Category Archives: Swedish research

Molin, Swedish research

Anders Molin & Sara Brita Krok, Part 2

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Yesterday, I presented what little documentation I had on Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krok and their children. My next step before actual research is to look for clues already available on line.

I found several possibilities relating to this family:

First, I have to thank Susanna Auerbach on the Swedish American Genealogy page on Facebook as she found this tantalizing information on Anbytarforum, a Swedish surname site.

AnbytarforumMolin&Krok
Anbytarforum Krok Post, 28 July 2007

Someone else was actually researching this family!

1. I checked familysearch.org. There were two possible burial records for Anders Molin. The first Anders was born in 1743 and died 27 February 1791 in Halmstad, Halland, Sweden. The second Anders was born in 1744 and died 28 February 1805 in Varberg, also Halland, Sweden. Halland was quite a distance from Öved and Finja so these were not looking like likely prospects.

2. A search for Sara Brita Krok brought up a couple of interesting items. First, Sara Brita Krok (no Anders Molin mentioned) gave birth to a son, Hans Samuel, on 24 Apr 1798 in Önnestad, Kristianstad, Sweden. There was a second entry for a Sara Brita Krok (no Anders Molin mentioned here either) giving birth to a son, Jons Abraham, on 30 July 1786 in Everlöv, Malmöhus, Sweden. A third entry showed Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krok as the parents of son Johan Peter Andersson on 20 July 1782 in Vankiva, Kristianstad, Sweden. This record matched the birth record I had located except the original does not give his surname as Andersson. Anders is clearly identified as Master Mason Anders Molin so whoever abstracted the record incorrectly gave the child a patronymic surname.

3. Next, I check FamilySearch family tree for Anders Molin and Sara. There was an entry for them. It said they married in February 1776 in Veberöd, Malmös, Sweden. It also named another child, Hans Peter, born 3 June 1776 in Öved, Malmöhus, Sweden.

4. My last check was on Ancestry.com. I don’t have the world edition so I checked for Public Member Trees. There were a couple of hits. One tree gave Sara Brita’s birth date as 7 March 1752 in Bonderup, Malmöhus, Sweden. There were clipped record images posted, which was helpful. However, some images were sourced and others were not. There was even some sort of image posted for Anders Molin, but it was not a birth, marriage or death. It was from Vankiva records, though.

I now had several parishes to check to verify information posted online.

If we start in Sara Brita’s reported place of birth, Bonderup, she appears in records that, by driving, covers 270 km. or 167 miles. Notice that the records are clumped more or less into two groups, those east of the city of Malmö and those northwest of Kristianstad.

In addition to these parishes, there were two others to check. If either of the death records for Anders Molin was for my Anders, then there was even more migration involved because Halmstad is located 149 km or about 92 miles north of Bonderup.

Tomorrow I will post my findings, all sourced. I believe it will be the first time that all the facts about Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krok, suggested in the few items found on line will be put together to tell part of their story. There were definite surprises along the way and time ran out before I was able to finish this research.

Molin, Swedish research

Anders Molin & Sara Brita Krok – Brick Wall Mystery

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I returned from four days in the Salt Lake City Family History Library late on Friday night. Although I had my “to do” list, and did actually get several other items on my list completed, the research problem that hijacked almost all of my time was that of my 4x great grandparents, Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krok.

Anders and Sara Brita are a branch off of my Danish ancestors from Copenhagen. My previous hair-pulling brick wall had been Johannes Jensen, career soldier from Copenhagen. Unraveling his life story took me almost three years. Considering that, I guess the progress I made this week on Anders and Sara Brita was quite good.

Johannes Jensen married Johanne Elisabeth Molin, who migrated from Öved, Sweden to Copenhagen in 1838. I found her family in the household records and also in the moving in and moving out records of Öved. Her parents were Hans Nicholas Molin and Anna Kjersti Sandberg.

I decided I needed to focus on Hans Nicholas’s parents, Anders and Sara Brita. I’d like to outline the methods I used to collect the facts about this couple while in Salt Lake. There are still unanswered questions, but perhaps by sharing my story, others will be able to follow the same steps to chip away at one of their own brick walls.

I have several rules that I always follow when faced with a genealogical challenge:

1. Leave no stone unturned. Check all available records.
2. Look for clues online to suggest avenues for further research.
3. Prove every piece of information to my own satisfaction. I never, ever import anyone’s tree and never, ever blindly accept unproven facts. To me, genealogical research is like a scientific experiment. If one person conducts research and presents information that can’t be duplicated by others, then the “research” is not sound.

Here is how my research plan unfolded:

First, I checked a map of Sweden to remind myself of the proven places associated with Hans Molin:

In earlier times, most of the area of southern Sweden where the Molins lived was part of Malmöhus County, with Kristianstad County bordering it to the north and east.

As this story unfolds, images of Swedish records that begin with “AD” refer to ArkivDigital, a Swedish subscription site that houses Swedish records. Those that begin with “GL” refer to Genline, another Swedish subscription site that was bought up by Ancestry.com.

Before I left for Salt Lake City, I had parish registers and household examination records that proved the following:

Hans Molin was born on 4 September 1778 , according to the Öved, Malmöhus County household examination in Finja, Kristianstad County. Hans and family are the last family listed on the left page. Note that a date that looks like 31 August is crossed out:

Oved1812Molin1443.35.25600 Öved Household Examination 1812
GL: GID1443.35.25600

His birth/baptismal record was located in Finja:

HanNiclasMolinBirth1778FinjaGenlineImage17
Finja Baptismal Record, 1778
GL GID:1643.13.16300

I don’t read Swedish, but help in Salt Lake confirmed that the record says after the first word “Master Mason Anders Molin and his wife Sara Brita Krook’s child was born 31 August: Finja: and baptized Hans Niclas.. . .godparent was Corporal Hans Friberg”and I believe the woman who carried the child to church was Appolonia Kiman. The baptismal date entered in the left column above “Hans Niclas” is September 4.

I don’t know why, but Hans NEVER appears in Oved records as “Hans Niclas,” only as “Hans.”

I also realize that Sara Brita’s surname looks like “Krosis,” but this priest wrote lower case “k” in such a way as to make it look like “s i.” Other records confirm “Krok” or “Krook” as her surname.

I was a bit taken aback that Hans was born in a village 69.5 km away from Öved. I realize that isn’t a huge distance by today’s standards, but I guess I am used to my colonial American ancestors who stayed in one town for generations. However, 69.5 km turned out to be no distance at all once I was able to retrace their movements.

I checked for baptismal records for other children born to Anders Molin and found two sons named “Johan Peter.” One was born 20 August 1780, also in Finja and was baptized 23 August 1780.

This child apparently died soon as a second boy named “Johan Petter” was born in Vankiva, a village one mile to the east of Finja, on 20 July 1782:

On previous trips to Salt Lake City, I had done very little research on this family and these records were all that I had. Household examinations and moving in/moving out records begin in Finja and Vankiva after the time period when the Molin family lived there.

Next, I checked online to see what others might already have found. That story is for tomorrow!