An important part of this project has been reviewing genealogical research by others tracing their Swedish immigrants. We all want to make connections and fill-in our family trees, but this has led occasionally to errors. Before the easier access to documents through online services, especially Arkivdigital (now celebrating its 20th anniversary), people often relied on databases of Swedish births, etc. which were never all-inclusive, resulting in false leads and mistaken connections.
I've just been revising the family tree for an aligned family which has remained indecipherable – the Swanson family of Buffalo. Their origins remain unknown after extensive research. DNA still hasn't added any new clues. This weekend I have been cleaning and reconfirming the documentation that I have about the family, including the family's matriarch, Margaret Swanson. A specific birth date was listed in her death certificate (those documents can be unreliable). A motivated descendant had made a connection to an entry in a Swedish database and documented her as Margaret Elisabeth Carlsdotter (LDS ref. M7LG-Z5W) who was born 3 October1825 in Haraker parish in Västmanland län. Yesterday, I traced Margaret Elisabeth's life which ended with her death in Stockholm in 1869, disproving her connection to the Swanson family in Buffalo.
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| Henry and Margaret Swanson flanked by their six children (L to R): Peter, Mary, Alfred, unidentified young woman, Andrew, Alice, and Frank Unknown studio photographer, ca 1880, Buffalo, New York. Private collection. |
Henry Swanson (1826-1907) and Margaret (1825-1912) were important, successful early Swedish settlers in Buffalo, New York.1 They both arrived in the early 1850s, probably married in Buffalo in 1856, and settled in South Buffalo (13th Ward) where they farmed, bought land, and later prospered in real estate.
The Swansons were connected to the early Swedish community in Jamestown. In 1861, Henry Swanson bought five acres on Swede Hill in Jamestown at the same time that Israel Israelson [1853.011] and Magnus Oaklund [1854.i1935] purchased the adjacent five acres.4 Israelson was a founding member of the Swedish Methodist class in Jamestown.
For a long time I thought that there might be a family connection with Nels J. Swanson [1852.182] of Jamestown. Both Swansons were active in the Methodist church and Nels John Swanson's origin was also a mystery. But that changed when his descendant, Liz Anderson (Jamestown) provided me with a copy of the 50th anniversary book of the Swedish Methodists in Jamestown, Minnes-Album (1912) which provided details about his origin. It turned out that there was no family connection between Nels J. Swanson and Henry Swanson.
The family name of Henry Swanson's wife remains uncertain. The information provided for her burial in the family plot in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo indicates that Margaret's parents were Andrew and Margaret Olson and was likely supplied by one of her children. However, Lillian Jones later indicated in two different death certificates that her mother-in-law's maiden name was Margaret Carlson. I have not found an obituary for Henry Swanson in 1912 in Swedish newspapers, including Vårt Land of Jamestown. The obituary of Margaret Swanson appeared in Vårt Land (8 Aug 1912, p 1) but provided no information about her origins or unknown family connections.
- It is plausible that the Swansons were the Swedish family in south Buffalo who were visited by Hans Matson in the summer of 1851. Matson was leaving Buffalo to join friends working on farms in nearby Hamburg:
On the road to Hamburg, about dusk, we reached a small house by the wayside, where we asked for food and shelter. I was so exhausted that my friend had to support me in order to reach the house. We found it occupied by a Swedish family, which had just sat down to a bountiful supper. Telling them our condition, we were roughly told to clear out; in Sweden, they said, they had had enough of gentlemen and would have nothing to do with them here.
We retraced our steps with sad hearts until a short distance beyond the house we found an isolated barn partly filled with hay. There was no one to object, so we took possession and made it our temporary home. I am glad to say that during a long life among all classes of people, from the rudest barbarians to the rulers of nations, that family of my own countrymen were the only people who made me nearly lose faith in the nobler attributes of man. I have an excuse, however, for this conduct in the fact that in the mother-country, which they had left a year before, they had probably been abused and exasperated on account of the foolish class distinction then existing there. They evidently belonged to that class of tenants who were treated almost like slaves.
Hans Mattson (1891) The Story of An Immigrant. St, Paul: D.D. Merrill Co., p 17.
Frans Jonsson Klang arrived in Jamestown in 1853 and his membership in the Methodist Church was at odds with the activity of his older brother, Charles Jones [1852.055], a leader in the early Swedish Lutheran Church. Both were older brothers of my great-great grandfather who arrived with his family a decade later (1866). Seven of the twelve siblings from Målilla parish (Kalmar) emigrated to America.
Frank Jones (L), Jones Merchant Tailor, Randolph, NY
After serving in the US Navy during the Civil War, Frank Jones moved with his family to Randolph (Cattaraugus County) where he owned a shop and worked as a tailor.
Lillian Jones (1875-1948) and Peter Swanson (1860-1940) lived in Buffalo before migrating to California in 1906 where they became walnut farmers and ranchers in San Benito County [Swedish-American cowboys].- S.B. Newman (1890) Sjelfbiografi, p 176-178. Newman served the Swedish Methodist community from 1859-1866.
- Isaac Forbes & Samuel M. Stow to Henry Swanson, Chautauqua County (NY), Deeds Book 89, 192 ($175 for 5 acres), Forbes & Stow to Israel Israelson, Chautauqua County, Deeds Book 89, 190 ($87.50 for 2.5 acres), and Forbes & Stow to Henry Swanson Chautauqua County, Deeds Book 89, 191 ($87.50 for 2.5 acres).
