Sweden-America

During the years of 1850 to 1925, about seven thousand people emigrated to the USA from the area that corresponds to the contemporary municipality of Eksjö (English spellings: Eksjo or Eksjoe). The municipality of Eksjö is situated in the mid-northern part of the province of Småland (English spellings: Smaland or Smaaland).

Perhaps one of these people was your ancestor? Perhaps you would like to visit the place where he or she used to live before they emmigrated? Or perhaps you would like to find some of your Swedish relatives still living in this area? If so, this page is for you.

Finding information about ancestors or living relatives
If you already know the name of an ancestor, but want to find some more details about her/him, or perhaps details about living Swedish relatives of yours, then the archives at our libraries may be of use to you. They contain a number of different historical records. Be aware though that these records are in Swedish, and you may need some assistance. In Eksjö municipality there is a town library in Eksjö, and there are smaller libraries in the villages of Mariannelund and Ingatorp.

Finding places
If you want to find the place where your ancestor lived and you already have its name, you may be able to get help from a member of a local community society. If you have the details of where your ancestor used to live, it will hopefully include in which "socken" – parish – this place was, as that was the smallest administrative unit of the time. Whereas these units do not have much administrative importance today, they often still have their own local community societies. Below you can see, and download, a map indicating where in our municipality the different parishes are located. And you will also find a list with English-speaking contact persons for their respective local community societies.

Local community society contact persons

Bellö parish: Göran Wede. Email: goran.wede@telia.com . Phone no: +46-381-221 24.
Edshult parish: Elisabeth Leek. Email: minasoldater@gmail.com +46-140-212 25.
Eksjö town parish: Håkan Åkvist. Email: hakan.akvist@spray.se . Phone no: +46-381-137 79.
Eksjö country parish: Elisabeth Leek. Email:  minasoldater@gmail.com. +46-140-212 25.
Hult parish: Mats Sandell, Phone no: +46-705-892 443.
Hässleby parish: Tomas Braag. Email: ubbekulla@yahoo.se . Phone no: +46-706-074 849.
Höreda parish: Lars-Åke Andersson. lars.ake.andersson@hotmail.com . Phone no: +46-381-166 65.
Ingatorp parish: Margareta Thorsson. Email: m@rgareta.se . Phone no: +46-381-240 10.
Kråkshult parish: Mari-Ann Larsson. Email: malars@adress.eksjo.com . Phone no: +46-496-320 25.
Mellby parish: Elisabeth Leek. Email: minasoldater@gmail.com. +46-140-212 25.

General advice and help
If you feel you could use some general advice or help concerning your genealogy-related quests, you can also contact one of the following two contact persons of Eksjö’s local genealogy society. Both speak English.

• Elisabeth Leek. Email: minasoldater@gmail.com. +46-140-212 25.
• Margaretha Thorsson. Email: m@rgareta.se . Phone no: +46-381-240 10.

The Emigrant memorial
Opposite the train station in Eksjö, on the other side of the road, there is an emigrant memorial. Its construction began in 2003 and it was inaugurated in June 2006. The main feature of the memorial is a stone wall in two parts, made from stones from all over the municipality of Eksjö, as well as a few stones brought from the USA.

The soil in the province of Småland is generally very stony, and the stone wall symbolizes something most emmigrants from the Eksjö area must have been glad to get rid of – the toil of ridding their arable soil of stones year after year.

Part of the memorial are also two examples of things these emmigrants may have missed, symbolizing the homesickness many must also have felt. Firstly, there is an Astrakhan apple tree, standing beside the one part of the stone wall. Secondly, there is a group of lingonberry plants, growing in the bed that’s semi-circled by the other part of the stone wall. On top of the wall, there is also a metal plaque, made at the local iron works in Bruzaholm. The plaque reads, translated from the Swedish: "Eksjö – N. America. Towards bread and freedom."