Tag Archives: Sara Brita Krok

Molin, Swedish research

Johannes Elias Molin

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Johannes Elias Molin was a nephew of my 3x great grandmother, Johanna Elisabeth Molin, who left Öved, Sweden in 1838 for a new life in Copenhagen, where she married soldier Johannes Jensen.

Johanna Elisabeth’s nephew, Johannes Elias Molin, differed from most of his other family members in one important way – he stayed put in one place, except for a short sojourn to nearby Skartofta, perhaps to train for his job,  for his entire life. My Swedish lines haven’t been too easy to research because they all moved a lot – Johanna Elisabeth’s uncle, a farmer worker, moved villages twelve times in eighteen years – and there are some missing parish records in places where they lived.

Johannes Elias, on the other hand, was a dream to research. He was the one who stayed “close to home,” the theme for this week.

Johannes Molin was the son of Anders Molin and Elsa Öberg. He was born 25 October 1826 in Östra Kärrstorp, in the old Malmohus County (today’s Skane), in southern Sweden.

He married his first cousin, Charlotta Augusta, who went by Hasselgren because her mother, Beata Sophia Molin, married Henrik Hasselgren. However, Charlotta was born on 4 March 1829 in Lund, Skane County to an unmarried Beata Sophia; no father was noted in the baptismal record.

Charlotta moved to Östra Karrstorp on 20 May 1856, just days before her 23 June marriage. So much for the groom marrying in the bride’s home parish!

Swedish records are so easy to search, even though they are not indexed by name. Household examinations were the equivalent of local census records. Their purpose was for the vicar to check on the progress of the religious education of his flock. Some household examinations are set up with one year recorded in one book. However, most contain a span of perhaps three to six years. If the vicar was doing his job properly, then each time he visited a home, he would have recorded any new births in the household as well as deaths.

An additional detail was provided that I have not seen outside of Scandinavian records. When a member of the household moved out of the parish, the date (always the year, but sometimes also the month and day) was noted next to the person’s name along with the new parish of residence. The household examination, along with marriage and death records also included the occupation of the head of household. Johannes Elias was a “smed,” a smith or blacksmith.

Johannes Elias and Charlotta had eight children, all born in Östra Kärrstorp:

1. Malte Andreas, born 10 October 1857
2. Sophie Elise, born 2 January 1859
3. Frans Niclas, born 4 October 18604. Johan Alfred, born 11 October 1862; died 24 February 1863
5. Johan Alfred, born 18 February 1864
6. Adolph Fredrik, born 23 June 1866
7. Otto Wilhelm, born 17 August 1868
8. August Harald, born 9 October 1870

They were a bit usual in that only one of their children died young. Infant and child mortality rates were quite high and it is common to see that a family buried three or more very young children.

Here is the first household examination for the Molin family after they married:

JohannesEliasMolinHouseExam1856to1862ÖstraKarrstorpImage168
ArkivDigital, Household Exam, AI:13, Image 168
1856-1862

We have smith Johannes Elias and wife Charlotta Hasselgren (yes, maiden names of married females were also recorded!) Notice that Johannes returned from Skartofta in 1847 and Charlotta moved into the parish in 1856.  Their four children, Malte Andreas, Sophie Elise, Frans Niclas and the first Johan Alfred are all listed. Charlotta’s birthplace is Lund. Johannes Elias and the four children were all born in Bjerrod, which is a farm area in the parish of Östra Karrstorp.

A later household examination from 1875-1884 gives further details about the family. All seven surviving children were still at home in 1875, but look at the side notes. Malte left for America in 1880. I was able to find him in the passenger lists. He was a barber who eventually settled in Chicago. He is last found in the 1930 census. No death record or cemetery record has yet been found. It appears he never married and left no descendants.

Son Johan Alfred moved to Sallerup on 28 September 1883.

Daughter Sophie Elise moved to Ystad, on the southernmost coast, in 1876.

The final household examination for the family is found in the register covering the years 1884-1895. The number of years in the book is a good indication of just how small the village was.

JohannesEliasMolinHouseExam1884-1895BjerrodOstraKarrstorpImage213
ArkivDigital, Household Exam, AI:17, Image 213

There are a lot of notes on this page. I don’t read Swedish, aside from sometimes being able to figure out parish names so I will ask for help getting these translated. Look at the far right hand columns, though. The last column says “Dod.” Johannes Elias died on 17 September 1894 in Bjerrod. This time, it says Malte went to America in 1886 – either he returned to Sweden for a visit or else the vicar made a mistake when entering the date. Otto Wilhelm died in Bjerrod on 12 march 1891. August Harald moved to Öved on 5 September 1892, Johan Alfred moved back and forth from Ystad in 1888 and 1889 and then went back and forth from a parish I don’t recognize in 1891 and 1892. Son Frans Niclas is now married to Anna Jonsdotter and they have a little girl of their own, Ester Charlotta. It is also noted that Frans Niclas is a smith, like his father.

Finding that Johannes Elias died on 17 September 1894, I then looked in the deaths/burials and found his entry:

On 17 September 1894, smed Johan Elias Molin, who lived at Bjerrod #3, aged 67 years, 10 months, 22 days, married, died of ? (this word isn’t recognized by Google translation, so I have another question to ask the staff in Salt Lake City next month) and was buried on 20 September 1894.

If you haven’t researched in Swedish records, don’t think that they are all this easy. Oftentimes, household examinations don’t begin early enough for the time period one needs and the same happens with moving in and moving out records.

Births, deaths and marriages are usually quite complete, but they are not indexed and are kept at the local church level. If you have a parish and year, it is an easy job. If you don’t know the parish, you might be reading a lot of registers looking for that one entry.

Johannes Elias Molin did, indeed, stay close to home for his entire life.I am very grateful for that because this is the one super easy search I’ve had for the Molin family.

 

Krok/Krook, Swedish research

Sara Brita Krok

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Do you share a birthday with one of your ancestors? It so happens that I have only one ancestor who shares my 7 March birthday and that was Sara Brita Krok/Krook, my 5x great grandmother. Yes, she is the same Sara Brita who married Anders Molin in 1776 in Veberöd, Sweden. I wrote extensively – for five days in a row – about Anders and Sara Brita in December 2014 after I had picked up their trail while researching in Salt Lake City.

Instead of hashing over all those details again, I decided that although I haven’t had time to try to find burial records for Anders and Sara Brita, I would try to document Sara Brita’s family.

Sara Brita gave birth to seven known children, all sons. The first four – Hans Peter, Hans Nicholas, Johan Peter and again Johan Peter – were children of Anders Molin. My direct ancestor, Hans Nicholas, thankfully stayed in one place once he reached adulthood and married. He settled in the village of Öved in old Malmohus County, not far from where Anders and Sara Brita married in the town of Veberöd.

Since the other three boys were all named Hans/Johan Peter, it seemed likely that the first two had died young. No burial record has been found for Hans Peter, the first born child, born 3 June 1776 in Öved. Johan Peter, born in Finja in 1780 was buried in 1782 in Vankiva, the next village just to the east of Finja.

However, I could find nothing else about the third Johan Peter, aside from his baptismal record in Vankiva on 20 July 1782. That is, until yesterday. I was actually looking for information on a Lars Molin who reportedly died in Öved in 1806. Household examinations begin there in 1799 so I took another look at them. I found three records in the 1803-1807 time frame. Because these books contain more than one year at a time and a new year is not always clearly delineated with a title page, I’m not sure if the first record is 1803 or 1804 or a combined book for those two years. I have the same problem with the other two records, but they are all within those four years.

Living in Öved Klosters Gard, I found:

JohanPeterMolin1804ÖvedKlosterHouseholdExam1804Image35
Last Name on Page: Joh P Molin

The very last name on this page is “Joh P Molin” aged 21! This record book is either 1803 or 1804. If his name was entered as late as June 1804, Anders and Sara Brita’s son would have still been 21.

A second record was found in the next section of the book:

JohanPeterMolinÖvedsklostergardHouseholdExam1806Image67
Fifth Name from the Top: Pett Molin, 23

Unfortunately, the priest didn’t fill in place and date of birth for most of these people. He did make notations in what looks like those who took communion. Peter Molin had no mark by his name.

The third record dates from about 1807:

PeterMolinHouseExam1807ÖvedImage139
Line 4: P. Molin

Johan Peter Molin hasn’t been found in any other Öved records. He didn’t marry there, nor was a burial record found for him. However, he obviously survived to adulthood and may have descendants out there somewhere!

Now, back to Sara Brita’s Krok/Krook family. Sara Brita’s family came from a higher social class than the typical family of that era. Anders Molin was a master mason. Her father was a sheriff and her mother appears in records before she married as “Jungfru,” young lady.

Sara Brita’s parents were Hans Krook and Catharina Maria Bager. Hans was born 23 March 1722 in Gullarp, the son of Inspector Jacob Krook and his wife, Anna Brita von Wowern. Catharina Maria Bager was baptized 31 January 1729 in nearby Dalby, the daughter of Jöns Bager and his wife, Sara Prytz.

Hans Krook and Catharina Maria Bager were the parents of several children:

1. Jöns, born 27 November 1750 in Dalby
2. Sara Brita, born 7 March 1752 in Bonderup
3. Jöns Jacob, born 3 September 1756 in Bonderup
4. Johan Magnus, born 27 May 1760 in Bonderup

and perhaps
5. Juliana Cecilia, said to be born about 1764, but no place given

If Juliana Cecilia was born to them, she was not baptized in Bonderup or in Veberöd, where Hans Krook was buried in 1771.

If the space given to the family baptismal records in the church books are any indication of social status, the Krook family was well respected. Not only were her father and grandfather a sheriff and an inspector, but Jacob’s wife, Anna Brita von Wowern, belonged to a very old family that included nobility.

Her maternal grandparents had equal social status. Jöns Bager died very young, in his 30’s, but he was an inn keeper. Sara Prytz was the daughter of Peter Prytz, also an inn keeper. Sara Prytz married Inspector Eric Wickman as her second husband. (Both Jöns and Peter worked at the old Dalby Inn, which is still in existence today. The original inn, no longer standing, was built in the mid 1600’s, and the current inn is a tourist attraction.)

Having learned so much about Sara Brita’s family, I now am wondering what event or events in her life caused her to commit adultery and give birth to an illegitimate son while married to Anders Molin, who by the way, was living in Marstrand, over 200 miles away:

With the cultural norms of the times, Sara Brita would have become a social outcast and would likely have moved elsewhere, which she did, to Önnestad, near Kristianstad. The rest of her life must have been difficult because she went on to have two more illegitimate children (Johan Jacob Krok in 1791 and Hans Samuel Krok in 1798) in the “Invalid House” in Önnestad and was even noted to have been living there without permission.

Anders Molin was living alone in Marstrand in 1785 and 1786, when son Hans Nicholas was seven years old and Johan Peter was only three so they may have been living with their mother.

Sara Brita was probably living in Kristianstad or one of the other small villages near Önnestad in the 1790’s since her last two children were born there.

Sara Brita’s life story is one of the most unusual of any of my ancestors. What a change in her life circumstances!

Krok/Krook, Molin, Swedish research

Sara Brita Krok, 1791 and 1798

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There have been multiple surprises along the road to finding the Molin family. There are two more records found for Sara Brita Krok and both are in the birth/baptisms in Önnestad, Kristianstad.

First is the birth of Johan Jacob Krok, illegitimate son of “Brita Krok” on 11 March 1791 in the “Invalide House” or poorhouse.

JohanJacobKrokBirth1791Onnestad
AD: Önnestad Births and Baptisms, Image #113

At first, I wondered if this was Sara Brita or another woman with a similar name. When I found the next record, I came to the conclusion that it was my Sara Brita. Next, I found the birth of Hans Samuel Krok, illegitimate son of Sara Brita Krok, born 24 April 1798, also in the “Invalide House.” Sara Brita was identified as an unauthorized resident, so I am not sure how she ended up recorded there. Perhaps someone took pity on her and allowed her to give birth there.

There was a household record for Önnestad for 1797 onwards, but the Invalide house had only four residents and Sara Brita was not one of them. I have yet to find where she was living, but likely it was near Önnestad since her children were born there in 1791 and 1798. No further records have been located in Önnestad through 1810 for Sara Brita or any of her children. No burial record has been found for her either.

Summary of the Lives of Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krok

Anders Molin was likely born say 1742 in the southern most portion of what used to be Malmöhus County to Nils Molin and an unknown mother who was born about 1705 and was buried in Finja in 1778. His father was also  a master tradesman and likely a master mason.

Anders married Sara Brita Krok on 2 February 1776 in Veberöd. She was born 7 March 1752 in Bonderup, the daughter of Hans Krok. They lived in Öved when their first child, Hans Peter, was born on 3 June 1776. He likely died soon, but no burial record has been found. Hans Niclas, their second son, was born in Finja on 31 August 1778. Hans Niclas is my ancestor. Third son, Johan Peter, was also born in Finja on 20 August 1780. He died on 15 September 1781 in Vankiva. Fourth child, again Johan Petter, was born in Vankiva on 20 July 1782. According to the population register, the Molins continued to live in Vankiva in 1783.

The family has not been located in 1784. By 1785, Anders Molin is living alone in Marstrand and is again there in 1786. He is gone by 1787 and has not been found in any further records.

Sara Brita Krok is found in Everlöv baptismal records named as the mother of the illegitimate child Jöns Abraham Krok, born 30 July 1786. Anders Molin’s named has been crossed out by the priest, indicating that he is not the father of Jöns Abraham. She is found in two more baptismal records, this time in Önnestad, being the mother of two more illegitimate children. The first is Johan Jacob Krok, born 11 March 1791. The second child born in Önnestad was Hans Samuel Krok, born 24 April 1798. Both of these children were born in the “Invalide House” or poorhouse, although no Kroks are found in the household examinations in Önnestad in 1797 or 1798.

The only child for whom records have been located is Hans Niclas, who married and lived in Öved, raising his own family there. It may be that he expressed his feelings regarding his own apparently tumultuous childhood by naming his first child, a son, Anders. None of his seven daughters were given Sara or Brita has a first or middle name.

I believe I have my work cut out for me when I return to the Family History Library. My next step will be to outline parishes to research. There is a fair amount of data on line about Sara Brita Krok’s family and I will be verifying sources for her extended family. Picking up the trail of Anders Molin, both before 2 February 1776 and after 1786 will not be as easy!