I'm trying to confirm the birth information about my great great grandfather, Charles John Gardner (

Ronda_West_Hydar

I have Charles' death certificate, which says he was born 24 Sep 1852 in Vastervik Sweden. I have lots of information and evidence from the time he marries my great great grandmother, but nothing before that. I'm looking for any documentation from his birth, immigration, and to when he met up with my great grandmother.

 

His profile on Family tree is: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9QY8-7R3

 

His profile on Ancestry is at: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/150867676/person/302002358444/story

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

Ronda

Morris Geoffrey Fröberg

Hello #[Ronda West Hydar]​ ,

 

I looked over the evidence for Charles John Gardner and this is what I gather and would suggest:

• Birth: There is a nice consistency in the records that Charles John was born in 1852 or 1853. The only source that showed a birth month was the 1900 U.S. Fed. Census as September. I didn't see where the 24th was listed. Where did you see the place name Västervik? None of the sources on Ancestry or FamilySearch mention Västervik.
• There is a nice consistency to his year of emigration being 1866 (1910, 1930 U.S. Fed. Censuses and might have intended on the 1920). The challenge is the Swedish government did not require departure records until 1869. He would be mentioned in the moving out records of a parish but we don't know which parish he was living in. There is a database of Swedish emigrants registered in Swedish church books but with the name variants it's hard to know which one is your ancestor even with a smaller number of people emigrating in 1866.
• It's unusual that he first shows up in Missouri as a very small percentage of Swedish emigrants went to southern states. The migration from Missouri to Michigan, then to Minnesota, Nebraska, and then to California is really interesting. That's great you found evidence in these places that identify the same family.
• Names: Charles would be Karl. John could be Johan, Johannes, Jon, John, Jöns, Jan, or even Jaen or a variation on Jonas. Gardner is a name he used in the U.S. It's not a Swedish name, although it could be a variant form of a name, or place name, from back in Sweden. The great grand daughters memory of the surname Benson (or Bengtson, Bentson) is interesting but so far there is no evidence to support this.

 

I did a search in the database of Swedish emigrants registered in Swedish church books for a Karl Johan (and the many variants that could become John), born abt. 1851-1853, who emigrated between 1865-1867 with a blank last name and I still see too many possible matches to identify your ancestor. If he emigrated from Denmark he would not show up in Swedish emigration sources.

 

Suggestions:

• The marriage record in 1874 shows the ceremony was performed by a minister J. P. Boyle. See if you can find church records for J. P. Boyle's congregation. Maybe they are registered, maybe a congregation record lists a birth date and place.
• The U.S. 1900 census shows a nephew Gilbert Larson living with his family. Gilbert was born in Minnesota in about 1878. See if you can find him with his parents in the 1880 U.S. Fed. Census and then follow Gilberts parents to find their place of origin in Sweden. One of them should lead to Charles father's or mother's family back in Sweden.
• The obituary for Charles in 1938 says he is survived by a sister in Anaheim, California. See if you can identify the sister and then follow her back to Sweden to identify the rest of the family.
• Have you done DNA testing? If there is a surviving paternal male descendant, then a Y DNA test would help. If you and other family members do DNA tests with Ancestry, be sure to upload the DNA results to MyHeritage as there are more people testing in Sweden with MyHeritage.
• Look for application papers to naturalize in Clay County Nebraska, Kandiyohi County Minnesota, Kent County Michigan, Nodaway County Missouri. Hopefully the papers to naturalize shed additional insight on his surname, support his emigration year, or any other clue that might be there.

 

I hope you will return to this community group as you find more evidence.

Best regards,

Geoff

LegacyUser

Thanks so much for the suggestions, Morris - appreciate it!

 

And to answer, I got Vastervik from his death certificate, which his son filled out. So, I'm assuming that Charles told his son (and family) that he was from there. I also know that he & his eldest daughter visited there later in his life, and I found some documents around their travel, but will continue to look

 

Ronda