treetrack'n

J is for Johan August Jansson (1843-1915)

Swedish household examination books are a little goldmine for searching your Swedish ancestors. They contain birth, marriage, and sometimes death information and the comings and goings of the people. All you need to know is the parish where your ancestor lived. Not so easy, I know.

But I got lucky while searching for my grandfather, Carl Albanus Ahlborg. I knew when he arrived in the United States and I knew his last residence from the passenger list. From there it was just a matter of tracing him back in the church books. And these confirmed what we had suspected. He was illegitimate. And my great-grandmother, Johanna Juliana Lundström, named Johan August Jansson as the father. As my father used to say, hot diggity dog.

The church books tell an interesting story for Johan. He was born in Husaby in 1843 and by 1863 lived in Biskopstomten. In 1869 he left for Amerika. I have no idea why he left Sweden or where he lived in the United States. By 1873 he was back home, possibly because his father Johann Petter Jansson had died the previous year. He is mysteriously missing from the church books in April of 1876 but reappears in May. Carl was born in September of that year in Skara.

He never married Johanna but in 1886, he married Anna Elizabet Roman who worked on the same farm. They had four children, Sophia Stina, Sven Johan, Anna Elizabet and Erik Mattheus. 

Now if I could just learn to read a bit more of the old handwriting I might stand a chance of finding a few more answers. And my apologies for any spelling errors I have made.

Household exam book from Skara-landsförsamling-AI-11-1863-1866-Image-8-page-1c