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Emigration Documents Dated September 20, 1871 Indicate

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Emigration documents dated September 20, 1871 indicate that Nels and Anna left Sweden destined for “Amerika” with their four youngest children.26 Although a mere fifteen years of age, Charles Oscar, who went by the name of Charley throughout his life, didn’t emigrate with his parents.27 Furthermore, Jack’s status, approximately thirteen at the time and conspicuously absent from the list of children traveling with Nels and Anna, remains unexplained. Nevertheless, for the family members that did emigrate, their surname changed from Svenssen to the anglicized version, Swenson, which undoubtedly occurred when they entered the United States.28 From the Eastern Seaboard the Swenson family presumably traveled by rail to Rush City, Minnesota…show more content…
William’s maternal grandmother’s parents and both sets of her grandparents resided near the center of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Brunflo parish, Jämtland, Sweden.5 Jämtland exists as both a historical province and a modern county. However, unlike Gotland, the borders of the province and county do not coincide. The age-old community of Brunflo lies in central Jämtland on the shore of Storsjön, which translates into English as the Great Lake. The area around the lake, the Storsjö district, serves as the administrative, economic, and cultural hub of Jämtland, a status that dates back for centuries.5

The historical Jämtland, a sparsely populated region inhabited by Jamts with a culture and language dialect distinct from either Swedish or modern Norwegian, originated as an independent, though loosely administered, republic. Centuries of governance by Norway, the Kalmar Union, and Denmark-Norway followed, which established a tradition of Norwegian trade anchored by the port city of Trondheim, located approximately one hundred and fifty miles west of the Storsjö district. Sweden forcefully contested the governance of the region in the mid-1500s, and subsequent to nearly a century of conflict, Denmark-Norway, officially relinquished their claim on Jämtland to Sweden in the same 1645 treaty by which the Swedes obtained their control over Gotland. However, the Jamts openly defied Swedish rule, persisted in preserving their traditional trading alliances with the
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