My other grandmother (my mother’s mother) was Esther Mattisson. She was born on December 17th 1894 in Ivetofta, Kristianstad, Sweden. She was the seventh child of Mathis Pehrsson and Elsa Christiana Carlsdőtter. She was the sixth girl of eight girls, and she loved and missed her mother once she immigrated to the United States. Ester named her first child (my mother Elsa) after her mother.
Esther was born in and her family grew up in a home in Bromőlla. The house was demolished in 1940 but my second cousin Mats Rasmusson provided a copy of a keepsake rendering of the home in 1977.
Ivetofta’s easy to miss on a map because it’s the parish for Bromőlla. Bromőlla itself is easy to miss because it’s only a rail stop between Kristianstad and Sőlvesborg with a small limestone quarry and ceramics industry. It’s only important because the postcard was postmarked there.
Six of the sisters got together and took a photograph in 1912 that they sent to their sister Blanda as a postcard. The postcard is dated 31 August 1912 and it is addressed to Blanda’s at 36 Sason Road, Boston, Massachusetts. She had previously immigrated to the United States with the help of her father’s brother. His name was Nils Pehrsson and he immigrated to teach violin at Harvard University (unsubstantiated family lore). What ever he did for a living, he became the source of funds to pay for the immigration of Blanda, Matilda, and Esther.
They also dutifully paid him back all the money he advanced. Four of the sisters and their one brother remained in Sweden. Alma, Olga, Hulda, and Siri stayed with their brother Herman in Sweden, while Matilda and Esther immigrated to the United States. The oldest sister Betty died in Sweden in 1908 at the age of 26. The six sisters took this picture postcard before Matilda and Esther left Sweden. Blanda and Matilda never returned to Sweden.
From left to right, they are Siri, Matilda, Hulda, Esther, Alma, and Olga. Siri married Albert Wilhilm Jonsson and they had six children. They had four boys and two girls, and they raised them in Trolle-Ljungby.
Matilda married Eric Nilson in the United States, and they had six children (five boys and one girl) who were raised in Massachusetts. However, Matilda and Eric retired to Bakersfield, California. Olga married Martin Karlsson in Kristianstad, and they had one child, a daughter named Maj.
My grandmother, Esther, worked as a cook in a Boston restaurant in 1916. She met and conceived my mother with Arthur Smith (a Swede whose parents emigrated from Sweden). Unfortunately, Arthur Smith was married and unable to get a divorce until 1920. In the meantime, Esther met and lived with Olaf Fritjof Carlsson to avoid being placed in an unwed mother’s home. Esther lists Olaf as my mother’s father but DNA tells another story. Esther and Olaf married in the fall of 1918 and Esther conceived her second daughter Evelyn. Elsa was my mother, at least that’s what she thought but the birth certificate that she could never find in her lifetime says her birth name is Eliza Florence Carlson, and she was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. When Olaf went to a Tuberculosis sanitarium my mother said cousin Arthur supported the family until my mother married and left the home. Arthur came to visit us one in California, and while my mother introduced him as cousin Arthur he took quite an interest in my sisters and me. I’m not sure if my mother ever knew Arthur was her father but if she did know she never told us.
She rarely used Elsa and went by Elsie. Esther only returned once to Sweden, and that was right before WWII. She encountered tremendous problems reentering the United States because she had not acquired U.S. citizenship during her 25 year residence. Eventually, the entry issues were resolved and she returned to the United States. She never became a US Citizen.
Blanda (or Blenda as we knew her) immigrated first. She saw her son become a turret gunner and crew chief in a B-17 during WWII. His name was John Pearson. His plane was shot down in 1943 and he was interred for the remainder of the war in Germany. He often said that the Germans denied him medical care for a shrapnel wound because they viewed him as a Swede and therefore a traitor to the Aryan race. At least, that’s the opinion he formed as a POW. He regretted ever letting them know he spoke Swedish or German. He was deaf in his left ear as a result of the wounds received the day the plane was shot down.