My Swedish Roots

For the last two and half years, I have been working on my Family tree.  At first, I had found out about my family through my great great grand parents for both  my parents.  As I have already stated, I found out I was mostly English and European on my father's side through both 17th Century and 19th Century immigration to the America, and Swedish and Irish on my mothers side through 19th Century immigration to the US.  But as I was researching my family tree, I only got as far as my great great grand parents on my mother's side, but I found two great grandmothers on my father's side who took me back over a thousand years and over ten thousand names.

Recently, I have been in contact with a maternal cousin who has been interested in her family tree for many years and was reinvigorated by ancestry.com and found out about my interest.  (She passed on August 9, 2016 at 81 yearts old).

At first, we discussed discrepancies in information about our maternal great grandmother, Mary Mathilda English (Boydell),  who had Irish roots.  We had interesting conversations regarding her since she apparently had different married names, and dates of birth and places of birth on various records.  We came to some agreement about her, but nothing definite which what happens a lot when working on a family tree.  Nothing is ever certain.  

A second subject, we discussed was my Swedish roots based on my grandfather, Elof Malmgren's family.  I found out a lot about them from information that was obtained by a great cousin who had been working on her family tree since the 1950's.  Her name was Igne Evangeline Larson Chell. She was the daughter of my great aunt Selma Malmgren, my grandfather's youngest sister.  She traveled to Sweden and Europe looking for relatives and she had Swedish relatives come to the US to meet many family members in the 1970's.  My parents told me about her.  

She wrote about her travels and research of  our family in a book called "Hands Across the Water" (which can be found on amazon.com).  My cousin just sent me a copy of this book, and it was fascinating.   I learned a lot about my Swedish family roots and the names of a lot of relatives who had Swedish roots.

There are pictures of my mother and her brothers and sisters in the book,as well as pictures of other family members of our family tree.  My name and wife and daughters names are also mentioned in the book.

I did not learn about any new great grand parents that I did not already know, but I did get a better idea about my Swedish family.

As I already found out, my great grandfather, Nils Malmgren and his wife Anna, were from Malmö, Skåne County , Sweden which is the most southern county of Sweden.  It is very near Denmark and Copenhagen. 

Here is a copy of a web page of the History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota stating that “Nels Malmgren and Anna Malmgren were both born in Sweden, where they followed farming until 1872, when they emigrated to America stopping at Sauk Center, where they kept a boarding camp during their first summer in this country, in connection with which means of livelihood, Mr. Malmgren was employed on the railroad, and in the fall of that year, they came to Otter Tail County, and settled in Eastern township, where they took up a  homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, which place is now owned by their son. Mr. Malmgren improved his home place and followed general farming and stock raising, spending the remainder of his life here. To Nels and Anna (Monson) Malmgren were born seven children, Johanna, Magnus. Alfred. Ida. Mary. Elof (my grandfather), and Selma M.”

From  "Hands Across the Water", I get further information:

"A great cousin described my great grandparents as healthy and robust and deeply spiritual.  They were members of the Swedish Lutheran Church.  Physically, my great grandfather was a giant, and my great grandmother small in stature."

"They and their two oldest children, Joanna and Magnus, emigrated from Sweden in  April 1872, along with many other family members, friends and fellow country people.  They left Malmö, after my great grandfather had made some money farming, and continued to Copenhagen, and on to Liverpool where they boarded a big boat.  They traveled third class.  They arrived in New York, and traveled by train to St. Paul and on to Sauk Center, Minnesota, which was the end of the railroad.  On the homestead in Parker's Prairie, they took up the pioneering lifestyle.  They bought a team of Oxen for $110, a cow for $30 and then built a wagon, then a house and a barn."  

My grandfather was born in 1881 on that homestead, being the ninth child of ten born, and fourth son.  (two sisters died after birth in Sweden and a son died after birth in Minnesota).  My grandfather is described as "a young sprightly talented man in music, business and personality, born fifty years ahead of his time".   

Picture of Grandpa Elof with his sisters Mary and Selma





Picture of Elof and Florence Malmgren (in Front)



My grandmother, Florence