The Swedes Come Out of the Weeds

In October, 2009 I wrote THIS POST about my Great Grandmother, Olive (Hassel) Rathkamp, my dad’s grandmother.  Olive died in 1926, 16 years before my dad was born.  Until last week she and her Swedish ancestors continued to be a complete mystery.  I’ve accumulated some anecdotal evidence, but nothing concrete.  I’ve long suspected her father was Charles Hassel, knew she lived in Michigan, suspected she was born in Sweden, and suspected her mother died when she was young.  That’s it.  Not exactly something a genealogist would hang his hat on.

hassel-anna-death-record-combinedI have literally had three different people listed as possibly being her mother.  This death record seemed to indicate her mother was Anna (Erickson) Hassel who apparently died in childbirth on December 17, 1892 a date which coincides with the birth of Olive’s sister Ella.

Anna would have been 8 years younger than Charles and would have only been 16 when she had Olive.  Not out of the realm of possibilities.

I knew I’d have much better luck finding Olive’s mom if I could find a birth record from Sweden.  This was no easy task.  The only thing I had to go on was Charles’ obit from 1937.1hassell-charles-small-obit  This obit states that he was from Nora, Westmanlan (Vastmanland), Sweden.  If this was true it would have helped.  But Charles lied.  Actually he probably didn’t lie.  It’s amazing how facts are distorted through the lens of time.  Soon tiring of finding the needle in the haystack, I decided to try my old trick of working sideways.

Iron Mountain, Michigan was an iron mining town and went through a boom during the late 1800’s.  Similar to what’s happening now in North Dakota and the tar sands in Canada, workers were recruited to Iron Mountain from other areas of the world.  Even today, looking through the Iron Mountain phone book, you’ll notice two distinct ethnic groups:  Swedes and Italians.  It’s not a coincidence that skilled miners could be found in both Sweden and Italy.  These young men, searching for opportunity, ended up working together in the iron mines of Iron Mountain.

Knowing this, I started searching emigration information for some of the other Swedes that had settled in Iron Mountain.  One town that seemed to show up on more than one occasion was the town of Grythyttan, Örebro, Sweden.  Plugging this town into Google Maps, I soon discovered Grythyttan was only some 20 miles away from….Nora, Örebro, Sweden.  Grythyttan is a small town.  A small town, along with an uncommon Swedish surname would surely make my life easier.  And it did.

Ancesty.com has done a nice job of integrating the Swedish Genline database.  I quickly was able to find this gem:  hassel-carl-august-swedish-birth-record  From there, I was off to the races.  I now knew my Swedish ancestors were from Grythyttan and soon I was able to find Olive’s birth record too.  It seems her first name wasn’t Olive.  No surprise.  Olive was her middle name and her first name was Ingeborg.  Now that sounds Swedish.

So who is Olive’s mom?  Charles married Josephine Bergquist on January 7, 1892, three weeks after Anna’s death.  But it turns out Anna wasn’t Olive’s mom either.  For years, I’ve had a copy of a ship’s manifest showing a Sofie and Olive Hassel coming into the U.S. in March of 1888.  But because I stuck on the possibility that Olive’s mom was Anna, I dismissed this record.

It turns out that on May 17, 1884 (two years before Olive was born), Charles married Sophia Sax in Grythyttan.

The ship’s manifest was correct.  Sophia was Olive’s mother.  Since then, I’ve found another record.  This record shows Sofia and Olive made the trip with Charles’ brother Andrew.  It shows they were from Grythyttan.  And it shows there destination was…Iron Mountain, Michigan.hassel-sofia-olivia-gothenburgswedenpassengerlists-1888-highlighted

So here’s my best guess…Charles and Sophia marry in 1884, Olive was born in 1886.  Charles emigrates without his wife and young daughter, to Iron Mountain, then his brother Andrew, Sophia, and Olive are sent for.  Sometime between their arrival and 1890/91, Sophia dies and Charles, finding himself unable to work in the mine and care for Olive, marries Anna.  Anna dies in 1892, Charles again finds himself in a bind and marries Josephine.

My great aunt, Grace Larson often took me up to her cabin between Merrill and Tomahawk, Wisconsin.  In 1974 during one of our trips “up north”, Grace and I drove up to Iron Mountain.  I was 10.  In Iron Mountain, we toured the Chapin Mine.  While writing this post, I recalled this tour and vaguely remembered these pictures being tucked away in a photo album Grace put together for me.  Grace’s sister was Alice “Pat” Rathkamp, my grandmother.  Pat was married to Bill Rathkamp, my grandfather.  Bill’s mother was Olive, my Great Grandmother.  Olive’s father was Charles, my Great Great Grandfather.  Charles and his brother worked in this mine.  I think Grace may have taken me to Iron Mountain for a reason.

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Esther Just Before Easter

Last week, my cousin Paul asked via FaceBook if I’ve dug up any “Dead Rathkamps” lately.  The answer was a simple “no”.  I’ve been so busy with other stuff that I haven’t really been working on any genealogy projects lately.  One of my favorite nightly rituals is to log on to Google Reader and peruse a bunch of articles.  Most of the feeds I subscribe to are either Tech feeds, genealogy, or history.  Randy Seaver has an excellent blog whose articles occasionally catch my attention.  In this particular post, Randy mentioned the addition of several Wisconsin probate and death records to FamilySearch.

I followed the link to FamilySearch and plugged in the name Rathkamp.  I’ve been doing this for so many years that it’s pretty rare for me to see a name I’ve never seen before. Tonight was an exception. Right there, front and center was Esther Rathkamp.  I read down a little and noticed her parents were Wm. Rathkamp and Olive Hessel.  These are my great grandparents!

Genealogy can be a real SOB.  You run around (hopefully with some direction) trying to either solve problems or look for clues.  My experience has been that often times, you end up solving one problem, and in the process create 5 more unanswered questions.  Case in point:

Problem solved:  This find acknowledges and confirms the 1910 US Census where Olive states she has given birth to two children, one living.

Problems created:

  • Why is Olive’s name spelled “Hessel” instead of Hassell or Hassel?
  • Why does it show “Mother’s place of birth” as Germany?  She was (I am almost certain) born in Sweden.
  • Are Wm. and Olive married at this point?  I have NOT been able to find a marriage record for them.  Wm.’s first wife, Sophie Hartmann, died 11 Jan., 1906.  That’s a small, but not impossible window.
  • Esther died on 15 July, 1909.  My grandfather, also William, was born 10 days later.  I can’t imagine a mother taking that kind of pain into childbirth.