COLSON FAMILY GENEALOGY AND HISTORY

COLSON FAMILY HISTORY IN SWEDEN – MARIA SAMUELSDOTTER

July 30, 2024

A FAMILY HISTORY BLOG BY LAVERNA COLSON SMITH

http://swedishrootsamericanbranches.com

Lars Carlsson (1747-1786) and Maria Samuelsdotter (1756–1850)
A story of resilience in a dark age for women.

In my last blog, I discussed the importance of finding the accurate birth date, death, and parentage of Lars Carlsson. It enabled me to search further generations back to find the true roots of the Colson family in Sweden. Before we proceed, however, I would like to tell Maria’s story.

Maria Samuelsdotter showed remarkable resilience in an age not particularly friendly to women much less widows. Maria was born on August 6, 1756, on Frebol Farm, Ödeshög Parish, to Samuel Jonsson (1716-1764) and Sara Svensdotter (1723-1793) a recent widow with three children. Samuel was a bachelor of 39 years when he and the widow Sara married and they had three children, Maria, Stina and Greta. Unfortunately, Samuel and Greta both died of Hestig Fever (inflammatory fever) in 1764. Maria was just nine years old when she lost her father.

Samuel was born on Stora Lund Farm in Västra Tollstad Parish, which overlooks Lake Vättern to the west and the ruins of historic Alvastra Abbey to the east. The location and beauty of Stora Lund Farm is remarkable, and it was eventually purchased by the Crown for a nature preserve. Lars and Maria named their third son, Carl Samuel, after Maria’s father. He is my second great grandfather.

After Lars’ untimely death in 1786, Maria married Johan Nilsson, a young unmarried tenant farmer in 1787. He was a capable farmer and the couple thrived becoming parents to four children. Sadly, Johan died in 1797 at 35 years of age leaving Maria a widow once again at 41 years age. Her third and last marriage was to Jonas Persson, a farmer 14 years her junior. The couple moved back to her home farm, Frebol, and she lived out her life there dying in 1850 at 93 years of age.

View of Stora Lund Nature Preserve in Västra Tollsad Parish, now part of Ödeshög Kommun
The ruins of Alvastra Abbey are just to the east of Stora Lund and north of the town of Ödeshög. The Abbey was founded in 1143 by French Cistercian monks and became a religious center visited by the future St. Bridget. The Abbey was incredibly rich having been gifted with hundreds of farms and farmland. The protestant King, Gustave Vasa, dissolved the Abbey in the mid-1550’s, had most of its building stones carried away to build his castle in nearby Vadstena and confiscated all its farmland and properties.

Next Blog: Locating the Historic Colson Family in Sweden

Fascinating Fact #2

Samuel Jonsson’s mother, Karin Larsdotter, was one of three surviving sisters in a large family wiped out by the recurrence of the Black Plague which raged in Sweden from 1708 to 1712. The Plague was brought back to Sweden from soldiers fighting in the Great Northern War in Europe. The toll on some of the small rural parishes was devastating.

Related Posts

Swedish Pronunciation Guide for English Speakers

The Swedish Language has 3 extra vowels and some challenging consonant combinations.   Here is a quick guide to pronouncing these vowels and tricky consonants

Åå           Sounds like the “o” in for

Ää          Sounds like the “ai” in fair

Öö          Sounds like the “ea” in earn

Y             Sounds  like the Y at the end of Terry

SJ,sj       Pronounced like “wh” – a voiceless fricative. 

K, k       Pronounced like “sh” before the soft vowels of:    e, i y, ä or ö

LaVerna Colson Smith (Lolly) Avatar

Published by

LaVerna Colson Smith (Lolly)
I was born in Oakland, Nebraska (the Swedish American Capitol of Nebraska) and graduated from the University of Texas with B.S. and M. S. degrees. My professional work took me to many different states and cities and after my retirement from the corporate world, I traveled extensively in Europe, Scandinavia and Africa. I currently reside in Lakewood Ranch, Florida near Sarasota and the Gulf Coast beaches. My interest in genealogy began on my 2010 trip to Sweden where I began researching both my paternal and maternal family lines. While living in Denver,Colorado, I became a member of the Colorado Swedish Genealogical Society, studied with Kjell Andersson, a professional Swedish genealogist/author and attended the Swedish School of Denver to further my knowledge of the Swedish Language. I currently belong to the Sarasota Genealogical Society in Sarasota, Florida. My primary research tool is Arkiv Digital, a Swedish focused site which provides clear digital images of church, tax, military, court and estate records going back to the mid 1600’s. Although, the Swedes are excellent records keepers, many valuable old records did not survive fires, floods nor poor storage. My goal is to present genealogy from a socioeconomic and historical point of view paralleling the lives of my ancestors with the times in which they and the character with which they met their challenges. I
Categories:

Leave a comment