 So excited to have you here. So glad to be aboard. Hi, I'm Mindy Silva. Welcome to the Wikitree Challenge. We're in one week, our team of volunteers will work together to uncover as much as possible about the family history of a notable person. Are you excited to hear what we found? I'm very curious to see what you guys find out. PESA, your week was led by team captain Karen Lowe, Maria Lundholm, earned the most bounty points. Thomas Koenlein was the MVP of the week, and of course we had Mindy, our challenge coordinator. Wikitree researchers from all over the world worked around the clock, combing through records, newspapers, wills, and much more to find stories, photos, and 547 new relatives for you. Here's a little glimpse of what that collaboration looks like. And the fact that we found that census record that gave Olson, like that doesn't narrow it down by very much, but that was pretty astounding to see. So Olson, we believe is her biological name. That's her biological father's name. The person that I found who went to America, a couple of his brothers also went to America, and he is on that maternal grandmother line. He's a nephew of the second great grandmother. I have found him in some household records with the kids and so forth. And the biggest issue I'm running into, I'd like to create his profile, is I can't find any definitive evidence of his patronage. So I can solve that for you, because I have his marriage record, which lists him as Ericsson. We decided we could make a header at the bottom called ruled out, and then we just move the whole record down there. Yeah. What is it, eight or nine generations now on her mother's side? I'm just working on the foster family right now, because they seem to have stuck in one place for a very long time. Every single member of this ball family that I've seen so far. It was an incredible week, you guys. I had so much fun. And we actually had researchers from England, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and the U.S. So they worked around the clock on your branches. We found a number of occupations. And this is something I like to find, but to me it kind of brings the person a little more back to life, you know, instead of just looking at a whole bunch of different names, but we did find an alderman. We found bookkeepers, the Matan men were bookkeepers at the mines. We found a Crofter, usually a tenant farmer. We found a district judge on the Peterson line. We found definitely some farmers. We found a forest warden, which took a little bit of discussion to figure out what the translation exactly was on that. So that was fun. Several in keepers, a lawyer, a locksmith, several pastors, a school teacher. We found on the more byline, we found ships commander. We found several soldiers. And you know, I know there was a requirement to serve, but we found several that stayed in. And we had a vagabond and a thief actually, Anders Olsen. Yeah. And then a watchmaker. So, you know, we did find a lot of interesting people on here. And it just, it was fun to see where all the stories went. We're going to go ahead and start with an ancestor that you didn't know when you were younger. And that's Bertha, vial of all. I don't know how much you, you know, know about her. She died so young. And all I remember of her is that she had extremely long hair, which was not coming back then along women or the women in Sweden had very short hair and she had like to her waist. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's what I remember of her and that she was very, very kind. One of the initial things we found out was that she was in a foster home. Her mother's birthday was on her birth record, which was really odd. I know they're really good about putting, you know, birthdays on everything, but they didn't, they did not put her mother's name, but they did put the mother's birthday and they did not list the father anywhere. So, you know, right off the bat, people were intrigued, because they were wanting to find out, you know, the, this mystery. And it turns out that she was taken in by foster parents. She had a foster brother named Klaus Eric, who was about four years older than her. It looks like they took him in about the same time. This is the St. Matthews church where she was baptized. And I just think that's a beautiful church. It really is. Really beautiful church. It really is. And that's where Bertha married at the age of 23. And, and, and then two months later gave birth to her son. So, she had a foster brother named Klaus Eric, who was about four years older than her. It looks like they took him in about the same time. This is the St. Matthews church where she was baptized. And I just think that's a beautiful church. It really is. Really beautiful. The family went from there to Ursula, to Vdicksa, to Denmark. And finally to Laga. And that's where Bertha married at the age of 23. And then two months later gave birth to her son. So. Her foster father had died six years before and her foster mother, one year before. So neither of them were actually there for the, for the marriage. In an interesting twist, Berta's foster mother Ida had birthed a son, Carl Johan George Anderson, when she was 22 and put him in foster care. So I'm not sure if you know, that's what caused her to be a, a foster parent later, but she had had to put her own son into care. And then she later married Johan Ball, who Berta was raised by. When Carl was 15 years old, he reunited with Ida and the family. So that was really cool. He actually went back, found them and moved in and he lived with them until adulthood. Okay. That's cool. We haven't forgotten about the birth of her birth mother. They did stay busy and then comb through the records. And unfortunately there were 88 women born with that birth date. We thought, oh, we have the birth date. It'll be great. And we looked at on that day, there were 88 Swedish women born. And that's only looking at the ones that were still alive. When Berta was born and not married, you know, because we, we figured she would have said who the, the father was or whatever, if, um, if she had been married to somebody. So that left a really daunting task to take on. And then they did finally find a record saying her surname was Olsen. When she was born. So. Yeah. And it turns out that the birth mother had professed to a priest. That her surname was Olsen. And, you know, unfortunately at that time, the priest made a note of it, but not of the birth mother's name. But, you know, looking at the records, it says, uh, you know, it leads us to believe that her biological mother was Cigna Katrina Olsen. And she would have been about 29 when Berta was born. Unmarried and a maid. So, you know, she couldn't take care of a child on her own. And then Berta would have been about 54 years old when Cigna died. And it's unknown whether the two actually met, you know, or met her biological mother. But there are some thoughts that she may have just because the mother did finally go to the priest and say, um, you know, this is, this is what happened. Going on your mother's side, it says, see if we have this right. With her father, Hans Vitaus Otelbae. And his father, Andreas. To his mother, Sarah's Anders daughter. And then to her father, Anders Olsen. Anders was born in 1798 at Overturing in Havaro. He was the son of Olaf Andersen and Sarah Johnstotter. Um, he grew up in that same parish. He married Maria Neal Stotter in 1825 in her home parish. And they live, I'm probably saying that location totally wrong. Overturing. I know exactly where it is because we're there every summer because we have a summer house after our relatives riding the woods next to Lake. And it's where they took the, the, the cows and the pigs and the hand, they spend the summers there, you know, um, that, that's what I know about them, but I didn't know how far back. I know that my grandpa and grandma did that. And then my mother and father used that place. That's just like a summer house, you know, the place where you have the cows during the night. And it's not there anymore. They made a guest house out of that. So now that my parents are not around anymore. So my family goes up there during the summer now, and it's really nice on all those places you just mentioned. Yeah. One of the researchers, Maria had said that she said, he's going to recognize a lot of these. I said, I don't know anything about Sweden, you know, in the geography. She goes, no, he'll, he'll recognize a lot of these places. He'll know where they are. I do. They were listed in the 1835, those household examination registered as having four children in the home. Those same children were listed in the 1845 registered, but since then Olaf had married Golan Handler's daughter. They had two sons, Olaf and Niels, who both drowned in November of 1855, right after that household examination was done. And, um, they drowned at the same time. So I don't know, you know, the researchers were trying to determine if it was the ice was kind of melting at that time of year. You know, if the lake wasn't totally froze over something that happened, but they, you know, they weren't little kids. They were, um, I know the one was like 23 and the moment's younger than him, maybe 19 when they drowned, but. A wild guess is that they were probably working. I don't know. They might have been working with the. They transported, you know, big logs in the rivers, you know, from the, from the mountains down to the, down to the ports in the sea. So, and I know a lot of people, a lot of men died doing that work. Uh, so it was, uh, it was a very, very risky task to get those logs down to the, to the, to the, what do you say, harbor? Is that the name? Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, I don't know, I don't know, but that might, that might have been the case. Uh, or as you say, they might have drowned. I don't know. Yeah. It makes you wonder though, huh? I mean, that does make sense if they were doing a lot of logging in the area. They had two daughters which survived Anders. They survived their father. Um, they were both married by that time. So he got to see them married, but they had actually lost three sons because the first one named Niels died less than a day old. And this one is going along your father's side to his father, Carl. And then over to his mother, hold a Regina lung quest. Then to her mother, Claire Levisa, Peterson. Okay. And then to her father, Pear. So we kind of did a lot of hopping to get out there to him and another pair. So we had two, um, pair persons. Now the first one was born in 1778 in North Sunda. And what we found interesting about him was his occupation. He was an innkeeper and is it a shishpie? So this in along with a parish rectory in a poor house were three really long established buildings and considered focal to that area. Uh, the management of this in actually stayed in your family for at least three generations that we found there may have been more. And the first pair lived there with his wife, Anna and his sons, Pear and Carl Frederick. Here's him and his wife and sons, Pear and Carl. But I have the household register for that. Now his death was also a little unusual as he died from a high fever. And he was only 35 years old. His son Pear died at the age of 46. He hung himself. So yeah, we had a lot of tragedy in that part of the family. Um, and I mean, she wonder what all hardships, you know, they encountered being out there and trying to keep that in running and raising a family. Your direct ancestor was a daughter of the second pair named Clara Levisa Peterson. And she was just three years old when her father died. And then 12 when her mother died. So. You know, she really wasn't, wasn't raised by her parents. No, I mean, that's rough. Who took care of her? Well, by the time her mother died when she was 12, her older siblings were in their early 30s to mid 30s. I believe her oldest brother was like 35. So, you know, there was a little enough of a spread between the kids and, you know, her being the youngest that she had the older siblings. And I imagine that's who cared for her. You know, we didn't find anything that showed she was put up in foster care. So the younger, you know, kids must have stayed with the older kids. Now we were looking at this, this in once again, because we found so many of your family members there. And this town had prehistoric origins. Osuspi is the central town that contains the minister's residence, poor house and in these have filled the function of the parish center near adjacent to the nearby Norseunda church from the 12th century. Years after the first pair lived in the inn, there was a fire in the courthouse of the neighboring town where the records of four different counties were kept. The entire building burned down except for the records in the basement. Those remained intact. They moved them to the inn until such time as a new location could be built. So we wouldn't have these wonderful, you know, household records and stuff if that hadn't happened. A bit of luck in the middle of the chaos then that they could keep the books. Here we have Olaf Erzin Blomberg, your fifth great-grandfather. And we went through your father again for this, to his father, to Carl's there, to LaVisa. And then we went way out there to Olaf Erzin Blomberg, your, once again, that's your fifth great-grandfather. He was born in 1723. He enlisted as a soldier in 1743 and he actually served until 1780 in the Balster Road. So he was part of the Hondra Harads Company of the Uplands Regiment. And as a soldier, he took on the Blomberg surname. People would take on an entirely different last name to be identified. And I guess when they were in military service, if they died, the next person that came in and filled their slot had the same name. So the name went with the rank or the role that they had in the regiment. Yeah, I know that back in the day when the, I know that if you were a soldier, sometimes the army named you. So you get a name from the, yeah, from the army. The Swedish army gave you name. That also happened sometimes, I know. Maybe if there were like five guys that was named Andersson or Svensson, maybe they, well, we can't have one more Andersson. We got to give him another name. I don't know. Their origins can be traced actually back to the 16th century. This wasn't disbanded until 1957. They were one of the original 20 Swedish infantry regiments mentioned in the Swedish constitution of 1634. This is what your, you know, great, great, great, great grandfather was in. Yeah, cool. In 1739, battalion of that regiment was transferred over to Caminigarde County in Finland for a while. And then out in 1757, they went to Pomerania after the equipment was supplemented. This was really cute. The details, I love the description. They were suited up with short leggings, white scarves, new rifles of the 1747 model. New socks and shoes, five new ammunition wagons, and six bread and tent wagons. Okay. Yeah. And the soldiers were all instructed to have their hair well powdered and their mustaches well set up. Okay. That's awesome. This was the church that Olaf and Marga married in. And this was the first couple I had seen. This was the first couple I had seen in this particular parish. And that was in, I'm not sure how you say who's be Langkandra. Yeah, it's not far from where I am right now. I've seen this chair. I've never been inside this church, but I've seen it. It's a, I don't know, 10, 15 kilometers from here, maybe. And this one's a third cousin. So we kind of traveled out way out. And we looked on your father's line to your seventh great parents were Lars Eden and Sarah Margarita film era. And one thing that we like to do is see, you know, who else they are connected to. So they have a common ancestor with your third cousin, Johann Eric Marburg, Marburg born 1829. Johann Eric was born in Hedwig, Eleanor. He resided later in Stockholm. And this was the steamship captain. The ad that's, that's there is, and actually one of his passages in 1883 from what, you know, we were reading not many immigrants went from Sweden to America by way of steamship prior to 1860. But after that date, it happened more and more. And it became really a common way of getting there. And, you know, at which point, thousands of Swedens migrated to America annually. I mean, in the, I think it was one out of four million Swedes emigrated to the States. So, I mean, that's one fourth of the population, because there was starvation, rough winters, bad summers. They were starving. And they had no hope. So they were looking for a better life over there. So, and I mean, that's a lot of people, you know, and most of them ended up in Minnesota and Dakota and those places. Your particular family here, he may have taken them there, but they didn't actually migrate. And here we have a census record with Johan and his wife, Maria Gustafa, and there's three daughters in Stockholm. Also in the home, more Carl Gustaf, John Soderbergh, a foster son, as well as Hildegard, Johanna Lundgren, and Christina Elizabeth Ola's daughter, both were maids. And he was pretty well off. So, you know, that's who most likely was just helping take care of his family. And this is actually a painting of the steamship that Johan commanded. Super. Really cool. Yeah. Now we have Pavel Henriksen. And this is even further out. I'm telling you, we just, we were having so much fun with it. Everybody just, we just kept wanting to do more and more. We actually made it out to your ninth great-grandfather on this line. So we went through your mother's line for that. To her father, Hans Vitalis Ola again. And to his father, Andreas, his mother, Sarah. And then we went way out there to Pavel Henriksen and his wife, Margarita Larsdorter. He's one of the oldest ancestors on your branches now. He was one of the oldest ones we found. He was born in 1614 in snow bear in Havaro. And his father was born about 1589. So, yeah, really old Pavel married Margarita Larsdorter and they had three known children. And the longevity fairly common in your factor, despite those few that we had that died kind of young. He lived to the age of 75 in a time where that just really wasn't common. And, you know, they said Havaro, it has been a prosperous parish with plenty of hunting and fishing. Tools were forged at that time from iron ore picked up in the bogs. And research on the people of Havaro is easier in some locations. As for 300 years, the only way they had to get to the nearest village was to take a boat across. My grandpa and grandmother on my mother's side, they're buried in that very church or in the grave. Yeah. So I've been there. It's a beautiful church and the surroundings are spectacular with Holm Schoen, the lake just behind that church. And it's a really beautiful place. This is a 1689 death record for Pavel. And, you know, just once again, really incredible to see how well preserved this parish register is. Yeah. That's really wow. I know 1689. And this one is on your mother's side. To her father, Hans Vitalis again. They found a lot on his lines, but we went to read a hand's daughter this time. To her mother, Marta Airstodder, and then over to her grandfather, Jonas B. Berry. He was born in 1771 in Berg, Sweden. He started his family with his marriage to Marita Anders daughter in 1802 in Raton. Jons and Marie had seven children all born and baptized in that church. Before that time, Jons had enlisted as a soldier with it. Here's another one with the Ovekin company of the Yonk Lawns Regiment. This service went from 1792 to 1823. So he stayed in for a while. And this one had its origins in Anger, Monlons in metal pads. And this regiment was raised in 1646. In what was then the newly conquered province of Yonk Lawns. He would have joined the regiment shortly after the end of Gustav, the third's Russian war. He was active during the Finnish war of 1808 and 1809. And he also served in the campaign against Norway in 1814. So he was in some major skirmishes there. Yeah, really? This was their regiment flag. Their motto was, for Sweden's glory, for Sweden's power, over mountains, over valleys, Yonk Lawns hunting. Okay. I just want to take a minute to thank all the people that made this week so successful. We had our wiki tree researchers, our regional experts, which were our Sweden experts this time. They were amazing, really friendly, really knowledgeable. Had a lot of fun working with them. What do you think about everything we found? Yeah, it's amazing. It's really, really fun.