Göran Andersson (1851 - 1936)

Born 2 Nov 1851 in Slagåbacken, Svedje, Åre socken, Jämtland

Ancestors

Husband of Gölin Andersdotter — married 1879 in Åre socken

Descendants

Died 22 Jun 1936 at age 84 in Mörsil, Jämtland, Sweden

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Biography

Göran Andersson’s Account of Working Conditions in Fröå (1869)

The brothers Göran, Nils, and Anders Andersson, kopparverksarbetare in their youth, were grandsons of Märta Andersdotter and Göran Ersson. Their father was Anders Göransson (2.27.1828 – 7.31.1908), the second son of Göran Ersson and Märta Andersson. He was born in Rista in the parish of Undersåker^[1]. In 1851, at age 23, he married Kerstin Nilsdotter (8.11.1851)^[2][3] at Näset in the parish of Åre. Kerstin Nilsdotter’s parents were Nils Nilsson (b. 1795) and Lisbeth Bengtsdotter (b. 1791). According to a persistent family tradition, Kerstin was one-half Same, or Lapplander. The earliest recorded mention of Kerstin Nilsdotter appears in Husförhörslängde 1866-1875 for Åre socken, which records her attendance at Communion on July 7, 1872.

According to a note in Göran Andersson’s family Bible, Göran was born Nov. 2, 1851 in Slagåbacken, Svedje, Åre socken; after that they moved from Rista to Nyland, where Nils was born (1.29.1854). In 1854, the family moved to Rista in the parish of Undersåker, where they lived until 1870. During this period, Anders (2.14.1860), Erik (6.19.1864) and Lisa Märta (1.1.1869) were born. Six months after Lisa Märta was born, Erik died in Mörsil at age 5 (6.26.1869).

In 1879, Göran married Gölin Andersdotter and moved to Svedje in the same parish. That same year, Brita Kristina was born to Nils Andersson and Anna Hilina Blom. In 1881, not long after the birth of Nils’s and Anna’s second child Anders Gustaf, Anders’s and Märta’s third child, Anders, emigrated to America. So far as I know, Anders was the first in the family to emigrate. Nils Andersson, his wife Anna Hilina Blom, daughter Brita Kristina and son Anders Gustav emigrated to Minnesota three years later, in 1884. 6Anders Göransson, Kerstin Nilsdotter, and their youngest child Lisa Märta, moved from Fröå to Myckelgård, Mörsil in 1885.

On November 15, 1885, Göran and Gölin Andersson moved from Svedje (in Åre parish) to Mörsil. He built a big timber house near the railroad station. His farm still belonged in the family decades later. This move marks the end of our family’s connection with Fröå. It is possible that these emigrations, beginning with Anders in 1881, were related, at least indirectly, to the closing of the copper-mine there. The mine had been in continuous operation since 1836, and its closing in 1881 resulted in reduced economic opportunity in the region.

At the Christmas Eve family gathering in 1933 (mentioned earlier), Göran Andersson described working and living conditions in the copper-works at Fröå and Huså from 1869 to 1881:

A miner had an allowance of half a barrel of barley, a peck of rye, a pound of herring, a pound of tobacco (leaves), and one measure of salt per month. These were the provisions that workers received from the company, whether they earned them or not. The value of these products was 25 kronar for a barrel of grain, the same price for rye, one krona for a pound of herring, 1.50 for a pound of tobacco, and 25 öre for a measure of salt.

The payment for their work was 60 kronar for each cubic feet of rock during the blasting of a tunnel, or 120 kronar per KBF, minus the cost of drilling and blasting powder. As anyone can see, payment for the work was not great, but the workers were also given a cottage to lease for 40 to 60 kronar per year, on enough land to support two or three cows and a horse. The crofters’ work [in the mine] was five days a week, six days on some weeks, so an experienced worker could earn 1.50 kronar per day.

Sources

1. ↑ Undersåker AI:6 (1861-1876) Image 1140 / page 106 (AID: v115376.b1140.s106, NAD: SE/ÖLA/11100)
2. ↑ Undersåker C:3 (1842-1861) Image 250 / page 43 (AID: v115386.b250.s43, NAD: SE/ÖLA/11100)
3. ↑ Undersåker AI:4 (1846-1855) Image 780 / page 70 (AID: v115374.b780.s70, NAD: SE/ÖLA/11100)