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Chapter 1 Introduction A. Swedish Name Changes B. EarIy Introduction C. The Cousins Team The starting point for the Newquist search of ancestors of my grandfather in Sweden began when my mother recorded our family history in a hand-written spiral binder she gave to me in 1962. It contained a reprint of the biographic article on John Newquist (1848-1937) that appeared in the book "History of Chicago". The A.T. Andreas Co. published it in 1886. It contained the names of those who had a significant role in the re-building of the city after the devastating 1871 fire. Volume Ill, page 83 has the following excerpt: " John Newquist was born in Wexio, Sweden on December 12, 1848 and is the son of Peter and Christine (Benson) Newquist. When twelve years of age, he commenced to learn the trade of a carpenter and cabinet-maker, and worked at it until 1869, in which year he came to America, and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where be worked for a short time". At the time I received the family history, this bio was the only written reference to the Swedish birth. My parents said that John had changed his Swedish surname to Newquist, but there were no records of the previous name, time, or place. Speculation was that the original name was Benson, but no one in my immediate family could add any background. A. Swedish Name Changes Patronymics (from Latin pater =father and nomen =name) was the naming practice common in the Swedish rural society from very early ages. The name was constructed with the father's given name +genitive "s" +"son" for a son or "dotter" for a daughter. The genitive "s" was sometimes left out. If that had been used when John was born, his surname could have been Petersson. The "dotter" was often abridged to "dtr" or "Dr". Its use was diminishing in the 2nd half of the 19th century until outlawed in 1901 when permanent surnames were legislated. The practice created problems since many people had identical names but it solved the ancient problem from the times when people did not have surnames at all. Before then, anyone could change their surname at any time as long as they just notified the parish office. Only a few rules were observed by tradition, like not using known royal or noble names. Also a soldier, who adopted a new name when conscripted, was not allowed to change his name while enrolled. Many lads of rural background left the farm to enter some kind of trade, such as carpentry. Usually he started out as an apprentice, then became a journeyman, finally ending up as a master in some Swedish town. In the travelling away from farm life to the city life he also assumed a new surname. It could be made up of two syllables, usually from the animal or vegetable kingdom and/or topographical terms. In this case, the prefix "New" would be followed by the suffix "quist" (twig). The surname Newquist means "new twig". . In addition to the naming pattern changes, Sweden has undergone several alphabet reforms, the latest in 1906. The letters ä, å, and ö were ended to the end of the 26-letter alphabet. Any accurate genealogical search has to use these letters with the associated symbols. The letter "q" has been replaced with a "k". The letter "w" was replaced with a "v", and is no longer in the alphabet. Thus, the town of Wexio is now Växjö (veck-sure). Therefore today's spelling of Newquist is "Nyqvist" or "Nykvist". There are thousands of Nykvist surnames in contemporary Sweden, but very few Newquist surnames. The secret to keeping it straight is code system called Soundex. Developed to address the name-spelling problems of the 1880 census, Soundex has remained a valuable tool for family historians ever since. In the Soundex system, Newquist, Nyquist, Nyqvist, and Nykvist are the same name: they're all N223. . Upon arrival in 19th Century America, there would be thousands of Swedes with the same patronymic name. Records show that 40% chose to alter it slightly so as to conform to American usage and be grasped more by the Yankee ear. In many cases the name change took place when naturalization clerks would eliminate or ignore writing the double "s", or choose an Anglo-Saxon variable over the patronymic. But many immigrants also did not wait that long and simply announced the name change. Approximately 30% chose to change their patronymic names to those two-syllable names that were more distinctive. For example, there is a specific evidence showing "Johannesson" changed to "Blomquist". The Minnesota Naturalization Records for that period contain many individuals with Newquist surnames. None matched John's birth date. B. Early Research In 1989, I produced my first Newquist family genealogy report. It listed Peter Newquist as the oldest ancestor, and for the first time identified John's siblings - Charles and August, but contained no information on them or their descendants. My only contact to that point was with second cousins in Aurora, IL, but I was unsure of their descendancy. The report also listed the possibility of other siblings. In February 1992, I searched the International Genealogical Index (IGI) file in the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Family History Center in Scottsdale, AZ, yielding no result. The next month I funded research at the Swenson Swedish Immigrant Research Center located at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. They searched passenger records from Goteborg, which was the major and closest point of embarkation, without results. In 1993, I studied the files of the Chicago Historical Society and obtained the Lakeside Directories of Chicago (1880 -1907) and obtained some of John's early occupation and residence listings. I visited the Swedish Emigrant House in Växjö, Sweden in March 1994. It is the country's prime record facility for emigrants to the United States - and coincidentally was John's birthplace in the biography. I worked with their researchers and files of birth records and passenger lists. One key fact had emerged. The bio stated that he was born in Växjö. But the name "Växjö" can refer to a parish, large city, or a municipality (township), one of eight in Kronobergs County. The current municipality division was created in Sweden in 1862 with about 2400, and has been reduced in numbers through fusion to 600 (1952) and again to about 300 (1974). With the same fusion process, older parishes have become part of 28 large communities within the Växjö Municipality borders. While we found some leads, none were definitive. They suggested more research into the birth and emigration of John's siblings might have merit. This turned out to be the best suggestion they could have given. My brothers and I discussed the possible leads for contacting first and second cousins. The following year, I contacted the oldest living descendant of John, my first cousin Walter "Bud" Newquist. His grandparents had raised him from age 13 months to almost age 17. He provided great recollections of them and of his visits with our grandfather's brothers. In 1998, I wrote Shirley Newquist Waldo about any information she had on the family branch of her grandfather, Charles. At that time I had a list of ten possible descendants. She said she had also visited Växjö many years ago but was not successful in tracing the family. But she had provided some research information to the mother of Kathryn Newquist Davolos, and suggested her as a good source for the Charles branch. I contacted Kathy, and she said he used the name Carl as well. She became interested, and the search for more data on this sibling then began. In May 1999, the Swenson Center had obtained more files from the Emigrant House and conducted a more extensive search for John Newquist. They found one record in the emigrant index for Kronobergs. This index contains the list of the official exit permit (Flyttningsbetyg) issued by the pastor of the parish in Sweden from which the immigrant came. It is an important document, since technically no Swede could leave his home parish without this permit. The information given was that a Johan August Nyqvist was born June 15, 1849. While it didn't indicate his birthplace, he was leaving the parish of Östra Thorsäs (now spelled Torsäs) in Kronobergs, and was headed for North America in 1969. Although the birth date is six months later than our data, and Torsäs is about 15 miles south of the city of Växjö, it was the only close match obtained at that time. C. The Cousins Team By this time, I had created a fairly large computer database of the Newquist family genealogy. The software was Family Tree Maker, which not only provided the ability to record and update all the vital statistics, but also gave the ability to store photos of the family. A variety of printed reports could be produced. I gave a copy of this 164-page report to my brothers and a personalized copy each of my sixteen grandchildren. In August 1999 the descendants of John's son, Walter, held a Newquist family reunion in Palos Hills, IL. I was unable to attend, but provided them with a genealogy report for the descendants of Peter Newquist. This created new interest, and resulted in a three-year e-mail correspondence from my home in Arizona with my cousins Michael Peter Newquist in Florida and Kathy in Illinois for further genealogy research of the three brothers. Mike actively concentrated on the U.S. census records, work histories, residences, travels, and photos. He contacted living descendants in Illinois. In late 2000, Dorothy Labrose, August Newquist's living daughter, told Mike that August was born on April 5, 1869 in Nykulla (nee-koo-lah), a small rural village in the Tjureda parish located in the Växjö municipality about ten miles north of the city of Växjö. She also said his mother Christine's maiden name was Bengstdotter. She provided a diary kept by August in the late 1880's. Kathy researched the Carl Newquist branch. She contacted relatives in KS and CA, obtaining recollections, photos and letters. She found the two letters that had been written by Shirley Newquist in 1980. They identified Nykulla as Carl's birthplace and Hornaryd (hern-ah-reed) parish, about six miles east of Nykulla, as the location where he married Louise C. Peterson and raised seven children before leaving for the US in 1894. Attached to one of the letters was a 1952 written account by Willie (Carl's son) of a family farm in Sweden. He said they were also fishermen during the warm months and cabinet-makers in the winter. His sister Esther could remember the nets that the family would help to mend and keep in order. He said that it had been in the family for almost three hundred years, and was being run by Johannes Petersson when the others left for the United States. Shirley's letter included a comment that she was saddened by the fact that few in the family seemed interested in recording the Newquist history. The recommendation of the researcher in Växjö was now being implemented. The search for siblings of John and their Sweden records was gaining momentum. I conducted research through numerous Internet genealogy databases in the United States and Sweden. Sources included Ellis Island, Emigration CD, and others. In 1998 the Computer Genealogy Society of Sweden (DIS) was established. DIS is a member of Swedish Society for Genealogy, which also organizes about 100 local genealogy societies. Their database consists of approximately 4 million Swedes living before 1900. It is not a complete list of all the parishes and the Swedish people living then, but only consists of names submitted by members. There were few names and no matches from Tjureda and Hornaryd parishes, as the database consists mainly of larger urban parishes.
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