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Chapter 3 Vital Documents A. The Peterson Clue On August 1, 2002, Mike, Kathy and I attended the Newquist reunion in Cocoa Beach, FL. After years of e-mail correspondence, it was the first time we were together to talk. During that event, we obtained updated info and gave a combined slide presentation to the eighty attendees. We were pleasantly surprised with the attentive interest by members of each generation. Kathy had also generated a definitive genealogy report that listed ninety-two descendants - a marked increase over our previous records! At one point, Kathy showed me Willie's 1952 attachment to Shirley's letter and mentioned to me that one of her family sources, Vera Nichols, had emphatically stated that her grandmother (Carl's daughter Esther) said the family name was Peterson when they came to the US in 1894. That same weekend of our reunion, Shirley died in IL, unaware that the Newquist family history was being diligently pursued. When I returned from the reunion, I decided to follow-up on the Peterson lead, and did a search for Peterson immigrants on the Ellis Island website. (European immigrants arriving prior to 1892 were processed at Castle Garden, NY. A fire destroyed those records.) The website had just been improved, and now yielded the passenger listings for all persons named Peterson arriving in 1894. By the process of deduction, I found the exact members of the Carl Peterson family on the manifest of the White Star Line ship "Majestic" arriving from Hornaryd, Sweden via Liverpool, England on September 26, 1894. The surname Peterson was now part of further Newquist research in Sweden. The initial step would be to again search the parish records. B. Swedish Church Records C. New Tools A new Swedish genealogy search website began operating on August 9, 2002. Its purpose is to digitize Sweden's historical church records and make them available to the general public via the most up-to-date information technology. During the 1950's and 1960's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) was in Sweden to film church books that were kept at the Archives. The Church left one set of microfilms. Genline.com bought a copy in order to produce their website. Their scanned microfilm data contains information from 1500-1896. The subscriber can use his PC as an online microfiche viewer. Genline chose four counties (out of a possible 260) to inaugurate their operations. One of those was Kronobergs. And although films of all the Kronobergs 50 parishes' records are not available, Hornaryd and Tjureda were! The initial search of Hornaryd parish records for 1886-94 revealed the Carl Magnus Petersson family birth and death records in the north farm district Norregård (nor-gord), the maiden name for Louise, her parents, and that Carl was born on March 9, 1855 in Tjureda parish. On Page 19, Figure 1 is the 1894 record. The vertical marks indicate the family has left, and the date of the exit permit to North America was September 3, 1894. The Tjureda parish search for the years 1718-1861 was more time consuming, but the results were very rewarding. Locating Nykulla and its southern farm district Södergård (sodder-gord) gave the birth record of John ("Jonas Peter Petersson") and Carl. The records also revealed three more brothers - Johan, Gustaf, and Johannes - and the vital statistics of the parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Figure 2 is the 1861 family record. The birth records for John and Carl are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. Because the online records ended in 1861, further study for August (born in 1869) and any other possible siblings were not complete. The film records for 1862-96 were available in other genealogy centers for viewing and purchase. Mike had obtained an e-mail contact for me at the Vadstena Archives. Since I was now able to identify the particular microfilms and information I needed, I requested a search and received an immediate, amazing reply from a member of the staff. On August 28, 2002, Ingegerd Dahlberg provided a thorough analysis of the Johan Peterson family vital statistics from the 1862-96 Nykulla-Södergård microfilms. It had complete birth, marriage, and death records, including those for their offspring. We now became aware of John's sister, Anna, and the exact dates when the brothers had left for the United States. The fact that Gustaf emigrated in 1871 should start a new trace of his history. I then recorded the 1890 Swedish Census data for Nykulla, where there were 121 residents. Södergård had 29 persons, and Johannes Petersson and his family were the farm owners. His father, Peter, had died in 1889. His widowed mother, Christina, was living with them (four years before her death). I also recorded the same census data for the Hornaryd Norregård farm district, which had 24 residents. Louise and her family were living on the farm with her widowed mother, Katarina. Carl is absent, as this was the year he went to the U.S. The census lists William as being at home, which questions previous accounts that he accompanied his father at that time. On September 4, 2002 the website Genline.com added the microfilms from 1861 to 1896 for Tjureda parish. These are the files that Dahlberg had viewed and summarized the previous week. So now I was able to trace Johan Petersson's family move to Växjö in 1881, and back to Nykulla in 1895 where they owned the 75-acre Nykulla-Backagård farm adjacent to Södergård. I also traced Anna's departure from Nykulla to her marriage with three children. She lived for a time in Tjureda, and then moved to Asa. They were living there in 1894. During this time, a Swedish genealogist responded to my request for information on the search for earlier Petersson ancestors. He validated my records, and provided data that led to the identification of more generations of ancestors in Nykulla-Södergård. The five generations of ancestors born in Nykulla, Sweden are: Jonas Peter Petersson (Newquist) b. 1848; Peter Johan Jonasson b. 1818; Jonas Jonasson b. 1778; Jonas Andersson b. 1731; Anders Johansson b. 1709. Chapter V. lists all of the eleven generations. We also know that the father of Anders Johansson first name was Johan. He would have been born in the 17th century, about 1679-89. The information we have on the descendants of my grandfather John's brothers and sister who remained in Sweden - Johan, Johannes, and Anna - allows for a search of the following Swedish Census (Utdrag ur forsamlingbocker) data for Tjureda parish: 1900-CB1701; 1910-CB1702; 1920-CB5236; 1930-CB8411. Unfortunately the Petersson children were not given a last name [surname] by the preachers in 1890 census books. Therefore it is not possible to say what surname they took later in life. And the government was strongly urging the use of permanent surnames, which became law in 1901. So we need to check the above Sweden census reports. They are available for purchase on microfiche from the Swenson Institute. These may be online in the near future. 
Figure 1 Carl Petersson Family Record Hornaryd-Norregård Husforhors-bok 1886-95 GID: 227.9.71000 
Figure 2 Peter Johan Jonasson Family Record Nykulla-Sodergård, Tjureda Husforhorslangd 1855-61 GID: 845.14. 28600 
Figure 3 Jonas Peter Petersson Birth Record, December 6, 1848. Tjureda Ministerialbok 1832-1860 GID: 845.17.52700 
Figure 4 Carl Magnus Petersson Birth Record, March 9, 1855. Tjureda Ministerialbok 1832-1860 GID: 845.17.54100
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