The Jordan Story

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Origins of Our Scholdberg Family

by Dave Jordan

Origins Established By Working Backwards

By working backwards from data on the records of my gg-grandparents Knut Oscar Schöldberg and Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward Schöldberg, a small window was gained into our Schöldberg ancestry.

The first insight came from Knut's 1867 marriage to Elizabeth Priscilla in Poplar. From the marriage registration, it was found that his father was Carl Johan Schöldberg, a tanner by occupation. And from Knut Oscar Schöldberg's seaman's records while sailing from greater London, it was found that his country of origin was Sweden and that his year of birth was about 1837 give or take a year.

Thus what I can conclude from records is that Carl Johan Schöldberg was born between about 1790 and 1820 and probably in Sweden. His son Knut Oscar, who preferred Oscar, was born in Sweden about 1837 and eventually became a merchant seaman. He sailed all over the Mediterranean, North Sea and across the Atlantic many times to New York. In 1867 Knut Oscar Schöldberg married and settled in Poplar, England, a port town on the Thames just east of London where he continued in the merchant service.

Continuing the Origin Search

Although I knew that the country of origin for the Schöldbergs was Sweden, there were very few ways to learn who the other family members were or the name of their town. One reason was that most records in England did not require the town to be stated for foreign born. Another was that even with the availability of nationwide indexes in England, I could find no other Scholdbergs other than ours. It thus appears that Knut Oscar was the only one of his family to settle in England. And having already obtained his marriage, death and 1871 census records, there was only one other set of records that might take me back to a place in Sweden. And these were his seaman records.

Thus in the 1990s, my plan for learning more about the Schöldbergs was to continue to work backwards in Knut Oscar's seaman records, one ship at a time. I had begun with his records in the 1870s, including his ill-fated voyage on the West in late 1875. And by 1999 I had purchased a microfilm of the 1869 records for the Cella of Waterford. Each ship he sailed on recorded his name and other particulars including age, country of origin and previous ship. It was a slow but fascinating process as I learned that he sailed to many places and the ship's logs recorded extraordinary events such as collisions, deaths, sickness, and groundings. Each ship record though showed only that he was born in Sweden with no town name. My hope was for one little slip-up or that at some point, his previous ship was a Swedish ship.

Another Approach

I took a long break from searching the seaman records in 1999 and went onto to other things. Then one day in about 2005, I was using Family Search, an on-line facility of the LDS when I typed in Scholdberg and discovered a small family chart whose father was Carl Johan Scholdberg along with a son born in 1837 in Sweden named Knut Oscar Schöldbergs. I was astounded; the match with data I knew was exact. The family had the same father's name, the same son's name and the son's expected year of birth as the one I was looking for. Where had the data come from? Did someone else have an interest. It appears not, as the data appears to be generated from a methodical extraction of Jämshög, Blekinge County, Sweden.

Origins via Jump to Logical Family

While I can't prove this is our Schöldberg family, the case is fairly strong and I decided that it was worth doing more investigation into this family. To do this, while in Salt Lake in 2006, I obtained copies of the marriage record of Carl John Schöldbergs and Charlotte Söderberg and also the christening records of their children. Then in 2007, I contacted Maj-Britt Sundin who maintains a database of records for former Jämshög, Sweden residents. What I have learned only strengthens the possible match. I now plan to continue with the seaman search, hoping to verify the connection with Jämshög

The Unfolding Scholdberg and Soderberg Story

Carl Johan Schöldberg's wife was Charlotte Söderberg. She was born on the July 11, 1799 at Kristianopel, in Blekinge, Sweden, a sea town on Sweden's east coast but near the southern end. She was one of 6 siblings. In January 2008, Maj-Britt Sundin wrote that "her parents were a tanner called Bengt Söderberg born around 1760 and his wife Helena Maria Tilosius born Nov 23, 1765 in the city of Karlskrona in Blekinge (Karlkrona Amiralitetsförsamling is the name of the parish). They both died September 9, 1808 when they drowned when the ship they were on sank in hard weather outside of Kristianopel when they were on their way to Öland". Oland is a long narrow island just off the coast from Kristianopel but slightly to the north. Bengt was 48 and Helena just 42. The town of Karlskrona, the birthplace of Bengt and Helena and possibly their marriage is a port at the southern end of Sweden but towards the eastern end.

Charlotte was just nine at the time of her parents drowning. And she and some or all of her 6 siblings might have been with her parents the day they drowned, but that is not known just yet. In either case, it had to be a heart wrenching experience to be orphaned so unexpectedly and in such grueling circumstances.

Charlotte was probably raised by relatives and appears to have remained in Kristianopel as she married Carl Johan Schöldberg there on May 9th, 1826. She was 26.

Carl Johan Schöldberg's place of birth is unknown, but it is estimated he was born between 1790 and 1800 given Charlotte's 1799 year of birth.

Carl and Charlotte Schöldberg settled in Jämshög Parish in a village called Holje at number 27 and their first baby arrived 9 months after the wedding on February 12th, 1827. They named him Carl Eduard, probably after his father, and possibly Eduard after a paternal grandfather, though that remains to be determined.

The first daughter Marie Charlotte arrived January 12th, 1830 and by then the family had moved to number 20 in Holje, Jämshög. The name Marie matches her deceased grandmother's middle name and Charlotte matches her mother's name.

Then little Johanna arrived April 23, 1833.

Knut Oscar was born on 13 January 13, 1837 and is presumably our Knut Oscar Schöldberg. He, like all the children, was christened shortly after his birth and in his case just four days later on January 17th. His mother, Charlotte was 37 at the time.

The last little Schöldberg, Amalia Antoineete arrived on 18 March 18th, 1839. Charlotte was now 39.

Little is known about childhood in Jämshög, a town about ten miles inland from the southern end of Sweden. But Carl Johan was a tanner and it appears to have been a rural area.

Then in 1852, major changes took place in the Schöldberg household. Carl Johan died on September 17th, 1852. He was probably about 50-60 years old. Then later in the year, Knut Oscar at age 15 left for sea and was never heard from again, or at least in the records of Jämshög. These 1852 events I learned from Maj-Britt Sundin in October 2007. And it appears I am the first to bring back the news, 155 years later that Knut Oscar Schöldberg went on to an eventful life as a seaman, married a young English girl in Poplar in 1867 and that there are a great number of offspring all of which are in the United States and none with the surname Schöldberg.

Maj-Britt further explained that by 1852 all the other Schöldberg siblings had died, except Johanna, Knut's older sister by 3 years. And in January 2008, Maj-Britt wrote that Knut's mother died in Jämshög on the March 16th, 1866. She was then 64 years old, living another 14 years beyond her husband Carl Johan.

All this meant that by 1852, siblings Carl Eduard, Marie Charlotte, and Amalia Antoineete had all died, probably in their young childhood. This left a family of four Scholdbergs in Jämshög, parents Carl Johan and Charlotte and two children Johanna and Knut Oscar. Then in September of 1852, after the father Carl Johan died, one might imagine, Knut Oscar going to sea at 15 to help support his recently widowed mother and sister. Charlotte was then 53 and Johanna 18. It is not known whether Johanna married, but it is presumed she did and she probably stayed in Jämshög to care for her as she aged. Knut Oscar did not marry until May 1867, a few years after his mother died. By then, he had no parents and had been away for almost 15 years. His only family back home in Jämshög was a sister and so when he found love while in Poplar, he chose to stay and start a new life.

Notes

Initial Web Publication Date: 2/6/2003
Modified: 2/1/2008 (major update)
Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan