Swedish Ancestors migration records

welshman247 · 03-03-2010, 10:42 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help me. I'm trying to research my family history... my great great great grandfather was born in Sweden. Any help is much appreciated!

Name: Alfred Elsen
Born: abt 1857

Is there any way to check immigration etc? I know he settled in Bristol, and his father was called John Elsen (according to marriage details). I have no idea where in Sweden he was from. He married in 1879 in Bristol to Mary Emma Bryant. I assume he therefore came to Britain before then, he is in the 1881 Census (occupation Engine Fitter), but not in the 1871 census (that I can find) ... so possibly came to Britain between 1871 and 1879?

Any help or advice on how I can go about finding this out would be very much appreciated!

Cheers,

Jon

Geoffers · 04-03-2010, 7:41 AM

Welcome to the B-G forums

The Aliens entry books have been recently made available on a pay-per-view site, have a look at this news item on TNA's web-site

welshman247 · 04-03-2010, 6:53 PM

More information! Although he had a Wife and Son in Bristol, he was a Mariner and was away a lot. He lived a lot of the time in America between 1900 and 1930 in New Jersey. He lived with family from his mothers side, his nephew and uncle Anderson. (obviously means that his mother's maiden name is Anderson). They seem to have come from Gothenberg in Sweden, possibly Backa in Gothenberg (that's the andersons though, i'm assuming he was near by when he was living in Sweden...)

I've had a look at the Alien entry books and didn't find anything btw... that was the first place I looked. Perhaps I should try variations on the surname, although I think I covered that!

Oh also, he had a Son Frederick William Bryant Elsen who lived in USA also later on. He serves in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1917-1919...

Now then... How do I go about tracing him back into Sweden?

Cheers,

Jon

Procat · 05-03-2010, 11:21 PM

Hi Jon,

I have given your posts a thread and title of their own. They may attract more attention that way.

Nicolina · 06-03-2010, 12:05 AM

are you certain that he was born in Sweden?
The 1861 Census has:

RG09/239/60 Page 2
5, Great Chart Street, St Leonard Shoreditch
John ELSEN aged 35 b. Saint Luke's, Middlesex occ: Greengrocer
Mary ELSEN aged 33 b. Benhall Green, Middlesex
Mary Ann ELSEN aged 7 b. Shoreditch, Middlesex
Alfred ELSEN aged 2 b. Shoreditch, Middlesex

the 1861 & 1881 Censuses are the only ones he appears on.

welshman247 · 06-03-2010, 11:08 PM

That can't be them, that'd make his d.o.b 1859 which is too late. It's definitely between 1855-1857. Plus he's definitely born in Sweden.

Nicolina · 07-03-2010, 12:50 AM

When calculating a birth year / age from Census records you need to + or - a year. So given an age of 2 in 1861 would give a birth year of 1858 or1859, which fits perfectly with the birth year in 1881 (1857-58). Another thing is the father's name, John is not a Swedish name, that's an British spelling. In Sweden it would be Jon. Another little thing, surnames ending with SEN are normally Danish.
My advice is not to discount him.
Elaine (who's double-barrelled surname is Danish-Swedish)

welshman247 · 08-03-2010, 1:04 AM

Interesting point about -SEN having Danish roots... I wonder if they came from Denmark before Sweden.

BTW, I know almost for sure that your 'find' is wrong. None of it adds up really, wrong sort of occupation for the family, wrong place of birth, d.o.b is slightly out, wrong spelling of ELSEN (i did check your find and it's ELSON in it... i'm aware that names can be mis-spelt btw, but it's another thing against it fitting in with all the rest)

What would be really helpful is if someone could tell me how I can find Swedish marriage information or emmigration out of Sweden information from around 1850-1870s... In particular, the Gothenburg area...