel and Sylvia were both of Middleborough, so they were at least living in Middleborough before they were married; but I am not sure if they were born in the town. I also do not know how old they were when they were married as I have not been able to locate birth records for either one (note 3). They probably remained in Middleborough throughout their married life as all of their children have birth records from the town, as recorded on the americanancestors.org database and the Index on the Middleborough public library's website. The first child I found a record for was Sarah, born in 1801. The couple continued to have 8 more children, for a total of at least 9 by 1819. The records only show one child who died in childhood, Lewis, at almost two years old in 1817.

Since Samuel and Sylvia were married in 1798, I looked in the 1800 census for them in the town of Middleborough. There are two Samuel Raymond's listed on the same page. The first Samuel Raymond has 1 male and 1 female between 16-25 and one male and one female 45 or over. This couple would probably be too old to be Samuel and Sylvia (note 4). The other Samuel Raymond has a 2 notation after his name, which would correspond to our Samuel's marriage record as the 2nd (note 5). In this household there are 2 females under 10 and 1 male and 1 female between the ages of 26-44. The latter family matches Samuel and Sylvia better, as it is possible that they had two children by the time the 1800 census was taken in August, 1800. I do not see any birth records in the Middleborough records for children of Samuel and Sylvia before their daughter Sarah in 1801, but it is possible these births were not recorded. Some genealogy books have Samuel and Sylvia with an oldest daughter Priscilla (note 6). There is not another Samuel Raymond in the Middleborough town records having children after 1785, which makes it even more likely that this family is Samuel and Sylvia in Middleborough. I cannot really gather where they are living in Middleborough, as the order of enumeration of the 1800 Middleborough census is strange; mostly alphabetical within groups. The groups themselves are not arranged alphabetically though, so perhaps they are by areas of the town.

I did not find Samuel and Sylvia in the 1810 census for Middleborough, so I broadened my search for all Samuel Raymond's in Plymouth County. One did show up in Wareham, a town right next to Middleborough. At first I did not think this would be their family, but after looking at the household it does seem to match up. There are 4 males under 10 (Zephania, John, Edson and Samuel), 1 male 26-44 (Samuel), 1 female under 10 (Sarah), 1 female 10-15 (Priscilla), and 1 female 26-44 (Sylvia). The other older daughter from the 1800 census would also have been between the ages of 10-15, but not enumerated. She may have died by 1810, as she would have been too young to marry. I do find it strange that Samuel and Sylvia's family is living in Wareham, perhaps they lived on the Middleborough/Wareham line or maybe the moved to the town of Wareham. I looked in the vital records for Wareham to see if there was a Samuel Raymond having children during this time to make sure I did not have the wrong Samuel, and there does not seem to be another one in this town. I also looked at the 1800 census for Wareham, and again there is no Samuel Raymond. It is likely that this is Samuel and Sylvia. The 1810 Census for Wareham does not seem to be alphabetical, which gives us a better idea of who Samuel's neighbors were. He is enumerated near Joshua Raymond, Amos Raymond, and another Raymond (illegible), all with young children. If they were all living on the same farm or near each other, perhaps they were brothers.

The only military action that Middleborough saw during Samuel's adult life was the War of 1812. The book, The History of the Town of Middleboro, Massachusetts, has a great excerpt (p 158) about how this war affected the town of Middleborough, and probably reflects how Samuel viewed the war.



This book also contains a list of Middleborough men that were enlisted in companies for the War of 1812; Samuel Raymond is not one of them. The only Raymond listed was a Zenas Raymond, I am not sure of his relation to Samuel, if any. There is also a Calvin Dunham, perhaps a relation to Sylvia.

By the 1820 census, Samuel and Sylvia seem to be back in Middleborough. There are 10 people living in the household, 3 males under 10 (Eleazer, Benjamin, Samuel), 1 male 10-15 (Edson), 1 male 16-18 (John), males 16-25 (Zephania), 1 male over 45 (Samuel), 1 female under 10 (Sylvia), 1 female 16-25 (Sarah), and 1 female 45 and over (Sylvia). The oldest daughter from the 1800 and 1810 censuses, probably Priscilla, is most likely married by 1820 and not listed with the family. This family is again enumerated next to Joshua Raymond and Amos Raymond's family, indicating this is most likely the same family in 1810 in Wareham, probably on the same land. Maybe the enumerator made a mistake and they were in fact in Middleborough in 1810, not Wareham; or maybe the census was simply filed incorrectly. Further down the page, I do see a Jonathan Dunham, perhaps a relation to Sylvia. Other than that, I do not see many Dunhams enumerated in the same area as Samuel and Sylvia, most likely they are living on land from Samuel's family (note 7). I have not yet seen any connections to Sylvia's family.

Samuel and Sylvia are still in Middleborough in the 1830 census. The household contains 2 males 10-14 (Eleazer and Benjamin), 2 males 20-29 (prob. Edson and Samuel), 1 male 60-69 (Samuel), and 1 female 50-59 (Sylvia). Many of their children are older and married now and have their own homes. I did find their oldest son Zephania living in Plymouth with his new family. The other Raymonds are not on the same page as Samuel any longer, but there are two Alden Raymond's. Joshua and Amos Raymond are on the next page, along with a Levi Raymond. Either they are not living as close to each other as before or some of the censuses were not enumerated in land order. I will need to check some deed transactions for Middleborough to see if there were any land changes for these Raymonds.

Their family decreased in size by the 1840 census in Middleborough, with all but one child leaving their household. There is only 1 male 20-29 (probably Eleazer), 1 male 70-79 (Samuel), and 1 female 70-79 (Sylvia). Samuel is again enumerated next to Joshua and Amos Raymond, and also a Samuel Jr. Raymond, most likely their son. There is also a John Raymond on the same page, again probably Samuel and Sylvia's son. Their son Edson seems to be living a couple of towns over in Weymouth. I did not see a Benjamin Raymond in Massachusetts that would match their son, but it looks like he married in Abington in 1841 (note 8). Their daughter Sarah is probably married to Bradley Gay, living in Middlebrough. Their oldest daughter, Priscilla, died in 1832, but her widow, Benjamin Glasur, and therefore Samuel and Sylvia's grandchildren, are living in Middleborough also. I also did not find their oldest son Zephania Raymond in Massachusetts, however there is an Ellis Raymond living in Middleborough, perhaps he went by his middle name sometimes. Their daughter Sylvia Raymond and her husband James McConney are living in Taunton (note 9) (they are living in Abington by 1850). So it seems most of their children did not wander too far from home by 1840, with at least 2, maybe 3 sons and probably 2 daughters still living in Middleborough, and the rest in surrounding towns. I am sure Samuel and Sylvia were busy with their lives and did not travel to see their family members outside of Middleborough much, but hopefully they spent some time together.

Samuel must have died before 1850 as he is not listed in the census. His wife, Sylvia, is living with her son Edson and his family in Weymouth. This is the first US Census that enumerated every person in the household, so it is very exciting to see Sylvia's name recorded for the first time. Samuel and Sylvia lived in Middleborough together for at least 47 years (note 10). I have not found a burial location for Samuel and Sylvia. I would think that they would be buried in Middleborough, as that is where they spent their life. However; they are not listed in the book, Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts (note 11), which has transcriptions for the cemeteries in Middleborough. The only family member I could find a burial record for in this book is Priscilla Raymond Glasur (if in fact she is their daughter). Priscilla is buried in Middleborough Green Cemetery. I will have to visit this cemetery to at least see Priscilla's grave, and hopefully find some other family members.

notes :

Without looking at land records, which I do not have access to online, the best guess for locating where in Middleborough Sylvia and Samuel Raymond may have lived is to look at where their children are living. There is a 1879 map of Middleborough on ancestry, so I looked to see if there were any descendants of Samuel and Sylvia living in Middleborough at this time. The only two I could find in the 1880 Census are their son John Raymond and their grandchild Charles Gay (Sarah's son). Perhaps either one of them is living on land handed down to them from Samuel and Sylvia. I did find a J. Raymond living on Rocky Meadow St. in Middleborough, as shown in the map below, a little below 1/2 way down, to the right of the center. (Thanks to Mark on ThinkGenealogy Blog for finding the zoom.it tool used on the map). I also placed a modern Google map under the 1879 Middleborough map.





View Larger Map


more notes:
1. The marriage record states Sylvia's last name as Dunham, but some of the death records of her children state her last name as Shaw. Shaw is also Eleazer's middle name.
2. First Church Members on the Middleborogh genealogy web page
3. On the 1850 census Sylvia's age would have her born around 1778, however estimating from the 1800-1840 census information, their ages would be as follows : Samuel between 1766-1770; Sylvia between 1771-1774.
4. A Samuel Raymond and Joanna have 9 births recorded in the Middleborough town records from 1768-1785 (from the Digital Library index to Middleborough's vital records on the Middleborough Public Library), which would make their two youngest children 15 and 18 (both boys) in the 1800 census, and their next youngest girl born in 1777, age 23 in 1800. Most likely this is the family enumerated above Samuel 2nd. Probably not Samuel's father as their son Samuel dies in 1795 - interesting that our Samuel is listed as the 2nd, maybe this is his uncle.
5. This index states Samuel Raymond is a 2nd, however the Raymond genealogoy books state his father is Joshua. Maybe 2nd refers to him being the younger Samuel in town.
6. The book, Genealogies of the Raymond families of New England, 1630-1 to 1886:... discussed Samuel and Sylvia's family on page 135, which states their eldest daughter was Priscilla who married Benjamin Glasur in 1819 in Middleborough. Priscilla Glasur dies in 1832 in Middleborough. This book does not mention another older daughter.
7. 1798 direct tax lists these brothers on father Joshua's land
8. Benjamin is living in Abington in the 1850 Census, same town as his sister Syliva Raymond McConney. Benjamin moved his family (wife Almira and 5 children) to Le Roy, Minnesota in 1860 Census, perhaps after his mother Sylvia died. I wrote another post about a Raymond/McConney family that were also in the 1860 Le Roy Minnesota Census. (Benjamin is the Uncle of Winslow Raymond who went to Minnesota in the earlier post) The Raymond Genealogy book, page 136, states Benjamin took his family out west and died around 1869 in Ohio; however he is found again in Minnesota with his family in the 1870 Census.
9. Sylvia and James Mcconihe household in 1840 Taunton 1 male 30-39 (james), 3 females under 5 (Sarah, Susan, ?), 4 females 5-9 (Lavina, Lucretia, Louisa, Sylvia), 1 female 20-29 (Sylvia) - very likely this is Sylvia's family - how many james mcconney's that have this many children so young - they had a set of twins which added to the number of young children.
10. I estimated Samuel's death as 1845, as there is a death record for a Samuel Raymond in Middleborough for 1845, in the index for the digital collection on the Middleborough Public Library. Sylvia died after 1850-1860 - could not find her in the 1860 census. She may have died in 1859 - a death record for a female Raymond without age or parental information who dies of Typhoid Fever in 1859 in Middleborough.
11. Moore, Diane L, Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts: An Alphabetic Index.

TO DO :
1. look up Raymonds and Dunhams in Plymouth County deeds
2. go to Middleborough Green cemetery and locate Priscilla Raymond Glazier gravesite and see if other Raymonds are buried near her UPDATE: see post here
3. see if Samuel or Sylvia Raymond left any probate records
4. find the shaw/ellis/harlow connection to this family UPDATE: further information here

Sweden

I received the book, Your Swedish Roots, for Christmas, and have been reading through it pretty quickly. In the past, I have spent some time on Genline and looking through many Swedish Parish records for Jeff's family history, so I already knew the basics of Swedish genealogy. I was hoping this book would help me find other information, such as location of specific farms listed in the household examination records. Also, since the Swedish records in Genline and SVAR are obviously in Swedish, I was hoping to gain some insight to information other than dates and names that are in these records that I was not able to read.

I have already learned quite a bit from this book, including finding location of farms from maps on The archives of the National Surveying Office's website, lantmateriet. I looked at the historical maps on the website, where you can search and purchase maps for parishes in Sweden. I was able to locate the boundaries of the farm of Haggard in Humla where Carl (Charles) Carlson, Jeff's great grandfather, was raised. It would be great to buy this map; however, my computer seems to crash every time I try to get to the purchase page. The digital version online allowed me to locate on google maps the location and the more current satelite view of this area. My next step is to see if there are other families living on this farm and to see if the household examination record in the parish book lists the occupation of Carl's father, Alfrid Carlson, on this farm. Now that I have some key Swedish terms from the book, I will be able to get more information out of the parish records.

Google map of the farm location Haggarden, Humla, Sweden
(green arrow is location of Haggarden farm)

View Blidsberg in a larger map

jeremiah white and hannah canterbury

Jeremiah White and Hannah Canterbury were my sixth Great Grandparents. They were married 270 years ago today on October 9, 1740 in Weymouth, MA. The Weymouth record has a notation for their intention of marriage at The First Church, South Precinct; perhaps this is where they were married. At this time, Mr. James Bayley was the pastor of this newly formed church in South Weymouth, as noted in The History of Weymouth (1_233). Although Jeremiah and Hannah were married in Weymouth, they probably lived their married life together in Abington, MA, as all of their 9 children's births were recorded in Abington. Hannah Canterbury White also died in Abington, MA.

I am not sure when Jeremiah and Hannah moved to Abington, but it seems that both of their families were originally from South Weymouth, MA, which is probably how they met. In the book, The History of Weymouth, Hannah Canterbury's family is outlined, with Hannah's father, John Canterbury, living on 74 acres in Weymouth. When Hannah's father died, he left his land to his wife and his only son Jacob, who lived in South Parish. (3_151) Hannah died at a young age, even before her father and mother, so the land she and Jeremiah had in Abington was probably not from her family. According to the book, The Vinton memorial, comprising a genealogy of the descendants of John Vinton of Lynn... , page 373, Jeremiah's father is Samuel White of Weymouth. This book has Samuel's residence in South Weymouth, so Jeremiah's childhood was spent in South Weymouth, similar to Hannah's. The book also states Samuel died intestate and insolvent, so Jeremiah would not have been handed down this land in Weymouth. Perhaps Jeremiah and Hannah moved to Abington as a newly married couple in 1740 since they had no family land in Weymouth. We do know that their first child, Hannah, was born and died in Abington in 1742.

Jeremiah and Hannah had six girls, two died young, and three boys. Their last child, John, was born in 1760 in Abington. Unfortunately Hannah died only five years later, leaving Jeremiah to care for seven children; two of which, Luther and Anne, would have been old enough to marry at 22 and 18 years old. I have not looked for their marriage records yet to see if they were married or still living at home when their mother died. As was common during this time in history though, Jeremiah remarried after his first wife's death. His second wife, Sarah Thayer, also died before him, and Jeremiah married a third time to a Mrs. Esther Kingman.
Since Jeremiah and his family were living in Abington, MA, I searched the History of the town of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, to see if there was a section on the White family. There are not many families discussed in this book, and unfortunately the White family was not included. There is a section on the Seven Years War, or the Old French War, as the book calls it. In this chapter, the book states there was a Jeremiah White who enlisted and survived this war which occurred between 1756-1763. I do not know how involved Jeremiah was in this war, but it must have been a frightening time for this young family during this period in history.
Since Jeremiah was living in 1790 according to the History of Weymouth book (d May 23 1794 (4_746)), I checked the first US Census. There is a Jeremiah White living in Abington, MA during this time. It could be our Jeremiah or his son Jeremiah. Either way, it seems Jeremiah the senior is probably living with his son, as there are two males over 16 in the household. Jeremiah the junior would have been too young to have a son over 16 years old. There is also 1 female living in the household along with 1 male under the age of 16, most likely Jeremiah and his wife's son. I will have to make sure Jeremiah's third wife Esther had died by 1790.
The History of Weymouth book has an interesting excerpt from a May 1792 Weymouth town meeting - (2_596) "a request was received by the following petitioners of Abington asking to be taken in by Weymouth, provided the general court would grant the petition to be separated from Abington : Josiah White, Lebulan Paine, Ezra Tirrell, Lebulan Paine Jr, Abiah Shaw, Joshua Curtis, Abiah Shaw, Jr., Thomas Hunt, Jeremiah White, John White and Benjamin White. voted to grant the petition." This Jeremiah is probably the junior, since Jeremiah the senior would have been over 80 years old in 1792; and Jeremiah the junior probably would have cared more about where his land was located at his younger age. I am not sure that their request passed, as I did not find any records of birth for Jeremiah and his wife in Weymouth or Abington. The following is another excerpt from Acts and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on google books:

There is a Jeremiah White in the "Century Old Houses" section of the History of Weymouth book that lives near Reuben Blanchard and Nathaniel Loud in Weymouth, near Abington town line (2_933). Either the above petition was approved by the General Court, or Jeremiah moved within the Weymouth town line. (could be the other Jeremiah White living in Weymouth after 1799 - see note below)


to do list:
1. Samuel's father was Ebenezer White, whose land was handed down to gr.gr. grandson abiel white, not to samuel. samuel moved to south weymouth - did he buy the land from someone or was it in his wife's family. see who abiel's father was. this land was land near where eventually christopher webb would live- history of weymouth book. seemed ebenezer probably lived in weymouth landing on commercial street as that is where abiel lives according to century old houses in weymouth.
2. locate canterbury land on historic map - how did jeremiah and hannah meet - were samuel white and john canterbury neighbors. did not find. locate land records. jacob canterbury sold some of the 74 acres in weymouth to reuben burrel and thomas colson
3. write chart for asa white who wrote about family of thomas white - see relation - also history of where white's lived. in nehgr on google.
4. find jeremiah's son jeremiah's wife and son dates : there is another jeremiah white (jeremiah's seniors nephew - son of benjamin) who marries a ruth derby in weymouth in 1799 - and have a son in may of 1800 who died young - the 1800 census was enumerated on 4 August 1800 according to ancestry.com, and this son dies in 1816 - so it could be this jeremiah's family and not the jeremiah jr. i did find jeremiah jr. death record for weymouth though in 1809 - so should be listed in census - perhaps he is living with a sibling - did he ever marry molly and have a child - seems to be living in abington in 1790 census though - unless that is the jeremiah the elder with another one of his children - see if other children of jeremiah senior are married with a child and not listed in census in 1790. also the jeremiah listed in the 1800 cenus is in the south parish - but cannot tell if they are near the abington line. look at other people listed in petition with jeremiah white to see if they are listed in 1800 census in weymouth or abington and estimate time frame the writer of century old houses writes about the jeremih white and others that live near the abington line - maybe he is talking about other jeremiah white.

alfred labrecque and florence edna brown

My Great grandfather, Alfred Napoleon Labrecque married his first wife, Florence Edna Brown, on October 4, 1906, one hundred and four years ago today. Alfred later would marry my Great grandmother Anne Ferguson.

Alfred and Florence were married in Quincy, MA by Minister Ellery C. Butler. I did a google search for Ellery to see which church he ministered, and found him listed on the website of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA. Ellery was at this church from 1894-1912 according to this website. I found it interesting that Alfred was married at this Unitarian church as he seem to have come from a strong Catholic background. It seems his wife Florence must have been from this church/denomination.

In 1906, when Alfred and Florence were married, they were both living in Quincy. Alfred was a reporter and 22 years old, while Florence was only 17 years old and still a student, according to their marriage record. In the 1908 Quincy Directory, they are living on Shennen Street. In the 1909 Quincy directory, Alfred is listed as Editor of the Quincy Telegram at 1382 Hancock Street, room 8, and still residing on Shennen Street, H N (which I assume stands for Houghs Neck, a section of Quincy). His father Achilles is also listed as residing in Houghs Neck, on Bay View Avenue, only 2 blocks away. Alfred's brothers, Arthur and Eugene, are listed as boarders of A N Labrecque, which could be Alfred, but most likely they are boarding at their father's Achille's house. The 1912 directory lists the house number for Alfred and Florence, at 48 Shennen Street, he still is the editor of Quincy Telegram, which now is on 10 Chestnut Street. His parents have moved to Sea Street at the corner of Albatross, still fairly close at just under 2 miles from each other. In 1914, Alfred moved to 490 Sea Street, corner of Albatross Road, the same address as his father Achille. It seems Alfred moved in with his father and siblings, as Arthur, Arthur J, Eugene and Corrine are all listed as boarders at this address also. Alfred is now the editor of the Quincy Evening Telegram, probably the same newspaper, with a slight name change at 1382 Hancock Street, room 8.

By 1916, Alfred decided to fight in WWI. He took advantage of his citizenship from Canada and enrolled in their military, as the US had not entered the war yet. This must have been a difficult decision, as he would have had to leave his wife and three children under the age of 8. On Alfred's military papers, dated April 1917, from Quebec, Canada, he states his wife Florence is living at 48 Shennen Street in Quincy, not at Sea Street as the 1914 directory states, and his parents living in Watertown, MA. This probably would have been more difficult for Florence, as she would not have the help of her children's grandparents and Aunts and Uncles, as they are now in two different cities. According to the 1900 Census of Florence's parents, she did not have any siblings to help her, and I could not locate her parents in the 1920 Census. It seems she did not have much support during this time when her husband was at war.

Sadly, Florence died while Alfred was away between the years of 1917-1919. Her name and address are crossed out and marked deceased on one of Alfred's military records as next of kin. Their son, Alfred Theodore Labrecque, is written in its place, living at 20 Westland Road, Watertown, MA, where Alfred's parents are living. Alfred was granted two leaves during his service, perhaps when his wife Florence had died. The first leave was for 14 days, granted January 27, 1918. The second leave was granted from September 28, 1918 to October 12, 1918. Alfred sailed home to Canada at the wars end in May 1919.

When Alfred comes back to the US after WWI, he changes occupations to an insurance broker. The 1920 Quincy directory has him working in the Alhambra building, and is living at 1269 Hancock Street. During this time period, Alfred was involved in a famous court case in Massachusetts. He was a character witness in the Sacco-Vanzetti case, used to challenge the credibility of the prosecution's eyewitness, Lola Andrews, as stated in the The Sacco-Vanzetti case: transcript of the record of the trial of Nicola Sacco Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the courts of Massachusetts and subsequent proceedings, 1920-7. Sacco and Vanzettie were two famous Anarchists, both found guilty and electrocuted for a robbery and murder in South Braintree, MA. Many people believe that Sacco and Vanzetti were falsely accused of this crime and that Lola Andrews gave false testimony in identifying Sacco in South Braintree.

Even though there is evidence that Alfred was in Quincy, MA around 1920, he is listed in the 1920 Census living with his parents and his siblings on Westland Road in Watertown, MA. I am not sure where Alfred's children were living, but they are not listed with him and his parents (their grandparents). Alfred's oldest child, Richard, would only have been 12 years old in 1920.

By 1922, Alfred is now married to Ann Ferguson, my great grandmother, and living at 17 Merrymount Road in Quincy. They supposedly met in the war, my great grandmother a nurse at Edinburgh, Scotland. I will write more on Alfred and his second marriage in another post.