Where is Stora Tumlehed?!

[Stewart P Evans]

Klas Lithner Research

You are welcome Glenn, pleased you like it.

Klas Lithner research sent November 1988 -

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Excellent pictures, Stewart. Thanks! I've never seen those, although Lithner showed me loads of stuff when I visited him.

Those are typical old 19th century buildings from the Gothenburg area indeed.
Down here where I live it is less wooden houses and instead more stone/whitewahsed or cross-timber architecture, possibly due to German and Danish influences, but wooden houses are very typcial for Gothenburg (Göteborg) and its coast surroundings.

For curiousty: the picture in the middle is labelled "the Ghost House" or "The Haunted House" ("Spökhuset").

Lithner had a vast judicial experience and knew practically everything there was to know about Swedish crime history, its archives and the Swedish legal system, since he in Karlskrona for many years acted as the County Public Prosecutor (now a defunct position and replaced by the Chief Prosecutor). He wrote numerous articles on the subjects of local history, crime history and genealogy and was also a member of several important societies connected with crime literature.
He was also a very generous and pleasant man.
I still remember my feeling of despair when his wife took the phone and said he had just recently passed away.

I dedicated my Swedish book on Jack the Ripper to him.

All the best

[Sam Flynn]

Stewart,

Apart from the drawing above (for which many thanks), has the 1860s photo of Stora Tumlehed been published to your knowledge - outside the history book to which Lithner refers?

[Brenda]

I wonder what prompted Elizabeth to leave Sweden for London? Was it bad economic times in Sweden at that time, or did she just crave a fresh start somewhere else?

[Simon Wood]

Hi Stewart,

Thank you for so generously posting such valuable Elizabeth Stride material.

One thing still puzzles me about Elizabeth, and that is how she made the leap from the name Gustafsdotter to Gustafsson—as on her statement of employment from Maria Wijsner, and Gustifson on her 1869 certificate of marriage to John Stride.

Can you, or perhaps Glenn, elaborate?

Regards,

Simon

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

I wonder what prompted Elizabeth to leave Sweden for London? Was it bad economic times in Sweden at that time, or did she just crave a fresh start somewhere else?

Hi Brenda,

I have no doubt that she wanted to get a fresh start and leave her old life behind. When she suddenly inherited some money from her mother, she probably saw her chance.
Emigrating to England or the US was quite common in Sweden in those days and most towns (including my own) along the western coast had numerous emigrant bureaus, many of them situated on the same street. The 1860s were amongh the decades that showed the highest emigration rates.

Sweden was a very poor country in the 19th century with a lot of social problems such as unemployment, alcoholism, and poverty. The countryside was particularly bad with a long annual period of bad crop but also some poorer areas in the larger cities were not that far from East End in poverty.
It wasn't until the 1880s or 1890s that some cities began to expand consdierably and grow more potent and wealthy.

All the best

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Stewart,

Thank you for so generously posting such valuable Elizabeth Stride material.

One thing still puzzles me about Elizabeth, and that is how she made the leap from the name Gustafsdotter to Gustafsson—as on her statement of employment from Maria Wijsner, and Gustifson on her 1869 certificate of marriage to John Stride.

Can you, or perhaps Glenn, elaborate?

Regards,

Simon

Hi Simon,

I am no genealogical expert, but Gustafsdotter is an old name form where the last name is based on the father's surname (Gustaf's daughter). It was a tradition that was in use on the countryside for a long time in all of Scandinavia, while the cities quite rapidly started to use the modern name forms of Gustafsson (where the female endning was replaced by the male one for both men and women). It is possible she did this in order to 'modernize' herself to city life. But of course there could be other reasons.

As for 'Gustifson' on her English marriage license, I have no doubt that it was a simple misspelling made by the church, which was quite common when dealing with foreign names.

All the best

[Simon Wood]

Hi Glenn,

Many thanks for information on the modernization of Swedish name forms.

I agree with you about the spelling of 'Gustifson' on her marriage certificate.

Regards,

Simon

[Brenda]

Glenn,
thanks for the information as to why Elizabeth might have wanted to leave Sweden. Bless her heart, how could she know she was leaping out of the frying pan and into the fire?

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

That's unfortunately true, Brenda.
The bitter sweet ironi of life.

All the best

[perrymason]

Just wanted to thank Stewart for sharing those gems. I dont believe there is any way to feel as close to the people in historical events than by the reading of handwritten materials related to them....loved the script on that letter.

Thanks again Stewart.