“Was great-grandma a hooker, or just stupid?”
That was blunt, teenage me asking my mom a rather rude but absolutely serious genealogy question. While I have no ground to stand on in judgment against my great-grandmother, I often think about her. I wonder how her life ended up the way it did. I also wonder how she got mixed up with the man who gifted us with our biggest family tree mystery – Erik Bergstrom. I’m hoping that sharing this story will not only add to our colorful family tree story blog but will possibly generate a lead to help us knock down this thick brick wall. Here’s the story:
“Poor Emma Hagberg!”
That’s what my daughter Caly said when she heard this tale. My great-grandmother was born Emma Johannesdatter Hagberg on December 26, 1864, in Hof, Innlandet County, Norway. She was the fourth of eleven children. Her parents, Johannes Olssen Hagberg and Lovise Andersdatter Staalberg, emigrated to Norway from Varmland, Sweden sometime around 1862, after their first two children were born. So, Emma was born in Norway to Swedish parents. This wasn’t all that unusual. In our research, we’ve run across a lot of border-hopping between these two countries. It seems there were a lot more jobs in Norway than in Sweden, so many people relocated to work.
There was one big difference between the two countries that will come up later in our story and has made our Erik Bergstrom mystery that much more challenging. At the time, Norway required that all families begin to use a family surname, rather than just the traditional patronymic names still used in Sweden. My great-great-grandfather chose the name Hagberg. So, Emma’s patronymic name was Johannesdatter and her family name was Hagberg.
But I digress. I don’t know a lot about Emma’s childhood, other than that the family lived in several small towns in the Hedmark region of Norway. They were not rich and Emma didn’t find herself a husband right away. Instead, she went to work.
An “Illegitimate” Child
The 1891 Norwegian Census shows Emma working as a cook for a large family named Berger. This was in the city of Elverum, Norway, not far from where she grew up. Also in 1891 Emma, then 26 years old, gave birth to her first child, my great-aunt Signe. Had Emma found herself a husband? No. Emma wasn’t married to Signe’s father. He was a man named Gotfred Gudbrandson from Elverum, about 5 years younger than she was. That’s about all we know! Norwegian law at the time didn’t allow illegitimate children to live with their single mothers. As a result, on the 1900 census, Signe was living with her grandparents.
Another “Illegitimate” Child
Emma’s life between 1891 and 1899 is pretty murky. We don’t know if she stayed in Elverum or moved to the big city. All we do know is that she gave birth to her second child at the age of 34, my grandfather Erick Elling Hanson, in Kristiania, Norway on February 4, 1899. (For those of you not up on your Norwegian history, Kristiania is the old name for Oslo.) Once again, Emma hadn’t found herself a husband. She wasn’t married to Grandpa’s father – a man named Erik Bergstrom, born in Sweden in 1863, according to Grandpa’s baptism record. By 1899, the Norwegian government mandated that children born out of wedlock be placed in foster care immediately. So Emma lost her baby son to the foster system. Poor Emma Hagberg!
Emma’s Luck Changes
By this time, Emma must have been either really angry or really depressed. She had two kids, both from deadbeat dads, and she couldn’t take care of them herself until she got some cash and some security. I’m thinking she was angry rather than depressed. That’s because after baby Erik’s birth she took the steps she needed to get that cash and security. Court records from October and November 1899, show that Emma petitioned the court to order Erik Bergstrom to admit paternity and pay child support. Part two of this post will talk about this in a little more detail.
Anyway, that was the cash. The security part went much more smoothly because this time Emma finally found the right man. Included on Grandpa’s baptism record from February 1899 was a note that Emma was engaged to be married to a man named Lars Hanson. This was most likely an arranged marriage. That’s because Norwegian law required her to be married to regain custody of her illegitimate children and she wanted her children back. We don’t know who arranged it, but possibly the church had a hand in it or Emma’s parents.
The match worked out. Emma did marry Lars Hanson Hammerstad, a widower 15 years older than her with an adult daughter, on July 15, 1900. Finally, Emma had a husband, a home, and some security in life! Within a couple of years, Emma had her two children living with her and her husband, plus a third child, my great aunt Anne, born in 1902.
Too Good to Last…
According to all family reports, Lars Hanson was a good man and the marriage was probably happy. But, I also know it was short. In 1904, Emma gave birth to another daughter, Minonna. Unfortunately, little Minonna only lived about a month and a half. Two weeks after Minonna’s death, Emma herself died. She was only 39 years old. I don’t know the details, but I would imagine it had something to do with Minonna’s birth and death.
Soon Lars remarried and Emma’s children, including my Grandpa, were cared for by Lars and his third wife until Lar’s death in 1915. Having zero fondness for their stepmother, eventually, all three children left the home and made their way to the United States of America. Grandpa apparently never got over the stigma of being an illegitimate child and would never admit that he was Swedish. To anyone who asked, he was 100% Norwegian and proud of it!
Looking at this story and the records that help piece it together, I don’t think my great-grandmother Emma was a prostitute. I think she was just a regular girl who had to earn a living. And who maybe fell too quickly for the sweet-talking young men who came and went in her world. It got her in a lot of trouble. But… if she had said no, I wouldn’t be here!
Stay Tuned for Part 2
In the second half of this post, my daughter Caly is going to go into more detail about our efforts to track down and identify the mysterious man who got Emma into trouble for the second time. My great-grandfather, Erik Bergstrom. Stay tuned!
Photo Credit:
Header image by Neil Morrell from Pixabay
Emma Hagberg & her children: from the records of Gerald and Ruth Dilley.
