Mary Tifft Froelicher’s mother died when she was just over two. She always gravitated to her mother’s Swedish parents who ignited her interest in her Swedish ancestry. Following a career as a public health nurse and later a home health nurse, she spends much of her time researching and writing about her Swedish roots.
Mary Tifft’s “momma” died when she was just two. Missing her mother’s love, she gravitated to her mother’s parents, Swedish immigrants Anna and Carl Hallberg. In college, she went to Europe for the first time and visited her grandparents’ home in Utterbyn, Värmland, Sweden. There she met several second cousins who have become lifelong friends, and found records of her grandparents’ departure from Sweden in the parish church, igniting in her a lifelong passion for discovering her Swedish roots.
Carl Hjalmer Hallberg and Anna Elisabet Jonsdotter, the parents of Beatrice Hallberg Tifft, were immigrants from Utterbyn, in Värmland, Sweden. They settled in North Minneapolis in the early 1900s. This is the story of their ancestors.
Beatrice Hallberg was born to Swedish immigrants Carl and Anna Hallberg in Minneapolis in 1908. She became a teacher, and later married a young doctor, Cyril Tifft, with whom she had two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. She died suddenly at age 38, leaving Cyril without his beloved Bea, to raise his two little girls.
Mary Tifft’s mother died when Mary was twenty-six months old. Her father valiantly tried to find a suitable housekeeper to take care of his motherless daughters and his home but for more than six months housekeepers came and went through a revolving door. During that time, Mary was more-or-less unsupervised. This is the tale of the capers she got into with the neighborhood kids, and the mischief she introduced her new step-brother to when her father remarried.
Before 1900, many Swedish families used patronymic surnames which changed every generation based on the father’s first name. Patronyms make it difficult to trace Swedish ancestry. This is a guide to finding your Swedish ancestors through Swedish church records.
