My Trails into the Past

In the late 2000s, I approached my husband’s aunt about writing a book about her ancestors, the Nilséns. She supported the idea, supplied funds to research at Ancestry , bought a new scanner and printer, and put up the money for the printing of the books. I ended up writing about the four immigrants who came to the United States and two of their following generations and included a chapter about the two siblings who remained in Sweden. The direct ancestor of his aunt and mother was Nils Malkom Nilsén, the eldest of the children of Jonas Nilsson and Marta Larsdotter. Nils changed the spelling of his surname while in the seminary due to there being too many Nils Nilssons. The children who came to America also used the new spelling while the children who remained kept the surname Nilsson. Nils was a minister in the Swedish Mission Church and served in many locations in the United States. To discover which churches he where served, I had to locate the churches in the various towns and ...

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...

I am 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’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Nils Malkom Nilsen, the maternal great-grandfather of my husband, was a minister for the Swedish Covenant Church, and from his birth in Åsenhöga, Jönköping län, Sweden, to his death in Hilmar, Merced County, California, he lived in at least twelve residences. Åsenhöga, Jönköping län, Sweden Fastorp, Lännäs, Örebro län, Sweden Sheffield, Warren Co, Pennsylvania Youngstown, Mahoning Co, Ohio Cromwell, Middlesex Co, Connecticut Harcourt, Webster Co, Iowa Hilmar, Merced Co, California San Pedro, Los Angeles Co, California Turlock, Stanislaus Co, California Escalon, San Joaquin Co, California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Co, California Hilmar, Merced Co, California He studied the ministr...