(This article was a winner in the Minnesota Genealogical Society 2020 Family History Writing Competition and was published in their Winter 2020 Quarterly Journal. A link to the PDF copy of the article is here: Christine Johnson-MGS2020.)
Christine Johnson, nee Kingström, was born 23 December 1881, in Nordåker, Gagnef, Dalarna, Sweden. Her parents may have named her Christine because she was born two days before Christmas, the Christian holiday of the birth of Christ. The name Christina is Greek in origin, meaning ‘Christian’ or ‘of Christ’. The name Christina also is a royal name in Sweden, honoring Queen Christina who reigned in the 1600’s.
During her life, Christine’s given name was variously known and recorded as: Kerstin, Christine, Christina, Christian, Christen, and Chrestina. Her family name prior to marriage was rendered as: Kindström, Kinstrom, Kingström, or Kingstrom. These spelling variations made the search for her life events, and especially for her final resting place, challenging.
From Sweden to America
Christine’s Swedish birth name, recorded in the Gagnef födelsebok (birth book), was Kerstin. Her parents were Olaf Olsson Kindström, age 31, and Brita Oldsdotter, age 30. Kerstin was Brita’s and Olaf’s third child, born four years after her older brother Anders and two years after older sister Annie. In Sweden, Kerstin would have been known as Kerstin Olafsdotter or Olsdotter, because of the patronymic naming system in use at that time.
In the spring of 1883, Brita gathered her children Anders 5, Anna 3, and baby Kerstin, age 11 months, and left Gagnef parish on 27 April 1883 to sail to America; her husband, Olaf Kindström, had emigrated in 1882. On 4 May 1883, the little group departed the port of Göteborg (Göteborg och Bohus, Sverige) sailing on the SS Juno of the Wilson shipping line, bound for Hull, England. The outgoing passenger list recorded her name as Kerstin Kindström; the family was destined for New York. It appears they took the usual route of Göteborg to Hull, where they probably crossed England by train, before departing Liverpool for New York.
Brita was traveling by herself with three small children. Family stories tell about how Brita’s son Anders and his sister Annie loved to run around the ship – so much so, their mother Brita tied a rope around them to keep track of them. Christine was an infant, so Brita certainly had her hands full.
Life in Renville County
By 1885, the family was in Winfield Township of Renville County, Minnesota. Ole and “Betsy” “Kinstram” had four children: Andrew, 7; Anna, 6; Christina, 3, and Sel, 1. The 1895 Minnesota census enumerated the “Kinstrom” family in Winfield Township: Ole and Betsy now had eight children: Andrew, Anna, Christine, Selma, Albert, Axel, David, and Ellen. Also living with the family were Anna and Albert Lind. Anna was Ole’s sister-in-law and Albert was Anna’s son.
The spelling of the surname also mutated. The last name on Ole and Betsy’s grave marker is Kinstrom; it’s unknown why the ‘d’ was dropped. A family story says that Christine started using the name Kingstrom because she liked it; perhaps it seemed more Americanized to her. She was using Kingstrom by at least 1903, when the spelling appears in her Minneapolis church record. Eventually the rest of the family members followed suit.
Nonetheless, the 1900 federal census still recorded the family name as Kinstrom. Ole was a farmer; he owned his own farm free and clear. Son Andrew (Anders), age 21, was also a farmer. Christina’s older sister Anna, age 20, was a cook and Christine, age 18, was a servant, possibly for a local family. The rest of the children were attending school and all family members were able to read, write, and speak English.
Moving to the Big City
Sometime between 1898 and 1901, daughters Anna and Christine moved to Minneapolis to find work. By April 1903, Christina was a member of the First Covenant Church; she lived at 2205 Aldrich Avenue South., Minneapolis. She was listed as Christine Kingstrom in the church membership directory. Her future husband, Robert Johnson, was also a member of the First Covenant Church during this time, having joined the church a few years earlier on 27 February 1900.
The 1905 Minneapolis city directory lists Anna and Christine Kingstrom, as waiters at 24 North 2nd, Minneapolis, and living at 59 Eastman Avenue. Eastman Avenue was on Nicollet Island in the Mississippi River and just north of downtown Minneapolis. It is possible Christine and her sister Anna rented rooms there. The island was a fashionable place to live in the 1870s. Later, the island’s fortunes declined, and many houses and townhouses were subdivided.
An address search of the 1905 Minneapolis City Directory for ‘24 N. 2nd’, (Anna and Christine’s work address), returns a restaurant owned by J. R. Johnson at 24 North 2nd. Christine’s future husband’s full name was Johann Robert (J.R.) Johnson, although he typically was known as Robert. A further search shows a Robert Johnson as restaurant owner at that address.
It’s possible Christine met future husband Robert Johnson through her employment. Robert may have hired her based on their acquaintance as members of the First Covenant Church. In any case, Christine Kingstrom married Robert Johnson in Minneapolis on 15 April 1905.
The 1910 U.S. census enumerated Christine in both Minneapolis and Renville County. Ole apparently told the census enumerator that his 28-year-old daughter lived with him in Renville Township. Christine was also enumerated with her husband, Robert Johnson, at 2505 Elliot Ave., Minneapolis, MN. Robert was 35 and Christine is 28; they had two small children Ruth, 4, and Leslie, 3.
Christine disappears again until 1920 when she lived with husband Robert on Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Robert was then a building contractor. Christine was a 39-year-old housewife with three children: Ruth, 13; Leslie, 11, and Paul, 6. She had not become an American citizen, although Robert had submitted his declaration of intention for naturalization.
Christine, Where Did You Go?
According to family stories, Christine passed away a few years later from pneumonia, when she was in her early 40’s. Her son, Leslie, was 14 years old when he lost his mother. He told stories of staying at Glen Lake Sanitarium with her and holding her hand as she passed away.
It seemed the obvious next step was to obtain a copy of Christine’s death certificate, locate her grave, and be done. But as it turns out, a series of errors, misspellings of her name, and peculiar information resulting from handwritten records obscured the facts regarding her demise and final resting place for a long time.
Some family members thought Christine died in 1924 or 1926 and was buried at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. Other family members said Christine had suffered from tuberculosis and had spent time in Glen Lake Sanatorium, and she was perhaps buried there. But no death certificate or gravesite could be found.
A Personal Research Adventure
Christine was my great-grandmother. While I knew a good deal about her life, I did not know when or how she died or where she was buried.
Lakewood Cemetery has a marvelous Burial Search tool on its website. This database gives the deceased’s name, age, date of death, and burial location (section, plot, and grave number). I started my search looking for a Christine Johnson with a date of death from 1924 to 1926, and an age of death of 40 to 45. However, Minnesota is the land of 10,000 Scandinavians, and there are hundreds of Johnsons buried at Lakewood! I used every spelling variation of Christine imaginable, and expanded the search to include deaths from 1921 to 1926, but still did not find Christine. Regretfully, I temporarily abandoned the search.
During this time, I was also sorting old papers and documents provided to me by Christine’s daughter-in-law, Alice Johnson. When I was a young child, Grandma Alice often brought me with her on Memorial Day to clean off gravestones. She felt strongly the custom of tending graves should not be forgotten and at some point had provided me with a handwritten list of deceased family members and their grave plot numbers – or, if those weren’t available, directions to find the grave (“At the entrance, take the first turn left, go to the second inter- section, turn right and look for the Knutson monument.”) At the time, I was indifferent to the information, but I dutifully filed it away.
I recently found the hand- written list, more than 25 years after Grandma Alice passed away. The list included: “Christine Johnson – Lakewood Cemetery, way in the back by the back fence, along the far south side, in row 95, grave 41.”
Armed with this information and location, I returned to the Lakewood Cemetery website and searched for all burial records for “C Johnson.” I patiently reviewed the database, looking at each result, for a burial location of row 95, grave 41. My efforts were finally rewarded: I found a “Christian Johnson” with a date of death 26 December 1922, age of 41, at that exact gravesite. The birth year and age at death were both in the expected range. But why was the name listed as Christian and not Christine?
With a death date in hand, I was able to search for a death certificate. A search of the Minnesota Historical Society’s online index of death certificates returned eight Johnsons who died in Hennepin County in December 1922. One of them is Christen Johnson, who died 26 December. The death certificate states that Christen was male (!), but it states Christen’s spouse was Robert Johnson. Everything else aligned with what I knew to be true. The deceased was born 23 December 1881 and his or her last residence was on Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park. The informant, Robert Johnson, stated that the deceased’s father was Ole Kingstrom. The primary cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis, with lobar pneumonia as the secondary cause of death. Christen, or Christine, had suffered for five years with tuberculosis and died the day after Christmas, three days after her 41st birthday.
A visit to Lakewood Cemetery as per Grandma Alice’s directions found Christine was indeed buried in the far back by the fence line in the public grave section. According to cemetery staff, the public graves in the 1920’s were also known as pauper’s graves. They were for those without money, which was probably the case for Robert, who had three young children without a mother. Those buried in a public grave could not pick out a plot, but were buried in the “next available” space. Public plots at that time probably sold for about $25, according to Lakewood Cemetery staff.
Many who are buried in the public grave area have no head-stones or markers. Christine’s grave was one of the few that did. But once again, the name has a different spelling! Her modest flat granite marker reads: “Chrestina Johnson, 1881-1922”.
I again had doubts as to whether this was the correct grave and contacted Lakewood. When I told them this was my great- grandmother, they were confused, as their records showed a male was buried in that plot. After discussion, we concluded that the incorrect gender was probably carried over from the death certificate. The burial permit matches the information on the death certificate. Lakewood updated their records to show Christian/Christen/Chrestina was also known as Christina Johnson. Future search results for Christina Johnson will include her correct burial record.
Lakewood staff informed me a grave marker had been placed on the grave 28 June 1926, a little more than three years after her death. They had no additional information about who provided the stone. The misspelling of Christine’s name on the marker remains a mystery. But great-grandpa Robert must have come into a little money in order to be able to afford a stone and no doubt he wanted to give her the final dignity of a marked grave. A week after the gravestone was placed, Robert remarried to Anna Hermanson.
RUNS IN THE FAMILY 