Click here to see where Emilia fits into the family tree
Emilia Linden-Arvidsson (married. Plomgren) has an interesting story. Born 9 Mar 1882 in Goteburg, then at age 20 in 1902 she married the Sea Captain, Oscar Plomgren and they went on to have nine children.
But who were Emilia’s mother and father?
The family history knew Emilia as an adopted child. Parents unknown. Online access to Swedish birth and christening documents has revealed her mother to be Anna Lovisa Arvidsson, but no father is recorded. Anna’s background appears to have been a mystery but recent information has helped to uncover some of the story. Anna was the current generation’s Great Great Grandmother, the mother of Emilia Arvidsson, and Emilia was the mother of Vera Plomgren (Hellqvist), Karl Ivar Plomgren, and seven other sons and daughters. They are our Plomgren Grandparents.
It was never known exactly where Anna came from or who her parents were although there was a hint that maybe she was from the small fishing island of Gullholmen, Sweden (see Bengt’s comment below). After she had her first child, Emilia (our Great Grandmother) disappeared from the scene and her daughter, Emilia, was eventually adopted to the Linden family.
Initial research seemed to point towards Anna Lovisa emigrating to the USA, which many thousands of Swedes did during the late 1800s in search of land and a better life. It is only now through the magic of the internet and connecting family trees together we now have quite a bit more of her story, and no, it doesn’t involve the USA.
A lead has occurred via Ancestry.com where Anna Lovisa Arvidsson appears on another person’s family tree. This Anna was born in the fishing village of Gullholmen in 1861, the same date as other church records have proven our Anna was born. The village of Gullholmen was known in the family oral history (mentioned by Bengt Plomgren) as the fishing village where her family was thought to have come from. The family tree where this new information came from states that Anna’s father died the same year that Anna was born (1861).
After contacting the Swedish researcher involved (Rolf Berlin) it appears certain that our Anna Lovisa Arvidsson is one and the same person.
The Arvidsson family had many related family branches living in the small village of Gullholmen, records show the family name Arvidsson living in Gullholmen back to the early 1700s and it most likely predates that period. Apparently the family was largely involved in the fishing industry. Anna had 7 brothers and sisters and it was before her first birthday that her father died. Anna left home at 21 years and moved to the district of Karl Johan in the city of Gothenburg around 1882, it was on 9 March 1882 that Anna had a child to an unknown person and this child was Emilia.
Bengt Plomgren wrote (Sep 2011) this note about his understanding of the story…
“What I have heard of farmor Emilia is that she was adopted. The story I have heard is that the biological mother was a young maiden, maybe working in Göteborg, but from the fishermen island Gullholmen some 2 hrs north of Gothenburg. She got pregnant with a much older well known opera singer in Gothenburg. So the daughter Emilia was adopted into a family where she grew up. But I just heard the name Arvidsson so I don´t know if that was her mothers family name or the family name in the family where she grew up.
My father said many times she was so nice, but she sometimes had the old problem of not being accepted because she was a “bastard”, born out of wedlock.”
The family oral history heard by Bengt and also the Hellqvist sisters, Gerd, Marianne and Barbro, tells that this unknown male was a well-known opera singer.
Using the information from various official documents in particular the surname combinations of Arvidsson and Lindén, and the documents that show that as a baby Emilia lived with the
In 1883 Anna had moved to the Domkyrko district in Gothenburg where she appears to have been in the Church’s care with her newborn daughter. Later that year it appears that Anna had to place Emilia for adoption and on 7 Nov 1883 Emilia moved into the house of the family of Olof Jönsson (Shoemaker) and Anna Catharina Axelsdotter in Gothenburg as their foster daughter. Records show she was still living with Olof and Anna when she was 4 years of age.
What is the evidence that Emilia’s father was the Opera Singer, Emil Lindén?
Click on the image to open a clearer picture
- Several official birth, baptism, and census records, show Emilia’s surname as either Arvidsson, or
Lindén, or Lindén-Arvidsson.
- Emilia was recorded on her birth record as ‘father unknown’
- It is known that Emil Lindén was living and performing at the Gothenburg Opera House in the same year of Emilia’s conception, that being 1881
- Obviously a clue exists with Emilia’s name, Emil the father and his first child, Emilia
- as noted above, there are several oral family references to Emilia’s connection to a well known Opera Singer from family sources only two generations distant from that era, these oral stories predate the present internet research so are not influenced by the new data
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Lindén appears to be an uncommon name in Sweden in the 1880s according to searches on Ancestry.Com so Emilia being recorded on various official records as EmiliaLindén-Arvidsson is somewhat unique
We now know that Anna moved to Stockholm in June 1885. She married a man named Karl Adolf Blomberg in 1885 and had another family of three sons. Anna died in the Adolf Fredrik district of Stockholm in 1935.
The name Arvidsson is still well known in Gullholmen, today a Museum operates in the centre of the village and the museum is known as Skipper Oskar ‘Albert’ Arvidsson’s Museum. Albert Arvidsson was a wealthy owner of several fishing trawlers and in 1893 built the house that is now a museum, Albert was a first cousin of Anna’s.
So both Emilia’s parents are now known, they are Anna Lovisa Arvidsson and Emil Alexander Linden.
It would be great to connect with the descendants of Anna’s other family the Blomberg’s who you would think are likely to have a lot more information about her and that big prize, Anna’s photo !
