The Enholms in Sweden:

On Feb 8, 1978 Ingrid wrote to Birgit and Bob:

I’m enclosing a picture that I haven’t told you about. It was a snap-shot our cousin Ernie in California sent to Eva and she sent to me. It’s an old, old picture of my mother’s parents. Ernie’s fathers parents.

On the back of the snap-shot Ernie had written

“These are our grandparents in Sweden. Your mother’s mother and father. Their name was Sven Munther which was changed to Enholm. Two daughters and 5 sons”.

This was consistent with the oral tradition among the Larson’s plus another clue that the village the Enholms were from was a name with three syllables.

One more clue was from the oral tradition, as recorded in the interviews with both Ingrid (my mother) and Anna (her sister). Anna Olivia had five brothers named:

Anton, Hilmar, John Oskar, Carl and Linus.

The family was located with the assistance of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL. Knowing the year that Anna Olivia left Sweden, we were able to locate the parish where she had filed for permission to leave her parish in Sweden and travel to Chicago. Thus we found that she was from Holmestad parish.

But, we did not know the family surname since it had been changed! By reading through the names of all of the families living in Holmestad in the period 1880 to 1890, we finally found one family with the father named Sven and children having the names given in the oral tradition! It was in this way that we found the Enholms, also known as Munters or (in some cases) as Svensson or Svensdottar.

Photo of Sven Petterson Munter and his wife Johanna. Picture not dated.

Where did they live?

The answer is to be found in the Husförhörslängder for Holmestad Parish.

1861 - 1862 Abberud

1862 - 1863 Nytorp

1863 - 1868 Hobergstorp

1868 - 1872 Stockholmsbräten

1872 - 1892 Hobergstorp

1893 - 1909 Kampaslätten Lilla

1909 - ? Moved to the parish of Lerdala.

These are all the names of houses or torps. Hobergstorp is in Holmestad, and all of the other places are near to Holmestad

Note that the family lived for 25 years in Hobergstorp. Anna Olivia was born there, and was still living there when she left Sweden for Chicago in 1887.

When we visited Holmestad in 2001, we met Bernt Högg, a local historian who knew the Munter/Enholm family since his grandfather Högg had been in the same military company as my great grandfather Sven Peterson Munter. We saw his family’s summer house, a torp of the same size and appearance as Sven and Johanna’s house during most of their years in Holmestad. The picture above is what Hobergstorp probably looked like, according to Bernt.

From the church records, we find that there were nine children in total:

Holmestad Födda . Date of birth Mothers age

Maria Wilhelmina 22 Juli, 1861 24

Johan Oskar 17 Aug, 1863 26

Eva Carolina 20 Dec, 1865 29

Karl Wilhelm 01 Feb, 1869 32

Hilmar, Nestor 23 Feb, 1871 34

Anna Olivia 07 Mar, 1873 36

Anton 16 Oct, 1875 38

Sven Otto 23 Dec, 1877 41

Bror Linus 21 Oct, 1880 44

Three children did not immigrate to Amerika: Eva Carolina (d. 1897, aged 31 years), Sven Otto (d. 1898, “sjalvmord”) and Bror Linus lived in Karlstad. Bror Linus was married and had one daughter, Birgit Maria Enholm.

Sven Petterson Munter’s occupation was originally listed as Statdräng (laborer, 1862), Hemmansagäre (free holder. 1900), Snickare (carpenter, 1910), Hjulmakare (Wheelwright, 1920). Sven Petterson was 82 years in 1920.

Johanna Andersdottar died on 23 July, 1917. Age 80 years and eight months.

Her daughter (Anna Olivia Enholm Larson, (Bob’s grandmother) died in Chicago in Februrary, 1921. She was one month short of 48 years of age. We have several pictures of her, and there may be more!