A family history
Nine generations, two countries, and the people who got us here — from Oregon back to the island of Öland, and to a farm in Värmland.
Chloe’s family traces back to two far-apart corners of Sweden: the island of Öland, in the Baltic, and Värmland, on the mainland toward Norway. Otto Carlson was born on Öland, sailed for America in 1888, and made a farm at Badger, Minnesota. The Anna he married there is very likely Anna Olsdotter of Väse — a strong probable identification, not yet proven. From their daughter Agnes, the line runs to Chloe.
Otto was born 23 September 1865 at Bjärby, in Kastlösa parish on Öland. Anna Olsdotter was born 5 July 1867 at Nytthöjden, in Väse parish, Värmland — a different part of Sweden, west toward Norway. That she is the same woman as the Anna Olson who married Otto in Minnesota is very likely, but it is still Probable — not confirmed.
On Öland, Nils Eriksson was a farm owner at Rösslösa No. 3, with hired servants. His son Carl Peter later lived at Bjärby as an undantagsman — a farmer who no longer held the land — and by the 1870s the family was listed as inhyses, lodgers. Otto grew up in that household. A later family story says they had lost a farm at Rösslösa; the church books fit the story, but the loan itself has not been read in a court or land record.
Otto did not sail straight from the village. He left Kastlösa for Stockholm in 1886, and around 25 June 1888, at 22, he sailed from Copenhagen. Anna Olsdotter left Väse for North America on 18 March 1892, at 24. The family narrative is that Otto’s sister Amanda traveled with him.
Otto farmed at Badger, in Roseau County. He married Anna Olson at nearby Jadis on 12 December 1893, was naturalized in 1898, and received a homestead patent in 1901. They had seven children. The youngest, Agnes — Tami’s great-grandmother — was born in 1907. Anna died the next year, at 41, and Otto never remarried. Both are buried at the Swedish / Bethania Cemetery in Badger. The family account is that Otto moved to Badger by ox-cart around 1891.
A puzzle in every generation
Most country people in Sweden used no fixed family surname. A child’s last name came from the father’s first name: a son added -son, a daughter added -dotter. So every generation got a new last name, and a woman kept her own after she married. Our tree is full of it:
That is also why Maria Jonsdotter is still “Jonsdotter” in the church books after marrying Carl Peter Nilsson.
In Minnesota, Otto’s name stopped changing. He was Otto Carlson, and his children kept Carlson as a fixed family name. Their youngest, Agnes, was Agnes Carlson.
No Swedish record found so far calls her Sjögren, and where the name came from is unknown. It looks like a surname she or the family chose — Unverified. Choosing a new surname was common among Swedes, but we don’t know why Anna’s was Sjögren. The witness at her 1893 wedding was not a Sjögren.
We plan to order her Minnesota death certificate as soon as the state reopens orders. The index gives her parents as “Olof Bengtson and Maria,” and the certificate may show which name she used at the end of her life.
Follow the whole journey, stop by stop See every place on a map
Chloe is at the bottom. Her Swedish ancestors branch upward, generation by generation. Tap a person for a short story. Open “See full story,” or double-click, to read everything — including the documents that prove it.
From two corners of Sweden — the island of Öland, and Värmland on the mainland — across the ocean to Minnesota, then North Dakota, then Oregon.
A short history strip — family events, and a little of the world they were born into.
Short, sourced facts — the kind you can tell out loud. Every one has a confidence label. See all of them, for a speech.
The main tree, and Otto’s brothers and sisters, who have their own stories — and some of the best unsolved questions.