He was a Soldier, but when did he leave Sweden? |
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We recently received transcriptions from two Swedish documents which
prove that John Bodeen was indeed a soldier in Sweden. |
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This information is from archives stored in Gothenberg, Sweden (LANDSARKIVET GÖTEBORG). Munkaberg was the town closest to where John and his family lived. The record indicates John's profession (soldat, or soldier), his full name, The date he was born (född) (May 9, 1843), and his place of birth (the parish Ving). The name Glans was one of several names the army issued to soldiers. (Names like Johan Johansson were so common that it was necessary to give soldiers additional names to avoid confusion.) The rest of John's family is on the full document. Only his wife (hustru) is included with John on the part shown above. |
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The
Bodeens lived in Murum (a församling, or parish) in
Älvsborgs county, near Gothenberg. The parish minister (who also
served as a civil authority) was called the pastor. The pastors
regularly made entries in the parish records for each household.
They recorded births, deaths, christenings, and other
significant family events. The information in the document above
comes from the records for Murum. The Immigration of the Bodeen family is well documented here in this website. Images from actual documents and accounts from family historians tell the fascinating story. |
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| It was in May of 1881 when John Bodeen left his home country illegally. He was on routine leave from active duty, but his obligation was long-term. It is possible that John's absence could cause problems for his family, so it was important that no one know he was missing. Somehow his wife Caroline was able to fool John's superiors for about three months. The pastor may not have known about John's departure. It's also possible that he did know and that he helped Caroline keep her secret. In any case, he listed John along with the rest of the family when he made a record of the move. (See below.) As a parish official, he was not concerned about whether John's leaving was legal from the army's point of view. The army was responsible for its soldiers, so the pastor was not afraid that any action would be taken against him. | ||
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| Each pastor made a record when a family or one of its members moved to another parish or another country. The pastor of Murum parish made the following immigration record when John Bodeen's family left Sweden and went to America. It comes from an immigration archives database called Emibas. We received it from Dr. Lars Jenner, a archivist and expert on Swedish immigration. He found the information for us while we were visiting Bishop Hill, a historic Swedish village in Illinois. Note the date of John's departure (Utvandrad). August 24 (24/8) is three months after his true date of departure. | ||
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| This is part of the record from the the Emibas database. (The full record has the same information for each of the Bodeens.) The destination in each case was North America (Nordamerika). It lists the date of John's departure (Utvandrad) as Aug. 24, 1881. All other evidence presented in this website proves that John left Sweden in May, three months earlier. | ||
