Finding Your Roots

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Henry

Elin's parents, Julia's second great-grandparents, were Johan and Emma Jansson. Her baptismal record refers to them as being Statares, meaning that they were itinerant farm hands, landless laborers who traveled from one estate to another doing seasonal work, living under a system that seems to have been designed to keep them impoverished. (gentle music) -

Julia

Look at their clothes, wow. Startares had to be married, that was a rule. So both Johann and Emma would've worked together on the estate. They likely worked seven days a week, including every holiday. I mean, some of these little girls. Look at that boy, he's serious. Wanna guess how much your ancestors would've been paid for all that hard work? Oh, I can't imagine. Almost nothing. - Wow. In exchange for all that work, your ancestors would've been given meager housing, food enough to subsist on, and very little money. Wow. They had a hard life. It looks hard. Maybe that's why nobody ever talked about it. (gentle music) -

Henry

Startares were essentially their own class within Swedish society, existing at the very bottom of the social ladder. Typically, they lived in barrack-style dorms where multiple families would be housed together. Rooms were damp and crowded, rife with rats and other vermin. as well as tuberculosis and dysentery. Children like Elin were poorly educated, if they were educated at all. It sounds horrible. And to have a baby in a place that has rats and cockroaches and rampant tuberculosis. And to be all crowded in with people. Yeah. No privacy, no sanitation. Oh, wow. And how they obviously prevailed. I mean, I'm sitting here. - Right. They kept going. Well, let's see what they did about this. Could you please turn the page? Yeah, somebody had to get on a boat or an ox cart at some point, right? Could you please turn the page? Okay. You got it right. There's a boat. - There's a boat. This is a list of passengers leaving the port of your Ytterby Sweden on April 1st, 1887, nearly three years after your great-grandmother's birth. Wow. Would you please read who was on that ship? Okay, Johan Jansson 27, birthplace B in Varmland, destination Minnesota. - Yep. Emma, 28, birthplace B in Varmland. Elin, two years, 11 months, birthplace B in Varmland. Gustav, welcome Gustav, 11 months, birthplace B in Varmland. You are looking at the record that records the moment your ancestors left Sweden for the United States of America. Amazing, I mean, it just makes me think that they were very brave, to go off with two little children to a whole other land, a whole other language. It's very brave. They rolled the dice. Yeah, I mean, to get off this boat, and you're standing on a dock, and where do you go? Yeah. How do you know where to go? Right. - You can't even read a sign. Oh my gosh. (gentle music) -

Henry

Julia's ancestors were fortunate in one regard. They were not alone. During the 1880s, over 300,000 of their fellow Swedes migrated to the United States. Many settled in the Midwest, drawn by economic opportunities not available in their homeland. So Johan and Emma became part of a community of immigrants. And in this supportive environment, they found a way to thrive. John Johnson, head of household 46, naturalized plumber. Emma, wife, 41, wait, she got younger. Yes, she got younger. (both laugh) Well done, Emma! August son, 15. George, son, 13. Frida daughter, 10. Charles, son, eight. Albert, son, six. Okay, give 'em some privacy. Yeah. Clarence son four, and Edwin W son two. Yeah, they worked on like clockwork. Yeah, once they had a door to close, wow. They're your ancestors. Johann and Emma in Minneapolis with their eight children. One, two, three, four, five, six boys. Wow. And what's it like to see this? To think about how far they'd come in just 13 years. If they'd stayed in Sweden, they'd almost certainly all still be landless, itinerant farm hands. Yeah, and maybe perished in those conditions. Remember, tuberculosis was rampant. Yeah. I mean, to see this like big, of course, in my dreamy mind, happy family and for him to be a plumber, which is a very good job to have. Oh indeed. That they were clever, that they had a plan, and it seems like they really fully executed it.