Heritage trails: Anna Gustava Engelbrektsson in Sweden

I’m named after my grandma Anna, and it is her grandma Anna we quested after on this trip. She was a Swedish herbalist and cook, and Mormon pioneer.  My husband and I traveled from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, Sweden's biggest city after Stockholm and three hours' train ride from Copenhagen. It is located on the west coast of Sweden, where islands are littered around the land's edges like crumbs of a cake. And part of the island archipelago holds our scenic heritage islands of Orust and Tjörn, and our ancestral village of Tegneby (an hour's drive north of Gothenburg).

Tegneby, Sweden church built 1891

This is where our Swedish family story currently begins and ends, since the Tegneby church burned down in 1871, and with it, our family records. The church there now, rebuilt in 1891, is charming. However, our Anna wouldn't have seen it in that current iteration, since she left Sweden as a pioneer for Utah in 1875. 

Calvin Cottam's 1974 report and our Google map

As far as I know, I'm the first relative to make a pilgrimage here in my lifetime. My grandma's cousin Calvin Cottam came in 1974, so the xerox of his typewritten notes from 52 years ago were part of my research guidelines. We had an extraordinary visit!

Anna Gustava is sometimes surnamed Johnson, as her father's name was Johannes Engelbrekt, and that patronymic would have been simpler in America. But her Swedish surname was Engelbrektsson, There are family legends that they were descended from Sweden's 15th century patriot/rebel Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, but that is (A), not how patronymics work, and (B), the man didn't have any living descendants. There are also legends that Anna was descended from King Gustav, which is more possible since his descendants are numerous, but may just be connected to her middle name similarly being Gustava.

views of Orust arriving in Tegneby

As we drove past golf resorts, a ski resort, historic fortresses, a yacht club, a lake with swans, farmland, cows, horses, and red houses, I wondered how our people traveled back in the day. There are magnificent bridges connecting the islands and mainland now. I've been saying the town name Tegneby wrong all my life. It's more like "Taynabu," with an accent on the last syllable. It's such a tiny place (church, gas station, a half dozen houses and farms) that we should actually be saying that our ancestors are from Orust, or Bohuslän, the western islands north of Gothenburg. 

bringing Anna home

The highlight here was feeling that Anna wanted to show us her homeland in the best light, and in the most surprising ways. The west coast of Sweden is known for being wet and windy, so we weren't sure an autumn visit would be very pleasant. Yet it was the most glorious, equinoctial weather, with bright blue skies and sunshine. The islands lie south of Oslo--the granite outcropped stones and pine trees felt Norwegian, and the land used to be under Norway's rule until the 17th century. There are fjords and national parks nearby, and Tegneby is only a few kilometers from the coast. I imagine the Engelbrektsson family were farmers and fishers and craftspeople. 

"A... Gustava" on a headstone, the church pilgrimage route, 
possible gravel path from Calvin's notes, possible Englebrektsson home location per Calvin's notes

The Tegneby church is one of eight churches on a pilgrimage route for St. Olaf of Trondheim, Norway. Some of the gravestones date to our era, but none of our family have stones there now. There were names of some villagers Anna would have been contemporary with, maybe she babysat or interacted with them. There was another Gustava for a middle name on a headstone. 

It has a nearby gas station, community center, and half dozen farms. Also a museum that was closed, but it had a dried flower maypole leftover from a spring festival that made me happy. It feels like big sky land. We searched for the gravel path Calvin had noted that led to the root cellar of their home, but everything there is newer now. We did find a grass path, and the priests' home they lived in has been redone. (Unclear why someone's record say they lived in the priest's home, was Johannes a priest?)

Perhaps the burning of the Tegneby church felt like one reason for Anna to find a new faith. Perhaps it was that her father recently died, and her brother, finishing his mission in Sweden, was headed back to America. We don't know anything about her conversion, only that she journeyed by ship, the Dakota that left Liverpool on July 21, 1875 (how did she travel from the western islands to reach the ship? up to Oslo? Over to Stockholm or Copenhagen?). From there, she took a train to Salt Lake City. 

And then, working as a cook, the 33 year old Swedish woman made another bold, or perhaps desperate, or perhaps love-induced move, and married a polygamous man two decades her senior. Anna and John Cottam didn't have much time together, as he was on the run in California hiding for two years at his cousin's house, then imprisoned, and busy with other wives. Yet she bore him five children (twins first). It's unknown how much English she learned, although her granddaughter would sometimes imitate a Swedish singsong accent to amuse her kids (my dad and uncle) on long car drives, so something Scandinavian passed down in the family. Anna didn't leave a record of her life. And the genealogical information we do have is somewhat erroneous on FamilySearch. This is a preliminary investigation and commitment to find out more.

Nearby Tegneby, we saw a sign for the Haga dolmen. Less than a mile from Anna's house was a forest path that led to an ancient stone burial site. Did she explore there as a teenager? Do our family roots go back to Iron Age burials? Following the signs we crossed fences, wandered the muddy path, saw mushrooms to forage, and fended off aggressively territorial cows (with the eventual help of their friendly farmer) to escape back to our car. (There are other megalithic sites nearby we didn't have time to see.) 

Haga dolmen

There were coastal water glimpses, decorative red and yellow houses with green or yellow trim, horses, deer, black and white sheep, stone fences, old-fashioned and modern windmills, boats parked by hay bales, just the most picturesque place. We stopped for a lovely outdoor lunch at Sundsby Säteri, a medieval manor house on the island of Tjörn, where I bought some herbal cream in honor of Anna's interests. Anna's grandparents lived on this island.

connecting with Anna: historic clothing, an herbalist garden
the village maypole, foraged mushrooms, our Swedish cook's food

Then we had the most remarkable moment! My fingers were moving on the map just to see what was nearby, and I felt like I was absolutely guided to our next stop: an outdoor sculpture museum in Pilane, which is an Iron Age burial site mixing modern and ancient in a powerful landscape. It has had rotating sculpture exhibits for the past twenty years, but the one permanent sculpture is a 45-foot white head of a woman gracing the top of the hill and presiding over the island. It’s stunning. Her name is Anna. 

What are the odds? I had a special moment communing with my Anna there. I even think the ponytails and face looked similar. 

To top it off, there were Bronze Age petroglyphs at the exit, the Basteröd rock carvings. We then drove through Köleröd to see Johannes' father's village, but didn't find anything historical. It was more hilly, and full of granite boulders that they just build houses and yards on and around. 

And finally, as we concluded our time in Gothenburg, we stopped by Gustavi Cathedral thinking about Anna Gustava. Was she indecisive, like the Swedish stereotype we've learned? Her life choices would indicate no, as she made big decisions. Did she dislike the Danes, as Swedes have done for centuries? Hard to know. She did marry an Englishman and get along well with his Scottish wife. Did she miss her Swedish island, in the Utah desert? Did she love dala horses? Take a fika break, and cook meatballs? I wish I knew. 

But I'm hoping to learn more, now that I have a connection with some Swedish people, the language, and the land. This includes a colleague here with the surname of Engelbrektsson who has pointed me to some helpful research websites (and may possibly be a relative when we figure the lines out, his ancestors are from the same area), a woman whose mother grew up in Tegneby, and another gentleman who is willing to assist with some Swedish research. To be continued someday...

relative Elisa Bird's painting in honor of our shared ancestor Anna

Thank you to Anna, for a glorious day in your homeland!