In this post: Ola Andersson and Hanna Persdotter lived their entire lives in Wånga, Sweden. They died believing their family would remain rooted there. But they were standing on the edge of transformation… and never knew it.
@Genealogy Matters Storyteller Tuesday Challenge
This post is the seventh for Robin Stewart’s Genealogy Matters Your Sixteens – Storyteller Tuesday Challenge.
Ola Andersson & Hanna Persdotter
My Father’s Father’s Mother’s Father and Mother
Ola Andersson and Hanna Persdotter were standing on the edge of a major shift in their family, but had no idea it was coming.
Ola Andersson died believing his family’s story would unfold the way it always had. Children would marry nearby. Grandchildren would grow up in the same parish. The land would hold them, as it had always held their family before.
When he died on January 21, 1915, in Wånga, Vånga Parish, Sweden, he had no reason to think otherwise.
Eleven years later, his widow Hanna Persdotter died in the same parish, at age eighty-six. Eight months after Hanna’s funeral, their grandson David boarded a ship and sailed for America, following his siblings Alma and Hugo across the Atlantic. Three of their daughter Pernilla’s five children left Sweden and never came back, splitting the family between two continents.
Neither Ola nor Hanna lived to see this final departure.
A Life in Wånga
Ola was born in Wånga on August 7, 1836. Hanna was born there on April 4, 1840. They married on March 9, 1867—Ola a crofter at age thirty, Hanna a maid at twenty-six.
As a crofter, Ola was a tenant farmer who worked a small piece of land but did not own it. He paid rent through labor, set days each year working the landowner’s fields. The croft barely supported a family, and they lived close to poverty, balancing their own land with required work for the estate.
Land was not just livelihood. It was inheritance, identity, and expectation. They had no way of knowing they were standing on the edge of a transformation that would shatter that certainty.
Over seventeen years, they raised eight children. When their youngest daughter Bengta died at fourteen in 1899, they endured that grief. In 1900, a grandson named Henning—likely their daughter Anette’s son—joined the household.
By the early 1900s, their surviving children had married and started families. Nils, Ola, Hanna, Elsa, and Karl all had children who remained in Sweden, living the same rooted life Ola and Hanna had always known.
Pernilla married Sven Svensson in 1892 and moved to Jämshög, where she and Sven raised five children: Olof, Ida, Alma, Hugo, and David. This family seemed no different from the others, settled in Sweden, building traditional lives.
What Ola Missed
Ola died in January 1915. Three years later, Pernilla died at fifty-three. He never knew he would lose his daughter so soon after his own death.
Alma left permanently in 1921. Hugo followed in 1923. David sailed in 1926. He died certain his grandchildren would live and die where their ancestors had, but three of them crossed an ocean instead.
What Hanna Witnessed—And What She Missed
Hanna lived eleven years after Ola died. In 1918, she buried Pernilla. She had now lost two children.
She watched the scattering begin. Alma left Sweden permanently in 1921. Hugo followed in 1923. But three of Pernilla’s children remained when Hanna died in April 1926. (See: “Migration Stories: The Svensson-Sten Family’s Journey from Kristianstad, Sweden to America“)
The split seemed final. Two in America. Three in Sweden.
Eight months later, David bought passage on the Gripsholm and joined his siblings in America (See: “Historical Events: My Grandfather’s American Journey“). The family now lived on two continents: three in America, two in Sweden.
She died believing the division was complete.
Standing on Different Edges
Ola died in 1915 when all his grandchildren were in Sweden, when Pernilla was alive.
Hanna died in 1926 having witnessed loss and partial transformation. She had outlived her husband by eleven years and her daughter by eight. She watched two grandchildren leave for America and believed the division complete. She died eight months before learning otherwise.
What the Future Held
Neither Ola nor Hanna foresaw that Alma’s journey would create a pathway for Hugo and David. Out of more than twenty grandchildren, only three left Sweden. All three were Pernilla’s children.
The family split between Swedish Anderssons and American descendants. Within one generation, Swedish gave way to English. Their great-grandchildren grew up in a country Ola and Hanna never imagined.
Ola and Hanna lived ordinary lives in one Swedish parish. They never saw the ocean crossings, never heard their descendants speak English, never knew their family would take root on another continent.
But the future they could not see is the life we are living now.
Your Turn!
What edges have you discovered in your own family history? What changes did your ancestors stand on the brink of without knowing? Share your stories in the comments.
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