Robert Emanuel Klarstrom was the fifth child of Carl Magnus Klarstrom and Christina Elisabeth Bennberg.

He was born on 24 April 1875 in Alvkarleby, Sweden.

His family moved to Lenhovda when he was ten, then on to Alem for a year and then to Gavle.

When he was 18, he boarded a ship bound for Boston, with his older brother Hjalmar.  His sister Maria was already living in Boston at the time.  Did he stay with her family?

The only trace of him I’ve found after this immigration record, is the 1900 census.
He was living in Odell Twp, Fall River County, South Dakota as a boarder to Gustav Johnson. He was working as a sandstone quarryman.

Fall River county appears to be in the middle of nowhere!

I then found a Robert Klarstrom in the 1910 census (although the birth year and immigration dates are off a bit).  It might be him.  This Robert was living in Gales Creek Precinct, Washington County, Oregon – on a Rail Road Construction gang.  Could this be my Robert?

Did he die working on the railroads?  Did he return to Sweden?

 

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Wow.  Another week has somehow zipped by.  Time seems to be getting away from me.  Maybe it’s because the movers will be at my house in less than three weeks!  Or maybe it’s the fact that we’re taking yet another trip to Disney World next week.  Whatever it is, I feel like it had better slow down a bit or I’m not going to get everything on my to-do list done. 🙂

Here are some of my favorites from this past week:

  1. I loved reading Cynthia of Heritage Zen’s  3 part series “A Comedy of Errors: My Family in the Census.”  Make sure you study up for the quiz at the end. 🙂
  2. You still have time to join in on Bill West’s Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge over at West in New England.  I’m writing my post this weekend.  Hopefully I can get it done before we head to Florida again on Monday. 🙂  The deadline for your post is Sunday at midnight.
  3. And thank you to Michelle of The Turning of Generations for giving me the kick in the pants I needed to get my blog reading organized.  I’ve been putting it off for months, but it’s gotten absolutely out of control and it had to be organized.  I now feel like I can navigate through my blog subscriptions with ease.
  4. The 104th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is out.  Head on over to Creative Gene to peruse the great articles – this edition’s theme is “Cars”.
  5. Are you heading to the NGS Conference next month?  If you are, have you added your surnames to the Surname Catalog? Who knows, you might find a long-lost cousin!!
  6. I also loved the post “Never Say Never” written by Deborah at “Irish Genealogy: Help!  The Faery Folk Hid My Ancestors”
  7. Judy from Curbow-Montoya Family’s post on being an Army Brat really hit home with me.  I personally grew up in one spot, so I never had to deal with being the new kid.  I’ve married into the military though and have 5 little “Army Brats” of my own.  I often wonder how they will look back on all of our moving around.
  8. Have you been following Cheryl Palmer’s series on the Great Swedish Adventure?  She’s up to Part 7 and it’s getting exciting!  Click on over to Heritage Happens and wish her good luck!!
  9. Head over to Finding Family Stories to read about Tami’s 8th great-grandfather in the post “The Sad Story of Godfrey Nims
  10. Grab some tissues and read Sheri from the Educated Genealogist’s post, “Moments Like This Are Why I Love My Job“.
  11. I finally sat down and set up a genealogy-only Twitter account.  I really didn’t want to bore people who were following to hear about homeschooling or mommyhood with my dead ancestors.  If you feel so inclined, you can start following me on twitter – the link is in my sidebar.
  12. A big thank you to my long-time friend Cherie at Have You Seen My Roots? She managed to make my faded baby from this week’s Wordless Wednesday a little less faded.  Amazing, huh? Now if only I could figure out who it is!

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Hjalmar Alexander Klarstrom was born in March of 1873 in Alvkarleby, Sweden.  He was the fourth child of Carl Magnus Klarstrom and Christina Elisabeth Bennberg.

His family moved from Alvkarleby to Lenhovda in 1885, from Lenhovda to Alem in 1889, and on to Gavle in 1890, where his father died that year.

At 20 years old, on 26 May 1893, he left Goteborg for Boston with his younger brother Robert.

His older sister, Maria, had been in Boston for ten years and was already married with a young daughter at this time.  Perhaps they stayed with her family when they arrived.

I thought that he would be easy to find.  Hjalmar isn’t exactly that common of a name, after all (but I was really surprised at how common of a name it is in Sweden).  It means “helmet- warrior” in Old Norse, by the way.

I have no trace of him after his immigration record though.

I wonder if he may have Americanized his name.  What would Hjalmar be changed to anyway?  I am having a hard time making a guess since I can’t even figure out how to pronounce it. Or perhaps he went by his middle name instead.  I didn’t find any trace of an Alexander Klarstrom either though.

I wonder what happened to him?  His sisters were so easy to trace in the Boston area.  Why did he disappear?  Maybe he only used Boston as a jumping off point for further adventures.  Did he head West?  Did he work for a while and return to Sweden?

Perhaps I’ll never know…

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undefinedI feel so incredibly lucky to have Swedish roots.  Let me count the reasons…..

  1. I have absolutely fallen in love with the beautiful St. Lucia Day celebration.  I am bound and determined to attend one.  One of my favorite pictures is of my grandmother, participating in one of these lovely ceremonies.
  2. IKEA.  Who doesn’t love IKEA?? 🙂
  3. The landscapes in Sweden are breath-taking.
  4. I always loved the Swedish chef from The Muppet Show.  Yes, I’m a child of the 80’s.
  5. For some reason, I really like Swedish names.  Lars. Gunnar. Brita. Elvy. And it cracks me up that my great-great grandfather’s middle name was Magnus.  I imagine him as a huge hulk of a man just because of that name. 🙂
  6. But by far my favorite thing about having Swedish roots is the fact that they kept such fantastic parish records!  Births, Deaths, Baptisms, Marriages, Moving records, and Household Examinations that list everything from birth dates and places, immigration information, shot records, and lots of other really helpful stuff.  Most of them go back to the early 1700’s and some further than that.  I have been having so much fun trying to decipher what I’ve found.

Do you have Swedish roots?

Have you traveled to Sweden to do research or simply visit?  Did you find long lost relatives still living there?

I would really love to go there someday.

 

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