Cover photo above- Ida Charlotta together with some of her sisters after emigrating to the US

Ida Charlotta was born in Sötåsa Södergård in Adelöv Parish, in Småland, Sweden, August 4 1845.

MOVING AWAY FROM HOME:

When she was 18, she moved away from home to work as a maid in Lekeryd. She returned home two years later – 1865.

Oct 15 1868 she moved to Släthult village  Vireda parish – , to work as a maid again and later to Björkenäs Norrgård, Vireda parish, where her 9 years younger brother Carl Viktor, 18,  also went to work for a year at 1870 *

MEETING HER HUSBAND: At this place she met the smith Joh. Frans Peterson who lived there with his mother.

 

30 Dec, 1871 they married.  Joh. Frans was born July 25, 1838 and was 33 years old and Ida Charlotta was 26 at the time. They stayed to live in Björkenäs Norrgård. Boarp Östergård.

Joh. Frans mother, Anna Stina Johansdotter, born Febr 13, 1810, stayed at the same household at an Excluding contract, but died March 3, 1875 – 65 years old.

 

 

THE CHILDREN:

1: Ida Charlotta and Joh. Frans had a son Febr 14, 1873 – Johan Emil, who was born in Björkenäs Norrgård

2: A second son: Frans Henning was born  March 9, 1875, (6 days after his grandmother died- see above), but the little baby died April 20 already – only 7 weeks old. A strugglesome spring for the family.

3: A third son  was born June 19, 1876 – Ernst Walfrid- he lived only 13 days until July 2nd.

THE LIFE AT BJÖRKENÄS NORRGÅRD, VIREDA PARISH:

It looks like as, at this time, the family shared a house together with another family of 6 children- possibly Joh. Frans 6 year older brother Gustaf Peterson.

Joh. Frans developed a lung-tuberculosis and died May 30 1877,- being 38 years old.

Ida Charlotta and Joh. Frans  had 6 years together.

MOVING BACK TO ADELÖV:

Nov 17, 1877- half a year later,  Ida Charlotta moves back to Adelöf with Johan Emil.* She went to stay at Önnestorp- with her oldest sister Christina and her family and later to Sötåsa where her parents lived.

 

 

MOVING TO THE US: April/May 1882, she decided to emigrate to the US with her son Johan Emil, who was then 9 years old. She left together with  her nephew Emil Frid-Tyden 17 years old – son of her older sister Johanna Maria.

At that time her siblings, Gustaf Fredrik, Hedda Lovisa and Augusta Charlotta were already there.

She settled in Moline, Rock island, Illinois, where her sisters Lottie– Augusta Charlotta and Hedda Lovisa were living since several years. A town where quite a lot of Swedes had emigrated to.

LIVING IN THE US:

1900 she is registered  in Moline, Ill. still being widowed, residing with her son Johan Emil and a same-aged friend -27 years old, from Sweden. Her last name is Peterson as well as her sons which means they took the same last name as her late husband. She is 55 years by this time. She doesn’t seem to ever have remarried.

Later as Johan Emil had grown up she had 3 grand-children: Nina 1907, Burdette 1909 and Earl Petersen 1912. She was then in her 60’s as they were born.

MOLINE CITY, ILLINOIS FROM THE 1860S-1940s:

“After the Civil War, the population of Moline continued to grow. The street grid was expanded to the east and west along the shoreline and to the south up the bluffs. There was a severe housing shortage; few men were rich enough to invest in real estate other than what they could afford to build for themselves, and few incoming workers had sufficient funds to build a home. Nevertheless, Moline’s expansion was generally an orderly affair. The street grid remained a set of rectangular blocks, and though no zoning commission or local authority directly oversaw construction, the unwritten code of carpenters, masons, and citizens kept the city a well-planned place. Temperance societies and lyceums joined other reform movements and social organizations in prominence within the community. The quality of life was generally regarded as quite good: “The laboring men of Moline are among the most prosperous to be found in the country. Instead of spending their spare earnings in saloons and dram shops, they carefully hoard them and in a few years a little home of their own is the result.” Over time, John Deere expanded operations into other agricultural equipment, and Deere-affiliated factories employed the bulk of Moline’s workforce. Soon other Moline-based companies became known around the country for their products.

Source Wikipedia

Ida Charlotta died in Moline, Illinois