From Sweden to the States

11/08/2025

The review of the death sentence and Kjerstin’s time in custody

Note: This post contains a story about infanticide.

After Kjerstin drowned her daughter Märta in the Lillälven stream in August 1818, she was sentenced to death by the local court in November of the same year – first by the loss of her right hand, then she was to be beheaded and burned at the stake. On January 29, 1819, her case reached the Court of Appeal in Stockholm, which made the following decision: Kjerstin was pardoned from the death penalty. Instead, her sentence was changed to life imprisonment in the Stockholm penitentiary, 30 lashes with a rod, and a church penance on a Sunday.

On March 18, 1819, Kjerstin was transferred from the prison in Karlstad to the penitentiary in Stockholm, which later became known as the Central Prison in Norrmalm. After 22 years of imprisonment, she died there on March 13, 1840, of tuberculosis. She was 47 years old.

A tragic end to a tragic life. Kjerstin’s fate – from her childhood, through the crime, to her final days in the penitentiary – reminds us that behind every line in the archives lies a human fate that can show us a fragment of society in past times. Thanks to the digitized sources of the Swedish Riksarkivet and the new AI-based transcription function that makes court protocols searchable, such stories can be more easily discovered and followed in detail.

The next case is waiting to be told...



Image: ChatGPT

01/08/2025

10/06/2025

Kjerstin’s Tragic Choice – A Desperate Act in 1818

*Please note that this post contains a story about infanticide.

On August 17, 1818, Kjerstin Olsdotter made a decision that would have devastating consequences. After being thrown out from Jan Arnesson’s farm in Hövfes, near Jössefors, where she lived as an inhyses (impoverished lodger), she found herself in an extremely vulnerable situation. As I’ve described in previous posts, Kjerstin was extremely poor, unmarried with a child – and in the parish records, the priest had noted her as a “löskvinna” (socially outcast woman). She had lived in constant insecurity without a permanent home since her own childhood, and now as an adult she shared the same fate as her mother –living in poverty and being branded by society as a “löskvinna”.

According to the court records, Kjerstin sought out inhyses Olof Jonsson in Ålgården after she was thrown out in Hövfes. It was a long journey – about 8 miles by today’s roads – which she took with her little daughter Märta. When she arrived, it seemed as if she was not received the way she had hoped for. After leaving the farm, she continued her walk and reached the watercourse Lillälven, near the settlements of Östra Berget and Stortorpet in Långvak, at dusk. It was late in the evening, and she and Märta had no place to sleep.
In a moment of acute desperation, she undressed her three-year-old daughter and drowned her in the water. Kjerstin’s act does not appear to have been premeditated but can be seen as an expression of despair and the feeling of having no other way out.

Kjerstin’s life, marked by poverty and instability, had been a constant struggle to survive. The continuous vulnerability, social exclusion, and lack of security or hope for the future drove her into deep desperation. This may help explain her state of mind – though it can never justify the horrific decision she made.

Witnesses described how she appeared calm afterwards and even expressed remorse. In the next part, I will share more about the trial and her sentence.

24/05/2025

1813–1815: Her Own Children, Grief, and Wartime

Please note: This post includes a story involving infant death.

Kjerstin Olsdotter was 20 years old when she gave birth to her first child. On December 3, 1813, her son Anders Olsson was born in Östra Speke in the parish of Arvika. At the time of the birth, Kjerstin was living as an inhyses (poor lodger) with the Helén family in Östra Speke, while her mother Marit was registered as a rotehjon (a very poor person receiving parish welfare) in Västra Speke.

Kjerstin was not married to the child’s father, and the birth record states that she had recently returned from Karlstad. The father’s name, Olof Larsson, is not recorded in the birth entry but is mentioned in little Anders’s death record.

Sadly, Kjerstin and Olof’s son did not live long. On February 10, 1814, Anders died—just two months old—from what was recorded in the death book as a “stroke,” four days after falling ill. He passed away only eight days before Kjerstin’s 21st birthday.

Life had already placed heavy burdens on her shoulders—grieving the loss of her child and unable to escape poverty—and as if that weren’t enough, the war between Sweden and Denmark–Norway raged on during the years 1813 and 1814. It was during this time that Kjerstin met artilleryman Johan F. Engvall. He was stationed in Sälboda in the parish of Gunnarskog, and according to court records from 1818, Kjerstin lived with him for a short time. She became pregnant again, and on May 25, 1815, their daughter Märta was born.

Between 1813 and 1815, Kjerstin moved frequently and was registered in several villages in the Arvika parish. She moved mostly between Stålberga and Västra Speke. In January 1815, she moved from Stålberga to Karlstad. At that time, she was pregnant with Märta but returned to Arvika to give birth to her daughter.

In my next post, I am going to tell the story of the infanticide - the event that first sparked my interest in investigating Kjerstin’s life story.

14/05/2025

A childhood marked by poverty

After discovering the legal case of Kjerstin Olsdotter, I began searching for more information about her on the website of the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet). As I traced Kjerstin’s path back to her childhood, it became clear that she had grown up under very poor and precarious conditions.

Kjerstin was born on February 18, 1793, in Västra Högvalta in the parish of Arvika, as the third child of Marit Andersdotter (born 1751). They lived in her birth village as inhyses (impoverished lodgers) until Kjerstin was twelve years old.

The birth record notes that Kjerstin was born in Västra Högvalta, but her mother was still listed as a lodger at the Gatemill, where she had lived until 1792. In the church records, the abbreviation “l.q.f.” appears before Marit’s name. It stands for löskvinnfolk—a derogatory term used by pastors at the time in Sweden for unmarried women with no permanent residence, no stable income, and children born out of wedlock. Kjerstin’s father was recorded as the farmhand Olof Persson from Arvika.

Kjerstin was the third child born to Marit. Her older half-sister, Britta Andersdotter, was born on December 4, 1783, in Västra Högvalta. Her father was the farmhand Anders Antonsson (born 1750) from Rud.

In 1780, Marit had given birth to another daughter, who was also named Britta. Nothing further is known about her—she no longer appears in the church records. It’s possible she died young, as the second child was given the same name. Both girls named Britta had the same father: Anders Antonsson.

In 1805, when Kjerstin was twelve, she moved with her mother—first to Bjelverud, and 1806 to Brättne. In 1808, she took her first job as a maid in Östra Speke, while her mother moved to Västra Speke.

In 1810, Kjerstin moved to Gothenburg. Her trail goes cold there—until 1813, when she returns to Östra Speke, heavily pregnant and unmarried. What she doesn’t yet know: harder years are still ahead... more on that in the next post.

13/05/2025

Riksarkivet’s new AI feature makes historic court records searchable

Riksarkivet (the Swedish National Archives) has recently introduced a new feature where some court documents are being digitized and transcribed using AI. This now makes it possible to search documents such as court records (domböcker) dating back to the 1600s.

I tested the new service by searching for the word “Arvika” (the town in Sweden where I live) and found a court protocol from 1819 concerning Kjerstin Olsdotter. She had been sentenced to death for infanticide, but the sentence was later commuted to a life sentence in Stockholm’s correctional facility (tukthus).

This case illustrates how digital tools open up new opportunities for researchers to easily unlock access to source materials that previously required extensive manual searching.

I became curious about who Kjerstin was and what had led to the crime. Through further research in church records (kyrkböcker), I was able to trace the outlines of Kjerstin’s tragic life — both before and after the verdict. In my next post, I’ll share more details — about Kjerstin, the crime, and the society she lived in.

21/10/2024

Oops, six empty seats? What's going on there?

These seats were soon filled with six interested children, who went to search for their ancestors together with a relative (aka information source 😉).

“Genealogy for kids” is the name of my new workshop, and the children had a lot of fun. A pinch of information about what genealogists do, a pinch of important terms, and lots of exciting activities to teach the children about genealogy in a fun way. 💻🔎

In the end, six happy kids (and adults 🙃) went home with filled in family trees and activity books. An all around successful workshop! ❤

09/09/2024

At the moment I am working on a new project which is not about genealogy. But, it has been inspired by my work as a genealogist. While I was coloring old family photos I thought about how much the color changed my perception of the photographs. I felt so much closer to the colorized pictures of my maternal grandmother even though I have never met her in person – she died before I was born.

Additionally, I thought, imagine being a person who lived at a time where your experiences and memories were in color but the memories in form of photographs were only available in black and white.

Out of these emotions and thoughts I built a bridge to another passion of mine: photography. I love to take pictures, especially close-ups of colorful flowers and animals. I created an exhibition called “The duality of perception – exploring the power of colour and greyscale”.

I invite you – look at my pictures, let your mind wander and explore how the different looks of my photographs shape your thoughts and emotions. Happy for some feedback on the topic! ❤

The name of my page is: .lenoir
 
 

21/08/2024

I haven’t posted a lot lately but now I am back! The reason for me not posting was that we created interesting new content for coming generations – we moved from our farm in the countryside to a house in town. 🏡

We had amazing years on our farm but we felt lately that we needed a change of scenery – which had many different reasons. So here we are in our cozy new home with a rather wild and enchanted garden. We are loving it and now we are looking forward to new adventures and creating new memories! 🥰

21/06/2024

Wishing you a glad midsommar! ❤

Midsommar is a very special celebration. It is a cozy festivity, where we decorate the midsommarstång (maypole), dance and sing, share a good meal with friends and family. A day of happiness, enjoying the warmth and the sunshine! 🌞🎶🇸🇪🍓

How are you celebrating today? 🤗

13/06/2024

My previous post discussed the language variation “American Swedish” which developed in Swedish settlements in the US. In the online exhibition of the Institute for Language and Folklore (Institutet för språk och folkminnen - ISOF) you cannot only learn about this language variation but you can also test your skills by taking a quiz about American Swedish words.

Follow the link to start the quiz:
https://www.isof.se/lar-dig-mer/webbutstallningar/halsningar-from-amerikat/kviss-om-amerikasvenska

Good luck with the quiz! 🙂

27/05/2024

Swedish immigrants in North America developed their own language variation, the so called American Swedish, or "amerikasvenska”. According to the Institute for Language and Folklore (Institutet för språk och folkminnen - ISOF), the immigrants used two forms of this variation: a public, standardized version and a home language retaining their own regional dialect.

American Swedish emerged in Swedish settlements from blending Swedish with English. Good examples from the ISOF’s website are the words “femte grade” which means “fifth grade” in English and “femte klass” in Swedish as well as “rätt bredvid” which means “right next to” in English” and “precis bredvid” in Swedish.

In the 1960s and 70s, ISOF documented this fascinating linguistic blend and you can listen to some examples through the link below. Research from 2012 revealed that traditional American Swedish still exists in some communities. While the use of American Swedish has declined as newer generations favor English, efforts to study and preserve this linguistic heritage continue.

American Swedish is a great example of how languages evolve and adapt in immigrant communities, reflecting both the preservation of original linguistic features and the integration of new influences from the surrounding environment.

https://www.isof.se/lar-dig-mer/kunskapsbanker/i-rorelse/svenskan-i-varlden/svenskan-i-amerika

Do you speak American Swedish or do you know someone who speaks or spoke it? Would love to hear about it! 😀🇺🇸🇸🇪