Married: 25 October 1899
D. 30 April 1917. Ong, Clay County, Nebraska
Buried in Ong, Nebraska cemetery
Father: Frans Frithiof Rudd
Mother: Sophia Anderson
Siblings:
Augusta Wilhemina Rudd. 1868
Amelia Beata Rudd. 1870
Frans Oscar Rudd. 1875
Charles Ferdinand Rudd. 1876
Emilia Rudd. 1878 (died at birth)
Axel Wilhelm Rudd. 1881
Anna Rudd. 1883 (died at birth)
Walter Rudd. 1884 (died at 36 days old)
Lillie Elvira Rudd. 1886
Husband: Ernest Hjalmar Stjerndahl
Children:
Merrill Frithiof Sterndahl
Laurel Ernest Sterndahl
Lillian Genevieve Sterndahl
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| Wedding picture of Ernest and Alma - 25 October 1899 |
Alma, my great-grandmother, was the first of our Swedish ancestors to be born in America. I don't know much about her, so I will tell you about the Swedes coming to America.
Between 1750 and 1850, the population of Sweden had doubled. The business owners loved this because it gave them lots of labor and the job shortage kept the wages low. Everyone else hated it because the low wages led to poverty. Then things got worse when Sweden suffered from some crop failures. Until that time, it had been illegal to emigrate, but after seeing the results of the French and other revolutions in Europe, Sweden changed the laws and let people move to other countries. The U.S. established the Homestead Act in 1862, and the Swedes saw the opportunity for jobs and land in America.
A few early brave souls came to America and saw that the dream really was possible. There were farms available to anyone willing to settle the land and the factories in the upper mid-west offered high-paying jobs. They sent money and stories back to Sweden and the great Swedish Emigration to the United States began. By 1870, transatlantic fares were cheap, and by the 1880s the American railroads had agents in Sweden offering one-way packages for the entire family with their furnishings and farm tools, and even offered deals that allowed the Swedes to spread their payments out over a few years.
The Swedish migration peaked between 1870 and 1900. The 1890 US Census showed almost 800,000 Swedish-Americans. By the early 1900s, Sweden realized that they had lost about 1.3 million of of their citizens, close to 20% of their population. They knew that something had to change, and they did change some laws, but the thing that really stopped the mass migration was the first World War.
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| Frans Frithiof Rudd and Sophia Anderson |
My great-great grandparents Frans and Sophia serve as a good example of what happened.
Sophia was born 3 June 1846 in Ulricehamn, Westgotland, Sweden. Her father was named Anders Anderson, but that is all I know about him or any of her family. Sophia later died on 5 November 1907 in Ong, Nebraska, but that's not really part of this story.
Frans was the third son of Carl Andersson Rud, Lance-Corporal of the Varmland Regiment. Carl and his wife Lisa married about 1835 and proceeded to have a bunch of kids. I don't know if Carl and Lisa had any land, but whatever they had would not have amounted to much when divided between their six children:
Carl Johan Rudd 1837
Anders Gustav Rudd 1839
Frans Frithif Rudd 1842
Fredrik Ferdinand Rudd 1845
Axel Wilhelm Rudd 1848
Eva Maria Rudd 1856
I can't be sure, but this is what it looks like happened. Carl Andersson Rud died 30 June 1868. In April of 1870, Carl, Frans, and Fredrik went to the US to check it out. In 1871, while Fredrik, who never married, stayed in the US, Carl and Frans went back to Sweden to gather up their families. In the summer of 1871, Carl Johan Rudd again immigrated to the United States, this time with his wife Gustava and children Charles, Axel, Adolph, and Anna. He had two more children who were born in the US. Frans Frithiof also rounded up his family and went back with wife Sophia, and daughters Augusta and Beata. In America, they had Alma and then Frans Oscar, Charles Ferdinand, Emelia, Axel Wilhelm, Anna, Walter, and Lillie Elvira. In 1873, the brothers were joined by little sister Eva Maria Rudd and her husband John Lofgren.
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| Frans Frithiof Rudd with grandsons Merrill and Laurel - 1908? |
Although the records of Sophia's family stop here, I have just this week discovered many more of Frans' ancestors going way back in time. I haven't yet figured out how to share all this in a way that will make sense to everyone and take something less than 500 years, but I'll keep thinking about it as the records keep building!
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