Ola Olsson was the grandson of the farmer Sven Håkansson, born 1748 in Uttorp, Sturkö, and Cissa Abrahamsdotter, born 1756. Ola Olsson's father was Ola Svensson, born April 28 1799. One of Ola's brothers, Petter, born 1788, was the great great grandfather of Eric Petersson, local historian and genealogist on Sturkö, who has given me a lot of useful information about the island and its people. In 1814 Ola Svensson was registered as a farmhand in the household of his brother Petter Svensson and his wife Gertrud, who had taken over their father, Sven Håkansson's, farm.

July 15, 1821. The farmer Ola Svensson married the maid Karin Olasdotter born November 28, 1796, in the village of Ryd, Sturkö.

Ola Svensson and Karin Olasdotter had these children:
Anna born April 16, 1821
Karin born January 18, 1826
Sven born April 8, 1829
Maria born August 22, 1832
Petter November 20, 1833
Ola born January 30, 1838
Andreas November 1, 1842

Ola Olsson, as you can see, had two older brothers which might explain why his life seems to have been rather harsh. He had to work for others instead of having a farm of his own. I guess that his oldest brother inherited their father's farm.

October 12, 1857. Ola moved from Uttorp to Utlängan to work as a farmhand. At first he worked for a farmer called Anders Månsson and his wife Ingrid Maria Nilsdotter.

In 1860 Ola moved to the household of Anders Larsson and his wife Gertrud Larsdotter, who was born on Sturkö. I haven't had time to check whether Ola Olsson and Gertrud Larsdotter were related, but that might very well be the case.

The same year, 1860, a 19-year old Utlängan girl, Cecilia Larsdotter, moved away from her parents to work as a maid in the household of the very same Anders Larsson and Getrud Larsdotter.

Anders Larsson was Cecilia's older brother and Anders Månsson (where Ola Olsson first worked when he came to Utlängan) was her uncle (see below). Ola and Cecilia must have known each other very well when they moved to work in the household of her brother. Maybe Ola's move to Utlängan in the first place was part of a marriage arrangement for him and Cecilia.

Cecilia was the granddaughter of the farmer Måns Trulsson, born 1776, probably in Västernäs on the island of Senoren, close to Sturkö, and Maria Olofsdotter, born in 1778. Their children were Lars Månsson, born in 1802, Christina Månsdotter born in 1805, Ingri Månsdotter born in 1807, Elin Månsdotter born in 1811, Swen Månsson born in 1816, Karin Månsdotter born in 1819, Maria Månsdotter born in 1819 and Anders Månsson born in 1821.

Cecilia's father the farmer Lars Månsson was born in 1802 in Vedeby on the Blekinge mainland, and her mother Kerstin Olasdotter was born in 1804 in Svanhalla, also on the mainland.

Lars had moved with his parents to Utlängan in 1803 whereas Kerstin moved to Utlängan in 1827 after having lived on the island of Ytterön for sometime.

Lars Månsson and Kerstin Olasdotter had these children:
Ola born December 3, 1829
Anders born May 4, 1833
Elin born May 25, 1835
Sven born November 3, 1837 (probably dead as an infant)
Ingri Maria born 1838
Cecilia born April 27, 1840 (dead as an infant)
Cecilia born May 21, 1841
Carolina born January 6, 1849 (dead in 1855)

Ola Larsson was the grandfather of Fredrik Stenshamn's grandmother Svea (Olsson) Andersson.

The upcoming marriage of the farmhand Ola Olsson and the maid Cecilia Larsdotter was announced in the church of Torhamn September 15, 1862 and they married in the same church November 22, 1862. But by then they had already moved to Sturkö. The church register on Sturkö states that they moved to Sturkö parish on November 2, 1862. The church registers are somewhat confusing though as the Sturkö register says that Ola Olsson and his wife Cecilia moved in on November 2, whereas the Torhamn register says that they didn't marry until November 22.

Ola was registered as a farmhand on Sturkö and most likely worked for different farmers in Uttorp village, where they lived.

In 1874 Ola, Cecilia and their children moved away from Sturkö to the island of Stenshamn, close to Utlängan, where Ola was registered as a fisherman.

In 1880 the following children were registered on Ola and Cecilia:
Ingrid Maria born March 28, 1864
Anders Magnus born December 13, 1867
Carolina born January 6, 1870
Peter Olof born June 3, 1871
Johan Alfred born March 3, 1874
Sven August born March 8, 1876
Kerstin Amanda born May 31, 1877.

Oddly enough the church register states that all the children were born in Sturkö parish as if Cecilia had left Stenshamn to give birth to Sven August and Amanda. I don't know if that is true or if the church registers are wrong.

As you know Anders Magnus died 16 years old, which should be in 1883 (I haven't checked) and Ola and Cecilia had several other children who died at an early age:
Sven dead as an infant
Sven August dead at the age of 8
Anna Matilda dead at the age of 2
Olof dead at the age of 4.

I haven't had time to check their dates of birth and death but hope to have time to do so in the future.

Ola and Cecilia stayed at Stenshamn till October 29, 1890 when the church register of Sturkö states that they moved back, together with two sons and one daughter. The children were not named then but I found the family in another register.

It turns out that they didn't move to Uttorp when they returned to Sturkö, but to the village of Ryd (mentioned above), where they lived as tenants at a farm owned by Ola Matsson, born in Torhamn parish. He was the second husband of Eric Petersson's (see above) grandfather's mother.

I haven't had time to check what part of Torhamn parish Ola Mattsson came from. It could have been Utlängan or Stenshamn so he might have been related to Cecilia.(As you see there are several possible links between Sturkö and Utlängan/Stenshamn families involved in this family history. I hope to have time to check those links.)

Ola was now called "workman", which probably meant that he worked on farms and had given up fishing (Ryd is an inland village on Sturkö whereas Uttorp is close to the east coast of the island).

The register also names the workman Peter Olof and the children Sven August and Kerstin Amanda as members of the household, so those were the three children that moved with Ola and Cecilia from Stenshamn to Sturkö. Johan Alfred also seems to have stayed with his parents on Sturkö for a while. In 1890, when Ola and Cecilia moved away from Stenshamn, Ingrid Maria and Karolina had already had emigrated as you know.

Some time between 1890 and 1895, Ola and Cecilia moved from Ryd to Uttorp, where they lived in 1895, when Amanda emigrated. The church registers only register movements between parishes but not within parishes. Such movements are much harder to trace and I haven't had the time to try and find out exactly when Ola and Cecilia moved back to Uttorp, the village where Ola was born and where Ola and Cecilia lived between 1862 and 1874. I also don't know where Ola lived as a child and if Ola and Cecilia lived in the same house in 1862-1874 as they did the last decades of their lives.

Ola died in 1914, Cecilia in 1916. Their cottage was inherited by Carolina, the wife of Peter Olof, who had divorced him in America and moved back with their son Alfred. Carolina sold the cottage to Adolf Håkansson, but both he and his wife died of tuberculosis around 1930 and the cottage was sold to Valfrid Johansson. He and his family didn't live in the house, but used it as a hen house. Around 1970, Valfrid Johansson's son Sven Bergstedt and his wife Johanne took over the cottage, renovated and extended it and moved into it in 1978. They still live in it.

Well, that is about all. The rest - when Ola's and Cecilia's children emigrated, where they went and so on you already know. I guess the next big thing will be finding out who your relatives on Sturkö are. When SturköBladet publishes my next article, in which I reveal that you are related to Eric Petersson, I suspect that a lot of Sturkö people will find that they are your relatives. Let's hope that some of them will let you know who they are.