1890 Swedish Census - The family of great grandfather Karl Teodor Källman

Living on Grytgol in Hellestads, Östergötlands, Sweden

In this 1890 census the Källman family is complete with daughter Tekla being born the year before. By the next census in 1900 mother Klara Sofia will be gone. She died of Tuberculosis in 1898. Karl is listed as an arbetare or laborer. In 1901 surnames became compulsory in Sweden. The family dropped the patronymic Andersson and solely used the name Källman.

    Karl Teodor Andersson Källman arbetare born: 1853 in Tjällmo, Östergötlands 

    wife: Klara Sofia Bergvall born: 1854 in Lerbäck, Örebro

    son: Håkan Patrik born 1880 in Hellestads, Östergötlands

    son: Karl Botvid born 1883 in Hellestads, Östergötlands

    son: Richard Severin born 1887 in Hellestads, Östergötlands

    daughter: Sarona Rebecak born 1878 in Tjällmo, Östergötlands

    daughter: Olga Eufemia born 1885 in Hellestads, Östergötlands

    daughter: Tekla Eugenia born 1889 in Hellestads, Östergötlands

***accessed through the Riksarkivet SVAR-Svensk arkivinformation (Swedish Archives)
https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/Folk_905090-056#?c=&m=&s=&cv=55&xywh=-940%2C-76%2C2678%2C1501

Collecting Family Memories, not just Collecting Stuff - "Great Aunt Olga's Crystal"

I recently read an article all "Baby Boomer" parents should read... "Memo to parents: your adult kids don't want your stuff" . I get it. I see the more minimalist view of things my kids have. My own daughter felt she had to break it to me gently that she was dumping her china cabinet. The china cabinet that proudly displayed her dishes. Dishes that had originally been bought in and brought from Norway by her great grandmother, my maternal grandmother Dagmar. She explained that she treasured those dishes but did not see the need to display them for all the world to see when they came out only at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Again, I get it.



Or do I? Top shelve in my china cabinet sits hand blown antique-looking crystal glasses with gold rims. They once belonged to my mother. She said they were given to her by my great Aunt Olga who told her that she didn't care much for her own daughter in law and liked her so "here they are". That was in 1955. Mom never once used them. Now they sat in my china cabinet. I also have never once used them. We always referred to them as "Aunt Olga's crystal" but as I got into genealogy/family history I found that great Aunt Olga could not have given them to Mom as she and her husband never had any children. Perhaps it was her sister, great Aunt Tekla who gave them to her? However these ladies were my Dad's aunts, my mom barely knew them as they lived in California and 1955 was the only time Mom went to California. I, never knew my great aunts at all. Yet "Aunt Olga's crystal" has been in either my Mom's or my china cabinet, occasionally dusted for sixty three years now. 

NEVER USED ONCE AND... I THINK THEY ARE UGLY.

As I move further and further along in my family history journey I have collected many precious photos, documents and stories. I have also "collected" many precious 2nd, 3rd, even 6th  etc. cousins both here in the U.S and in Scandinavia who have helped to flesh out the story of our family. I learned that Aunt Olga had panned for gold in Alaska with her husband when she was young and I found pride that she was strong enough to move on without him when she discovered him to be "a ladies man". But "Aunt Olga's crystal" that perhaps wasn't even hers? It never held meaning for me. I was just collecting "STUFF".  OUT IT GOES.


This coming weekend my German born husband and I are hosting an Oktoberfest German dinner for family and a few friends. So it was again necessary for the time consuming job of dusting and polishing the pride of this baby boomer woman...the expensive, Thomasville, dark wood, lighted, china cabinet displaying seldom used matching china services, crystal and silver place settings.
They were gifts from family and family friends now long gone who came to our wedding at the Glenview Evangelical Free Church and arrived at the reception carrying a nicely wrapped box from Marshall Fields. They gave us those place settings along with their love, prayers and best wishes that this young couple would have a long and happy life together. Forty-Five years later that china, crystal and silver hold meaning for me, so they stay.


I have made peace with the reality that my filled china cabinet doesn't hold the same meaning for my kids. When I am gone, to them it is just STUFF.  OUT IT GOES.

Yup, I get it.

p.s. "Aunt Olga's crystal" will stay boxed in my basement for awhile just in case a cousin feels it would have meaning for them. If so, it is yours for the taking. Come and get it.

p.p.s. June 2023 update - We sold our large house and downsized to a townhome. "Aunt Olga's crystal"? Out it went, along with lots of other "stuff". The china cabinet, a baby boomer anachronism? It stays of course!

Mystery Cowboy

This photo was another that came to me from a cousin last week. No name, place, or date on the back with a clue as to who this is. It was however stored among other photos of the Swedish family. My cousin thought it may be my Uncle Albin Kallman, Lydia Abrahamson Kallman's oldest son. I think not. Zooming in on my photoshop program I just do not think it looks like him although this photo is small and enlarging creates a somewhat blurry photo. Also Albin and his family settled in California as farmers. The setting of this photo is very different. 

Although I have no other photos of him and have never met him I am venturing this may be my great Aunt Olgas husband Uno Markus Palm. Olga and her husband, in the early 20th century went up to Alaska to pan for gold. Look at the surroundings, the "cowboy" himself and his dress and demeanor. Snow on the ground, harsh scruffy landscape, the horse is not even on a trail. The horse is saddled up for some serious riding not just a photo shoot. The "cowboy" is a quite tall, straight sitting, clean shaven, light, rather good looking fellow. He has a gun at his belt, unholstered, apparently at the ready. It is a revolver, (personal protection?) while it seems to me that a farmer would more likely carry a rifle. His cowboy hat style is early 20th century. The horse, dark and handsome is sturdy, this is no show animal, he gets ridden and hard. Was this taken in Alaska? I heard Uno Markus was a tall, good looking and arrogant "ladies man".  He was also Swedish. born in 1883. They had no children and he and Aunt Olga separated early on.

Well, any thoughts?

**click on photo to enlarge for easier viewing or download to your computer and really zoom in**

Friday's Faces from the Past - Olga and Tekla Källman

These are my great aunts, the sisters of my grandfather, Richard Kallman. Their family was very very poor. With money for a ticket earned by siblings already in America, Olga (on the right) immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden arriving at Ellis Island September 29, 1902. She was 16 years old. She worked in Chicago as a domestic, saved her money, and returned to Sweden in 1907 for her sister Tekla (on the left). Olga returned to Chicago bringing her 17 year old sister Tekla through Ellis Island on September 6, 1907.

       
I never knew them as they settled in California when I was very young but my California cousin Jeanette did and spoke highly of them. I thank her for this photo.

          My Great Aunts

          Olga Eufemia Källman Palm

          born: 03 Nov 1885 Grytgòl, Hällestad, Östergötland, Sweden

          died: 23 Sep 1984 Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A.

          Tekla Eugenia Källman Peterson

          born: 03 Oct 1889 Grytgòl, Hällestad, Östergötland, Sweden

          died: 01 Oct 1979 Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A.

Aunt Olga was a gold miner?

Olga Eufemia Källman, my grandfather Richard's older sister was born in Sweden in 1885 and came to the US in 1902.  Census records showed me that she worked as a domestic in Chicago until her marriage to Uncle Uno Markus Palm in 1911. They lived also in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and eventually they ended up in California where both of her sisters, Tekla and Sarona, with their families, also lived. She died in 1984 in California. They did not to my knowledge have any children.

I was however missing the 1920 census record. And then I found it. It had to be them. How many Olga and Uno Palms, both born in Sweden, both the exact right age, with no children, could there be?

They were in Wiseman, Keokuk, Alaska! And the occupation? "Mining for placer gold on their own account". Get out of here!

1920 US Census Wiseman, Keokuk Alaska

I know virtually nothing about gold mining in Alaska and what I do know is only what I overhear my husband listening to on the Discovery channel "Gold Rush" show. I HATE that show. It's a guy thing I guess, but I digress (again). If you are a guy, or if you really care, here is a great website describing placer gold and how it is mined.

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HOW TO MINE AND PROSPECT FOR PLACER GOLD

Basically it is panning for gold in streams. It seems that Wiseman, Alaska is pretty remote, in the Arctic Yukon. The town was founded in 1919 by miners who had abandoned the Coldfoot mine. It was called the Coldfoot because seeing how rough, cold and difficult it was to live and mine there, most people got "cold feet" and went home. The town is three miles from the Dalton highway (Iditarod fame) but no connecting road until 1990. You walked. In the cold, carrying your tools and provisions. Well I guess it was not too profitable because in the 2010 census the population had shrunk to 14. It seems Olga and Uno never struck it rich. Maybe they got "cold feet" themselves. In the 1930 census they were back in the Chicago area.

But what an adventure! Why not? You only live once.

My grand aunt and uncle:

Olga Eufemia Källman

b. 3 Nov 1885 Grytgòl, Hällestad, Östergötland, Sweden

d. 23 Sep 1984 Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA

Uno Markus Palm

b. 4 Sep 1883 Hammar, Örebro, Sweden

d. Nov 1962 California, USA

*click on documents to enlarge for easier viewing*