Stor-Henrik Henriksson (1794-1869), immigrated to Störåsen, Föllinge 1827.
Due to the fact that his father died and his elder brother had taken over the farm in Leksand,
Stor-Henrik had to find something else.
During that time, people were encouraged by the Swedish state to fill until then uninhabitated areas,
mainly for military purposes (the farmers were to support as soldiers, horse masters, etc during wars),
but also to enhance the amount of farms to make sure people had something to live on;
the industrialism had changed the behaviour a lot: people were simply poor.
The creation of new land was rewarded with 30 years of no tax.
So, after two weeks and a 400 km journey - all on their own, thru the wilderness; no large emigration there -
Stor-Henrik came to Föllinge with his wife and 6 children; in all 25 people.
At the end Stor-Henrik had 12 children.
The eldest two brothers Anders and Leopold moved to other nearby areas and started new farms on their own.
The next two sisters Karin and Marget married farmer sons quite close to Föllinge.
Stor-Henrik's son Lill-Henrik Henriksson (1821-1904) married a girl from a nearby village 1846 and stayed in Störåsen. He had 11 children.
The emigration from Föllinge to America took place principally in three waves;
(1) the first
wave comprised the eldest daughter of Lill-Henrik Henriksson; Kerstin Henriksdotter
with her husband Hans Erickson and their 5 children in 1886 / 1888.
They settled in Fort Bridger, Wyoming, USA. Their children
and so on can now be found mainly in Wyoming (WY), but also some in Idaho (ID), Utah (UT) and California (CA).
(2) The second wave left Sweden around 1903 and comprised two branches
of the family tree; first six of Anna Olsdotter's brothers and sisters emigrated,
one to Saskatchewan in Canada and five to USA.
The other branch consisted of one of Lill-Henrik's younger daughters, Ingeborg Henriksdotter,
with husband Gabriel Andersson and 10 children, who emigrated to Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Their children and grandchildren can now be found mainly in Saskatchewan (SK), the rest of Canada,
and a few in the USA.
(3) The third wave consisted of Erik Andreas Jonsson and his wife Anna Olsdotter
who emigrated to America 1915 / 1916. Three of their six children were born in Sweden and
three in America. Erik and Anna started their life in America with relatives in Broadview, SK, Canada,
moved to Minnesota (MN), and eventually settled in Michigan (MI), USA.
Most of their descendants moved out of Michigan and are now settled in many different locations around the USA.
(1) Kerstin (1847-1936), the eldest daughter, married Hans Ersson
(Erickson) (1841-1933) 1866 and got 5 children, born between 1871 and 1883.
1886, when the youngest son was 3 years, Hans took over to America and settled in Fort Bridger, WY,
following the so-called Emigrant Trail which had been the road for approx. 400,000 settlers since the 1840's.
In Fort Bridger the Emigrant Trail splits into the Mormon Trail, with 150 km left to Salt Lake City,
and the Oregon and California Trail.
He stayed there, prepared house, farm, etc, and then Kerstin came over 1888 with the children.
Five of the children stayed in Fort Bridger and the eldest son, Henry, went to Afton, Lincoln,
to create new land there. After Hans was not able anymore, Erik took over the farm. He remained single,
as well as his younger brother Anders (Andrew).
Henry, the eldest, had no children of his own, but his wife Clara brought a child, Alfred Toland, who was
treated like his own son. So the Toland descendants became an integral part of the family tree.
Mary married Andrew Dahlquist, of swedish descent, and Anna married Thomas Edwin Finnegan, of irish descent.
Their families are also displayed in the family tree.
(2) Ingeborg (1858-1949), number six of the eleven, married Gabriel Andersson
(1854-1927) from the same village and got 10 children (born between 1886 and 1902) with him.
The whole family emigrated 1903 to Broadview, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Almost all of her children had themselves many children; Lina (No. three) had 13; her descendants are the best
researched and can be found mostly in the south-eastern part of Saskatchewan - Kipling, Esterhazy, Grenfell,
Regina and so on. The rest has spread quite well over the most of Canada, with one main direction of interest;
British Columbia. The strongest holds there are Trail, Kamloops and Vancouver.
Valid Surnames are until now Johnson, Hiscock, Elder, Georgetti and Duggan. This branch of the family tree
has a lot of starting points to work from, but there remains quite a digging to get hold of all existing
and possible twigs.
And that could have been the end of the Föllinge - American Connection, had Lill-Henrik not had another daughter, Märit (1863-1952). She married Jonas Ersson (1858-1937) from Hammerdal and with him had 12 children.
(3) Erik Andreas (1886-1959), her eldest son, found his wife Anna Olsdotter (1887-1950)
in the next village, Slätten, married her 1911 and moved over to that village.
That was possible because 6 of Anna's siblings had already 1903 emigrated to America, so they had enough space.
But her brother Olof (b.1889) was just about to take over the farm from his father, and that left no future
development room for Erik Andreas. So they sought out the same route as their relatives, and got a positive
answer from Erik's aunt Ingeborg.
Erik travelled first, 1915, with the steamer Virginia.
He then spent a preparation year in Broadview, Saskatchewan, Canada, with his aunt and uncle
Ingeborg Henriksdotter and Gabriel Andersson.
Anna left Föllinge with their three children Martha, Olof Helmer and Jonas Arthur Sep 12 1916.
Sep 20 1916 they left Sweden from Gothenburg with the steamship Stockholm.
Stockholm was approx. 13.000 reg.tons heavy and had cabins for 1.120 persons.
The steamer arrived on Oct 03 1916 at Ellis Island, New York.
Ossie was born in Broadview 1917.
Anna and Erik had the children staying with different relatives in Canada for a while, as they went
to Minnesota to deal with Anna's health problems. Irene was born in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota, 1919. The older four children migrated to Minnesota about 1920. Millie was born in Minnesota 1922.
Around 1925/1926 the family sold their farm and moved to Kingsford, Michigan. Kingsford was growing,
meeting the needs of the Ford company, and Erik got a good job at the plant. This was mainly because of
his specialty in wood, which was being used in the Ford Woodie from 1932 on.