Peter Brown - Swedish migrant to Australia (Take 2)

[Greg Ware]

I am seeking any information that may help to identify a Swedish ancestor who migrated to Australia in the early 1850's.
All records in Australia use the name Peter Brown (hereafter PB), but I am aware that it is at best an Anglicised version of a Swedish name.
There isn't very much solid data to work with and its is inconsistent, so I am just very hopeful, rather than very confident of a breakthrough result.
I don't have an Australian immigration/arrival record that I completely trust. We understand that PB was a sailor and possibly jumped ship to try his luck in the Victorian goldfields - certainly that's where he lived until his death in 1891.
The source records I have show that he was married to Kate O'Farrell at Bendigo (Sandhurst) Victoria in Nov 1856. There were 2 ceremonies on the same day - one in his Protestant church & a 2nd in her Catholic church - Kate was Irish & also nearly untraceable.
Both marriage docs attached - the info is consistent, but the 2nd certificate has slightly more details.
I have highlighted the main attributes..
* PB's age is given as 28 meaning he would have been born c1828 - location given as near Stockholm.
* His father is Gabriel (a farmer) and mother Mary (perhaps Maria?)
I have collected a few other newspaper items, but they don't have anything about his Swedish family.
The only other source record is PB's death certificate (attached) and it just confuses the situation.
This info was supplied by his son - also Peter Brown - but its some 35 years later and probably less reliable.
 It reconfirms his age and Stockholm as the place of birth, but names 2 different parents.. William Brown & Christina Olston (Olsson ?)
* PB must have spent 2 years in Tasmania - I can't find anything in their records that is relevant.
PB's will is available but doesn't give anything related to his Swedish family - as far as we know he came to Australia alone.

Any help or any suggestions greatly appreciated.
I am based in Australia so cant do any research on anything other than what is on-line. I was recently, briefly in Stockholm & spent an afternoon in museums/libraries hoping to find something, but needed more time (and knowledge on where to look)
Thanks - Greg Ware
PS - This is a follow-up to my mid-Sep post as that approach didn't seem to work out..

[Greg Ware]

This is an addendum to my post..
I have strung a succession of IFs together..
* If the LDS Family Search website has indexes to all Swedish baptisms  AND
* PB had a name something like Peter AND
* PB was baptised between 1827 & 1829 AND
* PB's father was Gabriel AND
* PB's mother had a name like Olson/Olafsdtr
Then PB might possibly be one of the 2 people listed in this document.

Can these candidates be checked..
Was either Gabriel a farmer?
Are there any records for these 2 Petters ins Sweden - in particular did one "disappear" in the early 1850's

[Erik Mouwitz]

Hi Greg!


I followed both of these persons up until the 1860's but none of them left Sweden during that time period, so they cannot the guy you're looking for.


Since there is so far no complete index of the Swedish parish records during the 1820's, this is a bit of a needle-in-a-haystack scenario.


Why is it that you do not completely trust the immigration records? Even if they seem unreliable, maybe they could provide some kind of clue?


Erik

[Greg Ware]

Hi Erik

Thanks you very much for your time & assistance. I guess it would have been a real fluke if something had turned up immediately.

Are there gaps in the Swedish BDM records or is it that they are not yet fully indexed?

Australia was a series of British colonies up until 1901, the immigration records offer very little information for family history purposes.
I have not been able to find any record of Peter Brown as an assisted or unassisted migrant.
There are even less details for ship's crew - but I can find only one possibility. In 1854 on the Lady Kennaway there is a Brown from Sweden listed as a 25 year old able-bodied seaman.. But the Christian name isn't clear and there is no supporting family details.
I have PB's will - nothing useful there either.
Unable to find any record of him requesting or receiving citizenship.

Any suggestions ?
What about sailors working out of Sweden? is this readily available or reliable?

Thanks again
Greg 

[Erik Mouwitz]

Hi Greg!


Records of births, deaths and marriages were kept only on a local level in the parishes until 1860.
There are gaps, but only local ones (caused by the records being destroyed in church-fires or similar).
With few exceptions the records are fairly complete from the late 17th century and onwards. So I believe it is very likely that your relative is to be found in the archives - the question is where .
The indexes of these records are, unfortunately, not at all complete so far.


Swedish sailors were supposed to be registered at a "sjömanshus" (literally "sailors house"). Some of sjömanshusen kept tidy records with alphabetic indexes, while others, in my experience, are more chaotic.
The problem here is twofold: We do not know which sjömanshus he was registered at, and we do not know what name he used in Sweden (probably not Brown).


http://marinersandships.com.au/1854/12/033lad.htm


Is this the record from your relatives arrival? The man called Broom? Which sounds no more swedish than Brown!
The next step could perhaps be to check if there are any records of the crew from the port of departure (Plymouth).


Maybe this is the right place to look for such departure records, I am not sure.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4068301


These records have not yet been digitised, but they have been transfered to microfilm by the mormons.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/55017?availability=Family%20History%20Library


In summary, I think it would be necessary to find out more about Peter Browns background before searching the Swedish archives; until we know more specifically where he was born or lived in Sweden, or what name he used, finding him would be very difficult.


Erik

[Margaretha Johansson]

Hello! One has to be open to any ideas and suggestions. A sailor can of course jump ship easily and therefore they are not noted in our church records as emigrants. They might just disappear from the records totally, but usually they are then noted in the book "obefintlighetsboken" (a person with unknown whereabouts). I looked at a register that I have "Emibas" and there I found this young boy emigrating to Australia. He was born 1828 and left Sweden 1842, he was only 14 years old according to this record! He was not from Stockholm but from Sundsvall, and is noted as "sjöman" - sailor. Post 1024517


Norlin, Lars Petter
Sjöman (unmarried man)


b. 10/26/1828 in Nordingrå, Västernorrlands län (Ångermanland)


Emigrated 1842
from Omne, Nordingrå, Västernorrlands län (Ångermanland)
to Australien


Source: Household Examination Roll, p. 50


Emibas migration file ID: Nordingrå Y 1842 001


There is a "sjömanshus" in Sundsvall. I don´t know how to search in these records unfortunately. But I will try to find out what his parents name were. I just wanted to post this even if it´s not the right person. Then we can rule him out. Will get back if I find who his parents were.
Margaretha

[Maud Svensson]

Samme Peter Brown diskuterad – på svenska – för sex år sedan med start 2013-08-03, 00:19 (tredje inlägget uppifrån):
https://forum.rotter.se/index.php?topic=28284.msg452348#msg452348

[Greg Ware]

Hi again Erik

Thanks for all that info, there are several family historians here in Australia that have been researching PB - I don't think there are many (any) unturned stones here... I am running a few other searches on the LDS site ... but as you say there's not much to work with.

Hi Margaretha

Many thanks for your time & interest - that Emibas sounds like a great resource for this search... really interested to hear what else you can find. How extensive is this database? Is it digitised?

Hi Maud
Many thanks to you as well.
I was aware of earlier searches for PB (see my 1st post) but only the English version
Before my 2nd post, I did contact Ake Sjokin as well
I cant really follow what is in that Swedish post - did it have any findings that might be of interest to me?

Thanks again folks
Greg

[Margaretha Johansson]

Sorry for the delay. Emibas is a CD I bought many years ago, it´s about 75% complete. Lars Petters parents were Lars Norlin and Helena Mårtensdotter.


 Source: Nordingrå (Y) C:5 (1780-1836) Bild 177 / sid 168 (AID: v122038.b177.s168, NAD: SE/HLA/1010140)

[Greg Ware]

Hi again Margaretha

Unfortunately that info on Lars Petter's parents doesn't tally with anything we have on record for the Peter Brown, but I'll keep it in mind anyway.
Interestingly I cant find any record of a Norlin in Australia within that timeframe.
My nephew is tacking this via DNA - who knows perhaps a Norlin will pop up one day!!

I have reworked the search query I used in my post of 15 Oct. - I have relaxed the condition that PB's mother had some sort of name like Olsson.
This gave me 24 possibilities - including the 2 who were eliminated by Erik Mouwitz. I have used the LDS search routines to the best of my ability to eliminate a further 13 candidates. So there are nine remaining possibles - see yellow rows in the attached spreadsheet.

Perhaps someone could follow up on those candidates the way that Erik was able to action the first two...

Cheers & thanks again for all your help so far
Greg
 

[Greg Ware]

Hi again from Australia.

I have been doing further research here, but have not been able to come up with any fresh clues about the Swedish connections of Peter Brown (?)
I have found some newspaper items and they suggest he was a rather colourful character.. sharing them with you.
The first bizarre/embarrassing one came only a couple of years after his marriage..
The next 3 are run-ins with the law.
So I guess my best shot is for help with the list in my previous post.. hoping that PB is one of the people on my list and that someone with access to more comprehensive records in Sweden can help to eliminate any of those who is traceable in Sweden after 1855..

When scanning the newspapers I found a few articles that i wouldn't have expected in provincial titles - attaching one which might be of general interest.

[Erik Mouwitz]

Hi Greg!


I have now looked through the list of 9 persons, and I was able to exclude all except one. That one is Peter Gabrielsson, who was born on 20th of January 1829 in Kristianopel:


https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0058062_00311


I was able to trace him until the year 1846, when he moved to Karlskrona:


https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0058046_00237


By chance I found this post on Anbytarforum:


https://forum.rotter.se/index.php?topic=503.msg14965#msg14965


about a certain Peter Gabrielsson Nylander who took part in the circumnavigation of earth by the frigate Eugenie in 1851-1853. People who went out to sea, or were conscripted into the army etc. often received a unique name, since patronymics are hard to tell apart (when giving orders etc.) so since the place of birth and birthdate are the same, this is probably the same person as the one on your list, despite the name Nylander.


https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_(1844)


As you can see from the wikipedia-article, the ship made a stop in Sydney. I do not know whether Peter Gabrielsson Nylander stayed in Australia or returned back to Sweden, but this person could be an interesting candidate.


To find out more about him, I suggest that you contact either the poster of the above mention of Nylander, or the maritime museum in Karlskrona:


https://www.marinmuseum.se/en


Good luck!
Erik

[Greg Ware]

Hey Erik

Wow!!
Firstly your elimination work came up with one live possibility - the perfect number!
Then your were able to pick up that the person in question has a connection to Australia and at the sweet-spot as to timing.
I couldn't have hoped for anything as good as that - thank you so much for providing so much assistance.
I'll immediately follow up those 2 leads (thanks again) and will post the results when I get anything further.
I guess there's still some way to go, but now we have a very strong candidate to focus on.

Cheers
Greg
PS. I would have replied earlier but have been away for a couple of days without internet cover.

[Kristina Rylander]

I'm sorry but I don't think Peter Gabrielsson Nylander is your Peter Brown.


Corporal Peter Gabrielsson Nylander born January 20th 1829 Kristianopel died of tuberculosis at the naval hospital June 12th 1866 according to Karlskrona amiralitetsförsamling AI:54 (1861-1865) Image 141 / Page 136 and Karlskrona amiralitetsförsamling Fia:8 (1862-1874) Image 100 / Page 95.


He wasn't married.

[Greg Ware]

Hi again

Kristina - Its obviously not a welcome post, but thank you for doing that excellent piece of research.
Kristina has "torpedoed" the Eugenie theory and now I have the absolute worst number of possibilities for Peter Brown - zero 
Maybe some new information will come to hand here in Australia or maybe someone in the forum can think of a new line of enquiry, but for the moment I cant see any way forward from here - it was always a long-shot.

Many thanks again to Erik, Margaretha, Maud and Kristina for helping me out.
Cheers
Greg
PS - I'm willing to help out with any enquiries about Australian connections.

[Greg Ware]

Hi again - its been a while since I posted re Peter Brown.

As I said back then, I don't think there is anything here in Australia that is going to help sort this out.
Wondering if any new, helpful material may have come to light in Sweden since late 2019?

Cheers
Greg

[Margaretha Johansson]

I haven´t checked if a DNA-test has been discussed. That might lead you to a relative of his. In Sweden FTDNA is most commonly used, but many people also do tests with My Heritage and Ancestry, Just a suggestion. I wish you good luck!

[Greg Ware]

Hello again
I'm just checking in again to keep this enquiry alive & in the hope that something new may turn up or that some new sources may have become available.
My enquiries here in Australia are on-going but there is nothing new to report & my nephew's DNA efforts are showing connections to Swden & Finland but its all a bit too general at this point.
I'm wondering if there are on-line, searchable historical newpspaer archives..
From my browsing it seems that there are but they are (of course) in Swedish and I cant search them myself.
Was it a practice there to post Family Notices of births, deaths & marriages in he papers?
I know I have rather vague info to work with (see earlier posts) but perhaps a quick search might yield something..
Thanks again for any & all help 

[Håkan Bergström]

Hello,

The Swedish Royal Library has a searchable site with all newspapers up to 1906.

Sök bland svenska dagstidningar


Håkan