What happened when the family arrived in Australia?

Question

It is rare to find Swedes emigrating to Australia when most people went to the US. I am completely unaware of how to research Australian records and was hoping someone could tell me what happened to these people.

All the best.

Comments

Hi Antonia. I had a quick look at death records in the state of Victoria, but there's nothing obvious. You could try here:

https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/

https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/

https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-justice/online-index-search-tool

Answer 1

I think I have found the son. I was recently researching a family who immigrated to Australia and they anglicised their names. Thus if we assume 

• Anders Jonsson became Andrew Johnson
• Bolla Lardotter became Bella (Isabella) Larsen
• Oscar became Oscar Johan Johnson

Oscar died in Gympie, Queensland on 11 June 1957 (https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/b0ec274c30d24672f12eac7928abad6c3fbae5a538a0902abb75bbf00cf35633). His Grave is https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168650349/oscar-johan-johnson

In the same cemetery in a similar area, we have Bella Johnson nee Larsen who died on 20 Jan 1939 (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187272407/bella-johnson)

In the same grave as Bella, we have Andrew Johnson died on 2 Aug 1906 (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187272403/andrew-johnson). Here is his death Notice (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19462527) Looks like he died felling timber.

I hope that this information is helpful and accurate. If you need more help please ask.

Comments

Here is Anna Maria's grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187128920/annie-maria-o'brien

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Excellent digging Kathy!
This task is fairly hopeless unless you can Anglicise the names. The 3 assumed name variations look very credible to me.

Answer 2

Antionia, I had the same problem when I started WikiTree a few years ago.  My ancestry is incredible and I knew that, but these experts around the world can help you with Swedes emigrating to down under.  Our family emigrated to the colonies when England cost of living went >35% with rotating strikes.  We were first supposed to go to South Africa in 1975, Australia in 1976; then Mum and Dad backed out, finally we ended up here in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada as imported "knowledge workers" on the 22nd of February 1977; 22/2/77; today is my milestone birthday February 7, 1964; 7/2/74?; we lived at 72 Fleet Lane, Queensbury, Bradford 13 or Halifax 6, England.  It is now all the same place.  We were not allowed to bring any money from England; gave everything away and started again.  Just ask people from your area in question; there are records of everything and that is what we are good at; some of these WT experts enjoy fixing our problems!  
They can dig.  I have met some incredible people working on Great Grandmother's profile; she was born in Barbados but my Grandad's dad is a BRICK WALL :(

Answer 3

Greetings from Down Under Antonia

you could also try this link (which is free) of digital copies of Australian Newspapers plus archival material by the National  Archives of Australia at https://trove.nla.gov.au.

I also believe that he came to Queensland as there are several Anders Jonsson's mentioned in their bdms at https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au

Good luck.

Answer 4

Here are a couple of references for you to use.

FamilySearch Wiki has a lot of information on researching Australia as well as a lot of useful data.

CyndisList has more links for Australia than you can imagine.

Both of these sites are free although you will need to register on FamilySearch.

Answer 5

Hi Antonia,

Queensland Government Archives Search does eventually allow you to view the Original Record of the ship "Jumna" arriving in Queensland and dropping off people at all the cities. Try this link to Jumna then page by page until Continental Remittance Brisbane 18 September 1890. https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/api/download_file/DR6387

Regards

Graeme

Answer 6

As Kathy suggested, the names would almost certainly have been anglicised - extremely common for many (most?) non-Anglo European migrants until well into the 20th C. For Nordic families, I haven't seen any where the "dotter" survived - all became "son" or "sen". Given names were also modified and you may have to squint a lot and use some imagination at some of the records (my grandmother, Wilhelmina Christine is recorded as Christian, a male on the shipping record - and her family were recorded as Swedish when they were Danish).

Answer 7

I have a Swediish fanily on my tree.  They settlled in the region of Heathcote, Vic .  There was quite a good article about Swedish surnames here on Wikitree some time ago.

Apparently in their homeland,they use patronymics a lot, just as Scots use "Mac" and Irish use "O'"'  Males use names ending in -son, and females use names ending in -dotter.  They don't need a surname until they arrive here.  Another factor is poor literacy.  In the family I mentioned, there is quite a variety of rather similar surnames used.  The original immigrant was August Carboon, Carboon-7.  If you click on his Descendants button, you will see what I mean.

Comments

Good comment Doug.
I have no Swedish heritage.

I am more than 1/4 pint Irish and a team leader in the Irish Project. There is no benefit trying to distinguish between Scots use "Mac" and Irish use "O'".