Helena Albertina Josefina Engström, Single with Child; Single without Child

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One Swedish historian wrote (sorry, I copied the quote but neglected to save the citation):
"From 1865 onwards, illegitimacy was no longer a true crime in the eyes of the Protestant church and the Swedish government. However, written laws are one thing and public opinion another."
Despite the Infantcide Act in Sweden in 1778, enacted to curtail the killing of newborns by unwed mothers (here), some unmarried women in the 1800s felt this was their only option in order to escape the immense shame and hardship of being a single mother. Most often "oäkta" or bastard children were placed in orphanages and/or put up for adoption.

Perhaps, being a "fosterdotter" herself, Josephine knew that the only way to keep Elida safe was to raise her herself, regardless of the social and financial consequences. (Subsequent events, which will be discussed later, also led me to believe that Josephine might have been subjected to an inappropriate relationship with her "fosterfader" Pehr. That was certainly within the realm of possibilities. If Elida were to be placed in the home of foster parents it most likely would have been the home of  Pehr and Boel. And that was something Josephine could not allow to happen.)

"1876" was what the priest wrote in reference to when Josephine left Lindholm and returned to Pehr and Boel's home to give birth. She stayed with them until Elida was 1 yr-old.

In October of 1877 Josephine and Elida made their way to Trelleborg, a coastal community and Sweden's southernmost city. It appears she left the rural life behind her and located in the city. They lived in a room or apartment on Hyresgäster, a street which no longer exists or has since been renamed. Her granddaughter would later write that she "was trained in the preparation and the decorating of elaborate smorgasbörds." Perhaps it was in Trelleborg where she put those skills to use.

Trelleborg Harbor

Trelleborg today

Josephine and Elida stayed in Trelleborg for 5 years, after which Josephine made a bold choice to return to her roots. She would have packed up her few, meager belongings, taken young Elida Carolina by the hand, and boarded a train bound for Stockholm, unsure of how a single mother with an "oäkta dotter" would be received.

It was Elida's 6th birthday, 31 October 1882, when they arrived in Stockholm. Josephine moved into the exact neighborhood she left when she was 6 yrs-old before she was taken to the children's home. She had lived in Pilgränd 8 with her parents and siblings, and upon her return she moved into Pilgränd 4. (Since this street name no longer exists, you can search for "31 Maria Prästgårdsgata Stockholm" on Google Maps if you want to get a feel for the location.) It would have been while she was living there that she met the Mormon missionaries. Josephine was baptized 5 July 1883.

Pilgränd 4

Watercolor of Pilgränd 4

Pilgränd 4 on left

In November of 1883 Josephine and Elida moved a short distance away to 49 Bondegatan. "Bondegatan" means Farmer's Street and they lived at the edge of the city and adjacent to a large farming area.

Bondegatan

The view from Bondegatan over Barnängen

They lived on Bondegatan for only about 3 weeks when Josephine was admitted to a hospital. And here's where things get sketchy again. I don't know how long she actually stayed in the hospital, but a little less than 2 months later she moved into a different residence. With this move, however, she was no longer "unmarried single with children", she was "unmarried single without children." Elida was no longer living with Josephine.

The records as to where Elida initially went - or was sent - are missing. There is no record (that I can find) that she was taken to a children's home when her mother went to the hospital, nor is she listed in the Stockholm Mantalsregister after 1883. Further, there is no record available of her living anywhere else. MyHeritage.com indexed all of the Swedish household records from 1860 on, making it very easy to find people. ArkivDigital, the website which I primarily use in my research, purchased those indexed records from MyHeritage and I always check both websites for information in case one of the search engines didn't pick something up.

So where did she go?

If it was Josephine's doing, she could have realized that her earning potential was limited, daycare was scarce, and her diminished level of health limited her ability to provide a consistent quality of life for her daughter. If not, Josephine could have been forced by government officials to give up Elida to the care of others when she entered the hospital. I could speculate until the cows come home. In my mind there are two equally probable answers. Other factors support this.

Scenario #1 - Elida was sent by government officials to live with her father in Svedala. When Josephine entered the hospital, she could have been coerced or required to name Elida's father so the government agencies would not be responsible for Elida's care and financial support. And how would this explain the lack of documentation? Since Alexander Reventberg was Danish and not Swedish, he was not tracked in the Swedish church records other than the priest writing "Reventberg" at the top of the page associated with Lindholm. If Elida went to live with him she may not have checked in with the Swedish priest as required and made him aware of her whereabouts. That would explain Elida being MIA from the records.

Scenario #2 -  Elida went back to Svedala to live with Boel Pehrsdotter, Josephine's foster mother. In the church record book which begins with the year 1888, 5 years after Elida went missing, she is in fact listed as a "fosterdotter" of Boel Pehrsdotter. If she went to live with Boel in 1883 when Josephine entered the hospital it could be that the priest just neglected to write it in the book and it didn't get recorded until he created the new book in 1888. And why would Josephine allow (or initiate) Elida to be in the care of a foster parent from whom she was "mistreated?" Boel's husband, Pehr Björk, had died in 1880. If Pehr was the instigator of the "mistreatment" he was no longer a factor in the equation.

But here's something else that's interesting. Once Elida showed up in the record book in Svedala in 1888 she was no longer "Elida Carolina Engström," she became "Elida Carolina Reventberg."

Household Index beginning in 1888

You can see Elida's name crossed off and written again. That was because she left Boel's home to spend a year in the picturesque coastal town of Torekov in 1893 and returned in 1894. Did she vacation on her rich father's money? I don't think so. I think she went there to work. So if I had to choose from the two scenarios above, I don't think she left her mother in Stockholm to live with her father and then abandoned the wealthy lifestyle to pursue a working-class existence, unless, of course, her father began abusing her and she had no choice but to escape. But I think Josephine knew what kind of man Alexander was and would have never allowed him to be any part of Elida's life. It seems more likely that with Pehr dead, Josephine trusted Boel with the care of her daughter. It also seems probable to me that it was Boel who changed Elida's last name from Engström to Reventberg in an effort to require Alexander to acknowledge his daughter and provide support money. I don't know if she was successful in collecting.

By the way, I scoured the record book and crunched the numbers and found that between 1870 and 1879 there were 16 "oäkta" (bastard) children born to unwed mothers living at Lindholm. To be fair, out of 1,062 total births in the Svedala Parish during the same time period, 128 were born to unwed mothers not living at Lindholm. 13.7% of all births in the 1870s in the Svedala Parish were out of wedlock. There's no way to know if and how many of those 16 Lindholm babies were fathered by Alexander Reventberg, but if I were betting on it, I would bet Elida wasn't the only one.

Elida Carolina Engström

If you're wondering what happened to Elida, she left Boel's house for good in 1896 at the age of 20. In 1899 she married Oskar Fridolf Lundell, a painter by trade. They moved to Lund where they had two daughters, Marta Karolina (born in 1900) and Dagny Frideborg (born in 1902). Elida died in 1939 in Lund at the age of 62.

I've been told that Josephine stayed in touch with Elida and they continued to correspond after Josephine immigrated to the US.

Marta

Dagny

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