Anna Lovisa Andersdotter Bruzelius 1842-1933

A great but surprising find. Today I noted on the immigrant ship manifest of my great uncle Håkan Patrik Källman that he had stated his aunt as his connection in America. No name just "aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts". I went about searching for who this aunt may be. This aunt now in America could be head of a line of additional cousins in the U.S.

I began by listing all of grand uncle Håkan Patrik's (and my grandfather Richard's) aunts and immediately eliminated those that I had verified had died in Sweden. I began to research his aunt Anna Lovisa Andersdotter. I only had a date of birth on her so perhaps she was the one?

No, she lived married and died in Sweden according to an Ancestry.com family tree of a Swedish man. I had doubts though if this was the same Anna Lovisa. There were photos of his Anna Lovisa, her husband and family, well dressed in their studio portraits. Photographs taken as early as the 1860's. Those photos were expensive. Anna Lovisa and my great grandfather Carl Teodor came from a poor family, their father a tenant farmer. My own grandfather had had an even poorer childhood and no photos were ever afforded for his family when they were young. My Anna Lovisa wealthy?

I dug deeper and found documents/ records confirming that this Anna Lovisa was indeed my families Anna Lovisa, no doubt about it. How did this poor farm girl do so well?  Anna's husband was a lawyer. A lawyer close to thirty years older then she. Even with the period clothes and severe mid-19th century hairdo you also can see from her portrait that Anna Lovisa was quite a beautiful woman. Oh yeah, I think Anna Lovisa was perhaps a 19th century "Trophy wife"! 

1858

44 yr old Carl Ludwig Theodore Bruzelius

and his 16 yr old bride Anna Lovisa Andersdotter

My Great Grand Aunt

Anna Lovisa Andersdotter Bruzelius

7 Jan 1842 - 13 Mar 1933

 Genealogy is about making connections

 - to the past, to family members living today, 

as well as to future generations.

Welcome!

In the early 20th century my paternal grandparents, Richard Severin Kallman and Lydia Abrahamson, immigrated from Sweden settling in Chicago. I am exploring their immigrant journey to "Amerika" and life in Swedish Chicago.   I've been researching my family tree in earnest for over twenty years and  I am happy to share the photos, documents, stories, information and thoughts I have gathered.  Are we related? Do you have comments, corrections, information/pictures to add? Let's connect and share.

Grandmothers with Grandchildren - Lydia Abrahamson Kallman

My grandmother Lydia Kallman
with two grandbabies

This is my grandmother Lydia Kallman in 1952. I am the baby in her right arm and my cousin Robert is in her left. We were born just 6-8 weeks apart. I am the elder baby but even at this young age it was obvious I was the shorter. Well, no lie because he topped out at about 6'4" and I was lucky to squeak up to 5"3".  My drivers license says that I am officially 5'4" but I admit I lied and I never was. My weight on the license? None of your business how much I lied about that.

My focus in the past was always on my cousin and myself. I also was happy to get a pretty good photo of my grandmother, the way I remembered her.

Today when I viewed this photo I realized that since Grandma was born in 1890 she was all of 62 when this photo was taken. I am 4 years older than that now! And Grandma looks old to me! Whoa.....do I look this old? Lie if you must. I am old enough to know better than to ask my grand kids that question. After all, like they say...

"children, drunks and stretch pants don't lie".

Hoping to be remembered fondly 

(even if old) by my grand kids,

The end of a dream - Richard Kallman

For my grandfather Richard, the dream was to have a farm. Back in Sweden, one of the main "pulls" bringing men to America was the possibility of owning land. Swedish farms were small and families were large. Only the oldest son inherited the family farm. The later sons were out of luck. Their only future was working anothers farm as a field hand, the military or merchant marines, going down into the mines or the long hard dirty hours of factory work.

My grandfather Richard was also forever working on his "inventions". Looked like some type of farm equipment. I remember one he called the "plowmaster". Hate to tell you grandpa but I think that's a combine and Cyrus McCormick beat you to it.

He was finally able to farm but that dream was short lived. Why? Perhaps his health, the depression economy, his children growing up and moving on to their own lives?...nothing worked in his favor. The farm and all it held went up for auction.

Grandpa Richard with Grandma Lydia and their two youngest daughters returned to Chicago. Their youngest son, my Dad? World War II was already raging overseas and in just a few months he would be off to Europe.