This is a combination of information that Elsa Nordfält sent in a letter to Aurora Hovey on March 5, 1977 and in another to me on April 1, 1990. Her letters in the original Swedish can be seen at Elsa's letter to Aurora 1977 and her letter to me. I've misplaced the original of Elsa's letter to me; the copy here is a transcript I prepared after I received it. Elsa passed away on May 30, 1999.

Åke Lundgren supplied additional information about Carl Alfred Sörqvist, Frida Holm's father. More information came from documents that Britt-Marie Nordqvist possessed when we visited her in 2018.

Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

He was named Petter de Moine¹ and originally was from France. His birthday is unknown. He was Cornet² of Turku³ and Pori⁴ province’s cavalry regiment in Finland. He participated in the Great Northern War⁵, serving at Narva⁶ and Dorpt⁷, among others. Petter was literate, and apparently had gone to a French military school.

Under the leadership of Major General Volmar Schlippenbach (1658-1739) in summer 1702 at the Battle of Hummelshof⁸ in Livonia, Petter was killed during the night of July 19 in Hummel’s Marsh by the river Embach in opposition to the Muscovites. Elsa had a copy of a letter to Major General Schlippenbach from Petter. It was written after the battle of Narva. Petter had a son Gustaf born in 1694.

Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

She was named Elsa Ström, born in 1698 in southern Bohuslän⁹, and came from a large and famous priest’s family. She married Cornet Gustaf de Moine, who was born in 1694 in Finland. They were the first residents of Labhol in Spekeröds parish¹⁰. In 1726 they moved to Jörlanda Kirkby¹¹. They lived at the Bracke captain’s residence in Svarteborg parish¹² till the year 1758 when they became owners of the farm Southern Låghem and moved there. Gustaf began his military career at the age of 20, and advanced to captain, RSO (Knight of the Order of the Sword). When the family lived in southern Bohuslän, Gustaf belonged to Freckle company. When they lived in the Bracke captain’s residence¹³ (1 1/4 MTL), he belonged to Stångenäs company.

Gustaf was a volunteer in the Riksänkedrottningens Life Regiment¹⁴. Upon the merger in 1720, Gustaf remained at Bohuslän’s Dragoons, known as the Green Dragoons. The practice location was Stenehed in Svarteborg.

Elsa always was styled madame. Similarly her daughters were styled madamoiselle. Elsa was respected and well liked in the district. She was engaged very often to sponsor at baptism. As Elsa and Gustav were prosperous, they could also give a christening present for the baby, and at the time one gladly chose as sponsor someone who could give a better present. Gustav and Elsa were given six children of their own. Gustav died May 25, 1767, of old age at age 73, and Elsa died at 75. They are buried in Svarteborg’s Cemetery.

Their children:	Petronella was born March 30, 1719
	Gabriel Gustav was born on September 9, 1722
	Bengt Gustafsson was born 12 May 1724
	Peter was born February 9. 1726
	Agneta Christina was born in 1727

Great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.

Agneta Christine Demoine, was born about 1737, probably at Kjällsby in Jörlanda Parish. She married 21 November 1759 with the shopkeeper Johan Smith, from Leråker, a farm in Svarteborg parish, who was born in 1735. He lived in Uddevalla¹⁵ when they got married, and was a trader there. They settled first at Låghem, and then bought Leråker and moved there. Christine had eight children. After Johan died June 16, 1782 in Svarteborg of chest-disease and Christine became a widow, she married Engbert Jonsson in 1783. They lived thereafter at Låghem.

She soon became a widow again. She died in 1790 at 53 years old in Svarteborg, and is buried in Svarteborg’s old cemetery.

Agneta and Johan's children:	Gustafica born in 1753, probably her daughter.
	Elsa Greta was born in 1762, and died January 5 1767
	Johan was born November 19 1764
	Elsa Greta was born October 16 1767
	Maija
	Susanna Catarina born April 13, 1776
	Gustavus Adolphus was born April 27 1780

Great-great-great-great-grandmother.

Elsa Greta Smith was born October 16, 1767, in Leråker in Svarteborg parish, as fifth among the siblings. On November 18, 1792, in Svarteborg she married Åboen Hindrik Christensson of Lower Hede in Svarteborg. They were accordingly farmers. Åboen died November 2, 1819, in Svarteborg. They were given three children.

Elsa and Åboen's children:	Catarina born in 1793
	Carl was born in 1795
	Cajsa was born June 3, 1804

Great-great-great-grandmother.

Casja Hindriksdotter was born June 3, 1804, at Lower Hede in Svarteborg Parish, third among her siblings, thus the youngest. In January 1826 she married the freeholder Gabriel Andersson from Upper Hee, in Svarteborg parish. Gabriel Andersson was born February 19, 1801, in Kville. They had five children. Gabriel Andersson died February 16, 1873, by gout pain. Casja died May 21, 1878, of breast disease at nearly 74 years old, and is buried at Svarteborg's old cemetery.

Casja and Gabriel's children:	Gustaf was born in November 20, 1826
	Eva was born June 23, 1829
	Hans was born March 29, 1831

Great-great-grandmother.

Eva Gabrielsson was born June 3, 1829 at Upper Hee, in Svarteborg’s Parish, second of the siblings. She married freeholder Fredrick Göranssson of Bråmarken, Krokstad’s parish¹⁶. He abandoned his wife and children in 1859 and ran away, probably to Norway. According to rumor, someone had met him there.

Eva and Fredrick's children:	Hilma Carolina was born September 10, 1850, in Krokstad.
	Amanda Mathilda was born April 16, 1857, and died August 28, 1857

Eva had a son out of wedlock: Carl Albin was born April 12, 1866 and died August 1, I876, of brain dropsy.

In 1876, Eva ran into trouble with the law. She had worked as a tax clerk in Svarteborg parish. Apparently, she allowed bail for someone when she knew it to be false. She was arrested for counterfeiting and fraud, and tried in Kville District Court on January 26, 1876. She was found guilty and sentenced to one year anf four months of penal servitude at the crown's jail in Uddevalla. She was released on February 25, 1877.

Great-grandmother.

Hilma Carolina Fredriksdotter was born September 10, 1850, in Krokstads parish, and was the oldest child. She took work in Kville. There she met our future grandmother's father, the soldier Carl Alfred Sörqvist, who was born January 14, 1852, at Långliljan in Svarteborg’s parish. Carl Alfred joined the Army Oct 01, 1870, when he was 18 years old. He left the Army Sept 10, 1901, as a Lance Corporal. They had seven children. They first lived on the croft Harket below Bjornmyren in Kville parish. Via Humlekärr in Kville, Fiskebo in Svarteborg, Fället in Herrestads parish, they moved to Björkbohagen at Uddevalla.

When Carl Alfred left the Army, he became a forester. He was very kind and let people take wood from the forest. Therefore, the owner relocated him to a more remote area, which today is more or less within Uddevalla's city borders. Carl became gamekeeper in 1905.

Elsa remembers Hilma and Alfred when they lived on Björkbohagen in Uddevalla. The cottage they lived in was an official residence, painted red, and small. It was still there in 1990. A barn, fitted with a “skunke”¹⁶, lay opposite, and belonged to it. Likewise there was storehouse and garden plot with a few fruit trees. The plot against the mountain had grandfather’s only row with bee hives.

Elsa's family went to visit them now and then when they were shopping at Uddevalla. They stayed with them overnight a few times, and then they bedded on the floor in the only room. It was very simple but pleasant there. Elsa's dad had a car (Ford) but the road was still long to Uddevalla from Hällevadsholm. The car did not go so fast at the time, the 1920s.

They lived at Björkbohagen until Alfred’s death of old age in 1929. Hilma spent some years at Herrestad’s almshouse, and died there at the age of 91 years of old age. Hilma and Alfred are buried at Eastern Cemetery in Uddevalla.

Hilma and Alfred’s children:	Matilda was born October 20, 1872, in Kville and died May 28, 1963, in Svarteborg of old age.
	Johan was born in 1875. He emigrated to Norway, which was united with Sweden until 1905, where he was a whaler. Shortly after he went ashore and retired, he was run over by a car and killed in 1950 in Sandefjord.
	Gustaf was born 1879 in Kville and died July 26, 1970 of old age.
	Hanna was born in 1882 in Kville. She emigrated to Norway. She died February 2, 1961.
	Carl was born in 1885 and died 1900 of meningitis.
	Frieda was born September 16, 1888. She emigrated to Canada May 1, 1910, and died April 11, 1928.
	Emma was born in 1893 in Kville and died in April 29, 1962 in Uddevalla.

Mathilda Sörqvist was born October 20, 1872, in Kville as the oldest child. She married stonemason Johan Olausson, who was born in Mo parish in 1873. They lived first at Timmermyren in Kville parish. From there they moved to Herrestads parish. In 1919 they moved to Kvarndalen below Långevall in Svarteborg parish. Grandma lived to be 90 years old. She had ten children. Grandma was buried in Svarteborg’s central cemetery. Elsa's Mother. Anna (Annie) Josefina Sörqvist-Olsson, born on March 13, 1893, in Kville parish at Humlekärr. Her father, Frans Oskar Schevenius-Birch, was born April 18, 1873, at Backa in Svarteborg. She had nine half-siblings. Father and mother were married on October 5, 1915, in the Svarteborg, and became resident at Strömsborgs under Slaängen in Svarteborg’s parish. There, they ran, among other things, a mill and sawmill operation. Elsa was the oldest among six siblings. Father lived to be 65 and mother 89. They are buried in Svarteborg’s central cemetery. Elsa Elsa Victoria Wallström, born June 2, 1916, at Strömsborg under Slaängen in Svarteborg’s parish, and grew up there. On 26 April, 1939, she married the gardener Robert Svensson, who was born May 18, 1904, Torpa parish in Älvsborgs Län. They settled themselves first at Kullbäcks croft in Råda parish in the municipality of Mölndal. Via Veddige in Halland, they moved to Skytteskogsgatan 14 in Gothenburg in 1943. They were given a son, Sixten, who was born January 11, 1940. Robert died in 1959. He is buried in Svarteborg’s central cemetery. Elsa married a second time with Sven Ake Kristian Nordfält, who was born November 21, 1918, in Vasa Township in Gothenburg and died August 21, 1990.

Frida Sörqvist was born September 16, 1888. She married with Victor Holm on January 21, 1906. Victor emigrated to Kenora, Canada, in 1909, and Frida followed him there on May 1, 1910. In following years, she and Victor moved to Victoria, Michigan, to Port Wing, Wisconsin, and finally to Iron River, Michigan. She died April 11, 1928. Frida and Victor's children: Svea was born July 6, 1907, in Sweden. She married Alec Passamani on April 24, 1936. She died September 11, 1946, in Bates Township, Iron County, Michigan. Aurora was born April 15, 1911, in Kenora, Ontario. She married Russell Hovey on November 23, 1946, and divorced him on October 8, 1958. She died of congestive heart failure in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 7, 1987. Carl was born January 28, 1913, in Kenora, Ontario. He first married Betty Seehase and had one son. Next he married Helen Nault and they had four children. He died March 14, 1975, at Iron River, Michigan. Greta was born on March 13, 1920, in Port Wing, Wisconsin. She married Murray Baker and had three children. She died July 19, 1975, in Stambaugh, Michigan.

Footnotes:

1. Moine, French for "monk", may refer to Le Moine, a mountain of the Pennine Alps. The Pennine Alps (also Valais Alps) are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. They are located in Switzerland (Valais) and Italy (Piedmont and the Aosta Valley).

2. Cornet - Cavalry officer who carries the troop’s flag

3. Turku - Also called Abo, a city on the coast of Finland, west of Helsinki

4. Pori - Also called Björneborgs, a city about 75 miles north of Åbo/Turku, near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia

5. Great Northern War - A 1700 to 1721 conflict in which a coalition led by Russia under Peter the Great successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe.

6. Narva - On 19 November 1700 a Swedish army under Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Russian siege force three to four times its size at Narva, a town on the Narva River on the border between Estonia and Russia. It is between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus, and is about 80 miles west south west of St. Petersburg.

7. Dorpt - A city now called Tartu, which lies near Lake Peipus in Russia.

8. Battle of Hummelshof - A major Russian victory near the small town of Hummelshof in Swedish Livonia (present-day Estonia). The Swedish army was completely destroyed, suffering 70% casualties.

9. Bohuslän - a Swedish province northwest of Gothenborg on the northernmost part of the country's west coast, named after the Norwegian medieval castle of Båhus.

10. Spekeröds parish - a Swedish parish about 26 miles north of Gothenburg, with a population of 1,000 in 2000.

11. Jörlanda - possibly a small Swedish town, about a mile from the coast, 23 miles north of Gothenborg, having 789 inhabitants in 2010.

12. Svarteborg - a small Swedish town about 70 miles north of Gothenborg and 20 miles northwest of Uddevalla, having a present day population of about 10,000.

13. The Fräkne Company and the Stångenäs Company were members of the Bohuslän Dragoon Regiment, which was first established in established in the province in 1661.

14. Riksänkedrottningens livregemente i Pommern is the Queen Dowager's Life Guard Regiment in Pomerania, which was Swedish until the treaty of 1720 when Sweden ceded the territory south of the river Peene and east of the river Peenestrom to Prussia.

15. Uddevalla - a medium sized town on an inlet about 47 miles north of Gothenborg

16. Krokstad - a small inland town about 23 miles north of Uddevalla and 70 miles north of Gothenborg

17. Skunke - where the front wall is indented under the barn's roof to let the farmer stay dry while carrying feed from the barn to the stable. Thanks to Åke Lundgren for this information!

Responsible: Albert Holm
Created: 8 February 2015
Updated: 19 Aug 2020