Wilhelmina Frederika Holm, born Copenhagen March 1862, lived in Sweden, and USA

[Todd Munro]

Hi -

I'm looking for relatives of Wilhelmina Holm, born in Copenhagen, on 6 March, 1862.  I don't have the names of her parents or siblings, but she lived in Copenhagen until the 1870's then moved to Sweden and possibly lived in Linkoping until she left for the United States(1880).

I also don't have her parish of birth in Copenhagen, but her mother was born in Copenhagen and her father was Danish, but born in France.

Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Todd

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Hi,

The way you are writing her name WilhelminaFredrika is the Swedish way of writing her name. The Danish way would be Wilhelmine Frederike.

I have found her in US Census where she is often called Minnie F. with last name Todd. The birth places of the parents come from one of the census.

I have been trying to find her in the Swedish census 1880 but she is not in it, probably because she had left before it was taken on 31 Dec. 1880. She is not in the Swedish emigration database either.

I have also tried to find her parents. There is no man named Holm born in France. There is a Swedish woman having 4-5 illegitimate children a couple of them named Holm born in Copenhagen. (It can't be her she was too young to habe a Child in 1862).

This woman didn't live in Östergötland where Linköping is situated. May I ask where you have found information about Linköping?

Are you certain of her date of birth? Because there is a Frederikke Wilhelmine Petersen  born on 9 March 1862 at the Kgl Fødselstiftelse, a place where single mothers could give birth for free. The mother's name is Doris Petersen born in Flensborg. (AO image 60 1859-1865 +
http://www.sa.dk/ao/billedviser?epid=16415220#29,22360)

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Eva,

Thank you for your response and for looking into the censuses of both the US and Sweden.

The information regarding Linkoping came from Wilhelmina and was written down by her daughter.  Wilhelmina told her daughter that she moved to Sweden when she was 8 years old and apparently lived there until she was 18 years old and then left for the US.

I'm fairly certain of her birth date of 6 March, 1862 as that is the date that has been reported by Wilhelmina and is on all of her documents.

As you probably noticed on the US census during the early 1900's, she reported her father's place of birth as France, but that was news to us.  We thought that both of her parents were born in Denmark.

She doesn't seem to have left a trail of records in either Denmark or Sweden.  It also doesn't help that we don't have names of her parents, either.

The only other bit of information that I have is that her father died from tetanus, or lock jaw as they called it, after they moved to Sweden.  He was a cabinet maker and apparently received the tetanus from a nail while on the job.

Thanks for your help!

Todd

[John Wrenholt]

http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/garfield/bios/todd273gbs.txt

This biography of Wilhelmine's husband, Charles L Todd, states:

In October, 1884, he was married to Miss Minnie Holfernine, a native of Denmark.  They have had five children.  One died in infancy, and May, Lillian, Gertrude and Thelma are living.

Perhaps this marriage record from Aspen, Colorado is hers:

TODD, CHARLES G./HEOLNSE (7), WILHELMINA F. 11/27/1884

and an earlier researcher found this 1888 record by mistake

TODD, CHARLES L./HOHM, WELHOLRN F. 5/18/1888

http://www.archiveaspen.org/documents/PitkinCoMarriages1882-1930searchable.pdf

[Eva Morfiadakis]

I found Charles L Todd (C L Todd) in Aspen in the 1880 Census. Carpenter born in Maine.

I guessed they had been married there before the birth of Mary. Somewhere I saw the year 1888 and thought it was wrong.

There are some emigration lists from Malmoe which I don't know if they are digitized. I live quite near the place where they are being kept. I have something else to do at that archive so I will look into them.

She is not in the emigration database to which I hold a subscription.

Heolnse might be a misinterpretation of Holmes.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Thank you, John and Eva!

That's correct.  Wilhelmina was married to Charles Todd in Aspen, Colorado in 1884.  Her maiden name was mistakenly printed as Holfernine in a book about Colorado history.

Eva, if you have the time to look at the archive records for Wilhelmina while you are already there, then that would be great!

It's interesting that her family is not showing up in the Danish and Swedish records during her 18 years in those 2 countries.

Thanks.

Todd

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Hello,

I have been to the archives today. All the names on passengers lists are in a database. Wilhelmina Fredrika (or Fredrika Wilhelmina) is not in it. There are a couple of girls named Wilhelmina Holm but none of them matches.

What you need is the name of her parents. Have you looked into her death certificate if they are mentioned? There is a chance that her mother stayed in Sweden after 1880, and then she might be in the 1880 census which is the first completely transcribed census.

According to Swedish name traditions at the time women did not take their husbands' last names. but
it would not be impossible to find the mother by her first name + Denmark. More than 6000 people born in Denmark were living in Sweden in 1880.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Thank you, Eva!

I wonder why she isn't turning up in any of the records?  Could it be that she traveled with another family and they didn't use her own last name on the record?  She was with a family named Smith when she came to the United States, but I would imagine that she would have traveled under her own name.

Her mother's maiden name is listed as Linberg(sp?), but a first name is not given.  Her father's first name is also not given and the family name is listed as Homes.  There are various spellings of her maiden name over the years:  Holm, Holmes, Homes, and Hohm.  I believe it was originally Holm and then maybe anglicized to Holmes after living in the US.

Thank you for your help, Eva.  Seems like Wilhelmina just appeared in the US without a documented background.

Todd

[Eva Morfiadakis]

If you see the lists, you realise some pages could easily go missing like being put in the wrong file. Sometimes when you search in books you find papers that shouldn't be there.

Even if she travelled with another she would be registered individually. I searched her without a last name.

I looked for the mother. There is no woman born in Denmark by the name Linberg or Lindberg.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Looks like she appeared out of thin air!  No records in Denmark or Sweden.

Since we have such limited family information, we really have very little to work with in a search of the different data bases.

Thank you for your searches of the records, Eva.  Maybe someone will read the post and it will ring a bell with them

Todd

[Eva Morfiadakis]

I have been thinking about Wilhelmina, a young girl leaving Sweden or Denmark on her own? You say she came with the Smith family to the US. The name is not a common name in Sweden.  What records do you have to support this?

I guess that Colorado was an area in the 1880s populated with a number of single men and that young women were needed. Could it have been that she was in some sort of organized immigration scheme? Like the mormons. I read this on FS: Latter-day Saint settlements were made in the San Luis Valley in the 1870s and 1880s.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Wilhelmina told her daughter that she traveled with the Smith family when she left for the US.  Mr. and Mrs. Smith were friends of her uncle - this uncle could be a Linberg or Lindberg, but I don't have any information to support that.

She was in NYC for a few years before she left with another family, working as a nanny, for the trip to Colorado.  They traveled directly to Aspen, as far as I know, and didn't have a connection to the LDS or Mormon church.

Wilhelmina met her husband and married in Aspen.  He also wasn't part of the Mormon church.

[Eva Morfiadakis]

Navn:  Smith, Nicoline Stilling:  Frue
Alder:  43 Bestemmelsessted:  New York
Kontrakt nr.:  87000 Forevisningsdato:  10/1/1880
Sidste oph.sogn:  ? Sidste oph. amt:  - Amerika
Sidste oph.sted:  America Bestemmelses land:  USA
Bestemmelses by:  New York City Bestemmelses stat:  New York State
Skibsnavn:  Thingvalla
IDkode:  D7181S1802


Navn:  Smith, David Stilling:  Søn
Alder:  16 Bestemmelsessted:  New York
Kontrakt nr.:  87000 Forevisningsdato:  10/1/1880
Sidste oph.sogn:  ? Sidste oph. amt:  - Amerika
Sidste oph.sted:  America Bestemmelses land:  USA
Bestemmelses by:  New York City Bestemmelses stat:  New York State
Skibsnavn:  Thingvalla
IDkode:  D7181S1803

This mother and son are travelling on the Thingvalla departing in Oct. 1880. They are probably Americans but the mother seems to be of Danish origin. Could it be them Wilhelmine was travelling with? She is not in the database with people leaving from Copenhagen on the Thingvalla.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

It could be the correct family.  They are leaving in 1880, so that would match with Wilhelmina's departure.

Still unusual that Wilhelmina doesn't show up on the database of passengers departing from either Denmark or Sweden.

Any ideas on why she isn't appearing on the databases for ships departing Denmark/Sweden?

[Eva Morfiadakis]

I can't really tell why she can't be found in the Danish emigration databasen if she sailed on the Thingvalla. Maybe it has got something to do with where you bought your ticket,  if it was bought from a Danish agent or a foreign agent.

The Thingvalla did not make a stop in Gothenburg, Sweden, to pick up passengers, only in Norway. The Thingvalla had a lot of technical problems in 1880, for instance it collided with its sister ship the Geyser. I looked in the Norwegian emigration database. The Thingvalla does not seem to have picked up any passengers in Norway in 1880. I read somwhere that sometimes she picked up passengers in Newcastle.

As to Sweden you needed a moving-out document from the Swedish church. Some people however seem to have been able to leave Sweden without this document. All these people are not registered in the Swedish emigration database which is based on the church's books.

I saw on ancestry that Nicoline Smith's son was probably named Daniel not David.

Eva M

[Todd Munro]

Eva,

Thank you for your work online and at the archives.  We will have to hope that someone sees the posting and responds with some information.

Thanks again!

Todd