Sven August Carlsson married Bothilda Andersdöttor in 1870 in Sweden. Sven was 26 years old, and Bothilda was 21 years old. Thankfully, somebody made this copy of the tintype taken on their wedding day. Otherwise we wouldn’t know what they looked like as young newlyweds.
They lived in Tutaryd, Kronoberg, Sweden. Tutaryd is a parish about 20 kilometers from the city of Växjö, Sweden. They raised a family of eight children. There were five boys and three girls in the family. The two oldest boys immigrated to America. During and after their immigration, they used the surnames assigned to them by the Swedish army. The Swedish army assigned names back then because they had too many Carlssons, Svenssons, et cetera. Through this process Carl Johan became Carl Frank, and Anders Leander became Anders Blomberg.
Carl Johan arrived in the United States on 16 Nov 1908 (taken from his naturalization document). Anders came sometime between 1908 and 1910. They were followed to the United States by their younger brother, Olaf Fritjof, who often went by Fritz. Fritz was also a violinist. He came under his own name because he didn’t serve in the Swedish military. Olaf Fritjof is living as a lodger in the 12th Ward of Boston, Massachusetts in the 1910 Federal Census.
The rest of the family stayed in Sweden. How either of these pictures made it to America is a great question but I don’t know. The hand colored black and white print was an expensive item back then. It appears to have been taken in 1898 based on the ages of the children. The youngest, Hedvig was born in 1894 and she appears to be four years old in the photo. From left to right, you see Carl Johan, Johannes Hjalmar, Sven August (the father), Sanna Mathilda, Anders Leanders, Hedvig Marie, Olaf Fritjof (my grandfather), Bothilda (the mom), Sven Alfred, and Alma Martina.