re: #321 wheat-dogg

My Swedish forebears came from a similar background. My maternal grandmother was a house servant as a young girl. It was a common practice among farm families to send the girls out to be house servants and any boys not needed on the farm to apprentice or be a farm laborer. Grandma Caroline emigrated at 19.

My maternal grandfather was the youngest of seven. He was the last to emigrate (at 20) to the USA, and was the only child to return to Sweden (twice) to bury their parents. He had been apprenticed at a young age as cabinetmaker and carpenter. His parents were tenant farmers just as you described.

My other grandmother came first to Canada, following her immigrant father (a cobbler) at age 13, then ended up working as a maid in Chicago.

I gather things were pretty grim in the second half of the 19th century. The thing that astounds me is that my grandfather, coming from that background was able to get an education (first at a Free Church seminary and then in Germany, finally emigrating and spending a year studying in Chicago.) He pastored at various churches in Winnepeg and in the US and as far as I know, he never so much as mentioned the old country to his children.