52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 12: Ahnentafel No. 8–Reverend Nils Malkom Nilsen

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

The Ahnentafel number 8 in my husband’s ancestry is his great-grandfather, Nils Malkom Nilsen. I have written a book about three generations of his Swedish family back in 2010 but have not written much about him on the blog.[1]

He spent his entire life as a Swedish Covenant minister, moving from city to city, as he made his way further west. I don’t really know much about him personally, and neither did his grandchildren. He died when they were very young. He left no writings either, which is unusual for a minister.

So I thought about it. Perhaps no writings were left because they were written in Swedish. All of his congregations were Swedish-Americans. He served parishes in Sheffield, Pennsylvania; Youngstown, Ohio; Cromwell, Connecticut; Harcourt, Iowa; Hilmar, California; and then several cities in California. All of these places had high populations of Swedish immigrants. He spoke Swedish to his parishioners. He probably wrote in Swedish and perhaps his children thought any of his writings, that they couldn’t read, should be tossed. Or he tossed them himself after their use.

So did Malkom ever learn to speak English? The story I heard, his children spoke Swedish at home and then had to learn English when they got to school. So the next generation purposely did not teach their children Swedish for that reason. They spoke Swedish in the home amongst themselves as a way to  speak privately without their children understanding.

In the 1900 census, the enumerator asked if he could read and write and his answer was yes.[2] However, the answer to whether he spoke English was no. He arrived in the U.S. in March of 1889. He did file his first papers for naturalization in Ohio.[3]

By 1910, he stated he could speak English. Although his services and sermons were conducted in Swedish, he also had a farm in Hilmar, California, and surely had to do business with non-Swedish speaking merchants. However, his wife, Hulda, still spoke only Swedish.[4]

Ten years later, both were recorded as speaking English.[5] A typical immigrant experience. One starts out living around other people from the same country and over time they assimilate into American society. Their children might grow up speaking the native language and learn English in school. The third generation often never learns the language and feels completely American. This is true for the Nilsen family.

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[1] Lisa S. Gorrell, The Nilsen Family: From Jönköping to Amerika, (Martinez, California: Oak Park Press, 2010).

[2] 1900 U.S. census, Middlesex Co, Connecticut, pop. sched. Cromwell, ED 272, sheet 6A, line 16, Nils M. Nielsen, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), NARA T623.

[3] Mahoning, Ohio, Declaration of intention and naturalization., v. 5 1884-1887: 295, Nils Malkom Nilson; FHL microfilm 0,906,658.

[4] 1910 U.S. census, Merced Co, California, pop. sched., ED 107, sht 12 B, line 65; Nils Nilsen, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), NARA T624.

[5] 1920 U.S. census, Los Angeles Co, California, pop. sched., San Pedro, ED 312, sheet 19A, p. 252 (stamped), dwelling 563, family 266, N.M. Nilsen, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com); NARA T625. 

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