Axel theodore hessell

[hessell]

I seek to learn the real identity of the above named man. In a autobiography entitled Frarbor Slokum he claimed to be an orphan raised by foster parents who recieved financial support from a rich uncle. He reports that he was shouted in for by a nice couple and after he reached a certian age was taken in by the Uncle who put him to work in the family business. Upon graduation from lower school he was sent to a Tech. school on Master Samuels street in Stockholm. He didnt like the school and hung around with the students from the Royal Drama school and even entered that school and was in a play put on by the Royal Theater. When his uncle learned of this he was taken ot of Stockholm and sent to a local Tech school. Upon graduation he left his uncles household and went to Gotland where he married and eventually came to America.  
 
We have found an Axel Theodore Hessell born in Drothem, Oestergotland Feb.1840. He was from a family of eight children and his father was a successful merchant in and around the Linkoping, Norrkoping, Soderkoping area. This Axel did attend the Tech. school on Master Samuels st. but never left Sweden. After working in the Iron Foundry business in many of the towns in Northern Sweden he came to Stockholm, married for the first time and retired. He died childless in 1922 in Stockholm.  
 
The man I seek left Gotland for the States in 1869 and was followed by his wife and infant daughter several months later. After living in several cities in the Mid Western states he and his six children and wife settled down in Chicago. He died there in 1912. I am his great grandson. My grandfather was Ellis Theodore Hessell, the third child of the man I know as Axel T. Hessell. BUT, that doesnt appear to be his name. The real Axel never left Sweden, never had children and died in 1922. My Axel left Sweden in 1869 never to return, had six children and died 1912 in Chicago.
 
I am following the line that my Axel is a cousin of the real Axel and that the rich Uncle who helped support him is Johan Peter Hessell, a business man who died in Soderkoping (St Laurentii) May 27, 1861. He had eight children and might have found it hard to take in a small child, so allowed the nephew to be raised by foster parents until such time as he could take care of himself. As both Johan Peter and his wife Carolina Gustafva (Westerberg) Hessell had brothers and sisters it is possible that he is a nephew.
 My Axel disputes his birth date and so far in my research I have found three date ranging between 1837 and 1842. None of them can be confirmed by the household examination records. He doesn't name his birth town and the only mention of it is a reference to the fact that he was born in a sea side resort. Most of the fact that pertain to his growing up seem to indicate he was raised in Soderkoping. He writes of a minister named de Besche and a rector name Vidgren. Both of these people were in Soderkoping. de Besche was a minister in Soderkoping from 1830 to 1860 and Vidgren was the rector at Lagre allmanna laroverket.
He did mention three chums who he was involved with in lower school and with whom he graduated.
 
Specific questions:1) As shouting in seemed to be a way of placing foundlings with foster parents I would think that there must be some kind of record of what child was place with who and what kind of financial help the foster parents recieved from the establishment that placed the children. Where would these records be kept?
2) Is it possible to find rosters of the differant schools mentioned? It is my hope that if I can find the Soderkoping  Lower school roster for the period between 1847-57, locate the three chums, then compare the names on the Lower school roster with those on the roster of the Master Samuel st. Tech. Inst and th Royal drama scool I might come up with a match. The three rosters that I seek would be; The Soderkoping Lagre allmanna laroverket 1847-57; The Tech. Inst. Master Samuels St. 1855-65 and the Royal Drama School. 1855-65.
 
We are following the families of Johan Peter and His wife but so far not much success. The autobiography is almost void of dates, place names, family names and other important information that could be of help. It was written when my Axel was 71 and he seems to compress time. He mentions events that seem  to overlap. It gives the impression that he is combining the lives of at least two people. I am sure he knew the family of Johan Peter as what he writes about that part of his life is verifiable. We are aslo sure that our Axel was an educated man. When he arrived on Gotland (Burgsvik) he was asked to and did become the teacher in a private school supported by the local people of Burgsvik. He became a Baptist and was appointerd a minister. In the states he did many things, as most green horns did.; he was a laborer, farmer, sweet shop owner,type setter, publisher of a weekly Swedish language newspaper, writer for many Swedish journals. When he died he was written about in many Swedish American papers and in a book on Swedish American writers Pennfaktare by Ernst Skarstedt he was praised.
 
We know that we have the right man as we can verify all of his time on Gotland as well as his marriage to Olivia Ockander of Oja parish. We have not verified his leaving Gotland but have the records of Olivia leaving with her infant daughter.  And we do have then together in Omaha Neb. in the US census of 1870.  
 
But who is he? Not the Axel T Hessell born in Drothem in 1840! But Who!!!!!!  
 
I would appreciate any suggestions or help you can offer.    
Sam L. Eadie, 2010 Lake St. Wilmette 60091 IL.
email:    Paeadie@aol.com

[Kerstin Jonmyren]

Dear Sam L Eadie,
 
Since I have my roots in the south of Gotland, where Burgsvik is situated, and have researched there for many years, I would like to add just a couple of small notes to your interesting story about the research for the right background of Axel Theodor Hessel - even if I have no answer.
 
1. I am sure you are aware of the text about Hessel in Nyberg: Gotländska släkttavlor: page 104 about the Ockander family:
Birgitta Olivia ( Ockander ), född 13/10 1848, död. Gift i Othem 3/9 1867 med teknologen Axel Theodor Hessel, född i Söderköping 18/6 1842.  
Anyway I wanted to add it here.
There, he is listed to be born in Söderköping in 1842 as you can see, and probably that information is taken from the church record of Othem.
 
2. I am bound to agree to your suggesting that Axel Theodor so to say had adopted the identity of a relative of his.  
Strangely enough I have found that sort of enterprise for at least two emigrants already. One case concerns a girl emigrating from Västergötland. She seems to have adopted her sister's identity. Probably her sister had leased an emigration certification from the parish pastor and then regretted that. She did not want to emigrate. Her sister, on the other hand wanted, took the identity papers and went. At least that is how her descendants in Chicago and I believe.
 
One sister disappears from the church records without any notes, the other one stays there. The remaining sister's identity lives on in Chicago, too. Probably the missing sister! Why this happened nobody can understand. Lack of time to get new identity paper? Running away from something?
 
Another case, more difficult to solve: About a man emigrating from Värmland first to Norway, and after a couple of years on to the USA. His identity fits with a man in Värmland, but that one remained there and married. The other man married in Norway and then went quickly away to America. Who he was, I am now, probably in vain, trying to find out. He might perhaps have bought the other man's identity papers in Norway, since the supposed owner of the papers really was in Norway at the actual time.
   
Your case seems more strange. According to your story he appears to have adopted his new identity already in Sweden. You have checked all birth records of Söderköping I guess for all the years between say 1837 and 1845? All the surrounding parishes?
 
In the US census people obviously could give up the year and place of birth as they liked. So it seems, since I have found that many of the Swedish emigrants made themselves at least two years younger there than they were, and the name of the birth parishes could be whatever. At sea was a note for man, whose background I have researched, born far from the coast in the Swedish inland, for instance.  
The emigrants could not imagine how difficult those false notes were to be for their descendants! One woman from Västergötland, as an example, had made herself five years younger than she was. The American descendants had always believed her. How they, and I, searched in Sweden!
What is the name of the cousin you suspect is Axel, the emigrant? As I have written above I find it difficult to believe he could have adopted his new identity already in Sweden. If so, it is very interesting. Could he really dare to go around in this country with its very strict laws of those days, with the identity of another living man?
 
Kerstin Jonmyren
Ljungbyholm
E-mail: swedgenco@home.se

[Susanne Eriksson]

I\m searching for Alma Astrid Linnea Karlström born 1917 8/5 in Sweden. She emigrated first to Denmark in 1939. Got married to a danish man called Svend Rasmussen. They got to children, Bengt and Margit in the early 1940. After that they emigrated to USA IL probebly to Chicago. If anybody know something about the family I will be so greatfull for answers.
 
Thanks
Susanne Eriksson
Fromtorp
725 92 Västerås
Sweden
susanne.erixzon@spray.se