Distant Innocence: My People

I enjoy genealogy research with endless twists and surprise discoveries. Stay tuned for a future "black sheep" post. This post is a summary of some research I've done on the ocean crossings of my Scandinavian immigrant ancestors.

The path of a Norwegian emigrant usually started with a journey to the port of Bergen, Kristiansund or Christiana to board a packet ship to Hull, England. In Sweden, the port of departure was usually Gøteborg. From Hull, a train journey across England to Liverpool to board a Cunard or White Star Liner to New York or Boston, or in some cases Quebec.

It must have been frightening for a young immigrant venturing forth across the Atlantic, not to mention the North Sea - likely never before having been more than 30 miles from home and realizing that they would probably never see their families again. Of my own immigrant ancestors, only my maternal-grandfather Emil ever made a visit back to the homeland. But after that first brave soul made the journey, it became easier for other family members to follow.

...

The following account comes from Norway-Heritage site and is a typical story for a young Norwegian immigrant. It provides personal insights into the wrenching departure and initial leg of the journey across the North Sea to England. The timeframe corresponds almost exactly with my Norwegian great-grandfather Nil's journey and I can imagine my great-grandmother traveling alone 2 years later with 2 children to join her husband in America. Another relative, Ellen Halbostad, traveled to Hull aboard the self-same S/S Tasso. Between 1880 to 1920, nearly 2 million Swedes & Norwegians emigrated to the US and Canada.

Tasso Ports of Call

1880 Trondheim-Christiansand-Aalesund-Hull

1881 Trondheim-Christiansand-Bergen-Hull

S/S Tasso, Wilson Line

This is the account of Ingeborg Olsdatter Øye's journey on the S/S Tasso in 1880. (Parts of Ingeborg Olsdatter Øye's diary has been printed in Dordi Glærum Skuggervik's book: "Utvandringshistorie fra Nordmøre" - ISBN 02-991394-0-6)

April 19th, 1880.
This will be the last time I write in my little diary here at my home. Tomorrow 8 days, I will go to Kristiansund. Thursday 29th S/ S Tasso will arrive from Trondheim. I am walking as in a dream now, I have taken farewell on many places to person after person for the last time......

Kristiansund 28th April.
The steamship Tasso will after what the agent says arrive at 1 o'clock tonight. We have to be ready for the arrival. It is impossible to get any sleep now in these waiting hours. I will try to use the time while I wait to write in my diary. The weather out at sea is not good. The "Pacific" which departed this morning, had to turn and come back to Kristiansund this evening. It will be a hard journey before reaching England. But the dear hope.....holds my courage up. So let it in Gods name go! ........

On Board the Tasso April 30, dinner time.
Now we have had a taste of what it is like to be out on the sea; and the ugly sickness has hosted most of the emigrants aboard. We departed Kristiansund at 5 o'clock this morning. The weather was already stormy when we left Kristiansund, and it has not become any better since. There is about 400 emigrants aboard the ship. It is a terrible mess since most of them are sick. I was a little sick crossing the "Hustadviken", but now I am quite well. I was happy to meet another emigrant that could speak the English language, we started to talk and that kept my courage up while I was feeling very sick. I think the ship now will call at Aalesund. It is so much strange here on the ship. If I can keep from being sick the rest of the time, I think the journey will go fine. The worst is the bad sleeping accommodations we have, so full and crowded as it is too. But thank God I have courage, as I am traveling to meet "my" Peder.

On board the "Tasso" in the morning of May 1st
We are now out on the North Sea, so we can not see land in any direction. The ship crew says that we will have good weather, but despite of that the ship is rolling about on the waves of the North Sea. Since dinnertime yesterday I have been free from sea sickness, and yesterday I had a "grown" supper. My sleeping accommodations were good, as there were 5 of us who slept on the deck with some blankets over us, as the bedrooms were overcrowded. It was quite fun, and though I did not sleep tight, it was a good night's sleep. Yesterday evening at 9 we left the Norwegian coast. Today it is quite busy up on deck, some are washing them selves, others are writing, in other words they are doing all kinds of different things.

May 2nd. Sunday onboard the Tasso
Last night I had a fairly good sleeping place, as good as one can expect on journeys like this, and which you can expect in a room overcrowded by women, men and children. I got up in the morning to get a little something to eat, namely a slice of bread and some biscuits which we receive in the morning with a cup of bad black coffee, but this made me ill, I tried to sit down in the room in front, but I had to go up on deck to be sick. I stayed up on deck after this. Here aft on the deck it is best to sit. Many of the passengers are not leaving their beds now. A Sunday morning like this they have never experienced before many says. It is not very pleasant today either. The wind is blowing cold and strong and the seas washes over the deck at times. This is the third day on board since we left Kristiansund. It was said earlier that we would reach England today; but due to the strong head wind it will probably not be before tonight or tomorrow that we will arrive to Hull. I have had fun for a while now; I have been sitting down discussing different issues with a young boy. Almost everyone aboard are very clever, so good company is not hard to find. Yesterday we had a long meeting up on deck and then a long discussion about love. It has been quite amusing at times. - If only I knew that my parents were not suffering. I know they will be thinking about me now. "Tasso" is not as bad as I once thought, and if it had not been so crowded it wouldn't have been bad. The food is also better than what I had expected, yes it is irreproachable. For breakfast we get black coffee which is very bad, a biscuit with butter and a slice of bread. For dinner we get a dish of meat, which is very good. For supper we get a biscuit and a cup of tea, which is good, without cream.

Liverpool May 4th 1880, at the dinner table
Yesterday morning at 3 o'clock we approached Hull. In the evening, Sunday the 2nd we already started to get the sight of the lighthouse. It was a splendid sight, when we came up on deck in the morning, and could see Hull for our eyes. The town is a great sight, but not very beautiful after my opinion. The huge stone buildings are blackened by the smoke and dust from coal which is in the air. But huge and beautiful were all the ships we could see in the harbor.

---

Hull - immigrant waiting station

At Hull, a train trip across England to Liverpool awaited, there to board a Cunard or White Line steamship for the USA or Canada.

My People - The Crossing

In the 1860's, the days of sailing ships, an Atlantic crossing took over a month. By1880, with the introduction of steamships, an Atlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York was down to 8-10 days. By 1905, this had been further reduced to 5-6 days, with shipping lines vying for the "record" time.

Emil Pearson

My grandfather Emil, was born in 1889 in Hällestad, Ostergotlands, Sweden or more correctly on a small farm near Rösjö, just south of Hällestad. He emigrated with his wife, Hilma Elizabeth, and two daughters, Anna & Alice, in1914, traveling to Goteborg, then to Hull, England and on to Liverpool, boarding White Star Line's RMS Baltic for New York, and finally a journey by train to Des Moines, IA. The family of 4 stayed with brother Gustaf for a time. Gustaf's wife had died in childbirth earlier in the year. My aunt Alice reminisced that Gustaf got more than he bargained for with a pair of girls, age 5 & 3.

RMS Baltic

Launched in 1904, for a short time the Baltic was the world's largest steamship. "On 14 April 1912, Baltic sent an ice warning message to the RMS Titanic: 'Greek steamer Athenia reports passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice today in latitude 41° 51' N, longitude 49° 52' W. Wish you and Titanic all success. Commander.'"

On 17 February 1933, she was sailed to Japan where she was scrapped

Carl Nyren

According to family records, Emil's brother Carl emigrated in 1905 from Hällestad to Iowa, but I as yet have not found any matching passenger records in the passenger list databases. His name change from Persson to Nyren complicates things.

Ture Persson
Emil's brother Ture wrote an autobiography. (see several posts Ture's Story). The following is an excerpt dealing with his emigration in 1907 from Hällestad ..

In Ture's words:
In 1905 came a man named Nordin home to Sweden, he was born in this area. When he went back, my brother Carl followed him and a year later Gustav went. On the 27th of October 1907, it was my turn to go. I will remember it was a Sunday morning. It was hard for me to say goodbye to my parents and relatives. We could not know whether we would ever see each other again. Father got the horses and took me to Hällestad station. It was to take your little bag, step on a train to Palsboda, there you changed trains to Göteborg. I was a little nervous to go on one had as I had never been away from home. I had to stay a couple days and there I celebrated my 20th birthday. Fare for the whole trip cost me 300 kroner and one had to have $1500 to land in America. {Editor note: I don't believe this is true} I became acquainted with a few Northlanders young people. They were going to the large forests in the Northwester states to get work. Among them was a good and pretty girl, we had companionship to Chicago. We rode over North Sea in a old poor boat called Rollo, it took us 2 days, weather was very good. We landed in a place called Grimsby. We took the train to Liverpool, England there stayed overnight. Next day we went on board in Guardlinjens boat Luisitania, a new large and fine boat. It went fast and only took 4 days over the Atlantic. On trip we saw doctors and got vaccinations for small pox. Never got sea sick. Lusitania sank in battle in WWI. I think it was the reason American came into the war.

We got to go inland on a little island outside New York which was called Kastelgarden. There we were divided into groups. To get a package of food we went through duty and after on train to other places. I went to Chicago. It took over 2 days. There I changed trains to Des Moines, the capital of Iowa. There I got off the train showed an address I had for brother Carl to the police, who took me to a Swede who had a carriage and he took me to my brother’s shop and I was through with my trip. All had gone well. Everyone had been friendly and helpful to me, so it had been in all of my long life. A little depends on if a man tries to do his best for that’s what man can do. I was well accepted in my brother’s home, he had married in the fall of that year with a girl he knew back home. They had a good living. Carl worked as a watchman at Drake University. My brother, Gustav, came and visited me. He worked for a farmer for board. I followed him home and wanted to begin work. I got a job on a farm where they were picking corn.

{Caveat: I have not been able to find Ture Persson from Hallestad in the passenger databases, however I know he made the crossing. He was drafted, served in WWI and in 1920 "reverse emigrated" to Sweden.}

RMS Lusitania

Of course, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915, turning the tide of opinion toward the entry of the USA into WWI.

Gust Pearson
Emil's brother Gust emigrated from Hällestad in 1907 aboard the Cunard Liner RMS Carmania, Liverpool to New York and on to central Iowa.

The RMS Carmania was launched in 1905, served as an armed merchant ship in WWI and was scrapped in England in 1932.

Augusta Maria Persson
Emil's sister Augusta emigrated from Hällestad in 1909. She traveled from Goteborg to England aboard the Wilson Line Ariosto and on to America aboard the White Line SS Oceanic. Maria worked as a housekeeper in Des Moines, IA for a number of years, before reverse emigrating to Sweden with her brother Ture after WWI in 1920.

Ariosto Passenger List

Wilson Line Ariosto

SS Oceanic Passenger List

In WWI, the Oceanic was equipped with 4.7" guns and put into naval service as an armed merchant ship. In 1914, due to a navigation error she was run onto the "Shaalds of Foulda" near the Shetland Islands and wrecked. Courts martial followed.

Nils Hoplin
My great-grandfather on my paternal grandfather's side, Nils Hoplin was born in Levanger, Nord-Trondelag, Norway in 1848. He was a tenant farmer near Åsen, Norway when he left his wife Hanna, children Peter & Nikolina behind, emigrating from Norway to Minnesota about 1879. Hanna and the children followed in 1881. Still digging for ship information. (see my "My People" post for the story of Nil's arrival Minnesota.

Carl Nelson
My great-grandfather on my paternal grandmother's side, Carl Nelson, was born in Grums, Sweden in 1847. In 1886, the family - wife Sofia, sons, John, Gust, Samuel, Olaf and young daughter Ida was living in Frykerud, Sweden. (Note - Ida died that winter in December of 1886 in Minnesota.) After several appeals from Elizabeth Aas, sister of Carl's wife Sofia, they departed Liverpool on June 29, 1886 on the Cunard Liner Bothnia to Boston, and then by train to Alexandria, MN arriving July 12, 1886. (see my Fageras to Brandon post for the story of the Nelson's immigration journey.)

RMS Bothnia

The Bothnia made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1874 and in 1885 was transferred to the Liverpool-Boston service. The Bothnia's last passenger voyage was in 1896 and she was sold and scrapped at Marseilles in 1899.

Johanna Killingberg Rosten
My wife's grandmother, Johanna Killingberg, was born in Leksvik, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway in 1882. She emigrated in May of 1907, traveleing to Kristiania (Oslo). Then a direct passage to New York aboard Scandinavian-America Liner Helig Olav and by train to Spring Grove, Minnesota. Two other women from Leksvig, each with children, also were aboard heading for Spring Grove to join their husbands. Johanna's passage was paid by Gabriel Solie, her brother-in-law who had immigrated with his wife - Johanna's sister Marie - sometime before 1904.

Helig Olav

Jacob Rosten
My wife's great-grandfather, Jacob Rosten, was born in Grong, Overhalla, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway in 1842. He emigrated in 1866, traveling from Bergen to Quebec, Canada on the bark Norden. [note: a "bark" is a 3 masted sailing ship.] The crossing took over a month (May 5 - June 7). He then made his way to Winneshek, IA. Happily for me, in 1904, he moved with his family to Pope County, MN.