This Sunday will mark the 100th anniversary of my grandfather's
emigration from Sweden. Karl Henriksson, age 18, accompanied by his
brother Johan, age 24, left Göteborg (Gothenburg) on March 10,
1902.
(Their brother Adolph had emigrated in 1900.) Their first stop was
England, where they then sailed from Liverpool, leaving on the
Campania (of the Cunard Line) on March 15. They arrived at Ellis
Island in New York on March 22. One record says that their
destination was Madison, Wisconsin; another lists Chicago.

Here is the link at ellisislandrecords.org to view the passenger
record:

http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/search/passRecord.asp?
MID=14886580210023947648&FNM=KARL&LNM=HENRICKSON&PLNM=HENRICKSON&RF=4&
pID=102738090197

Here is the link to view an enlargement of the original ship manifest
(see line 12, "Henrickson, Karl"):

http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/cgi-bin/tif2gif.exe?T=k:\t715-0261
\t715-02610370.tif&S=.5

Karl Viktor Henriksson was born on June 4, 1883, in the town of
Torbal, in Lur parish, northern Bohuslän (just south of the
Norwegian
border). On the ship manifest of the Campania, he is listed as "Karl
Henrickson." The spelling of his name later was changed to "Charles
Henrickson" (and "Viktor" somehow became "Wiktor").

Charles W. Henrickson settled in Chicago and became a member of
Trinity Lutheran Church of the Augustana Synod. He was a house
painter by trade and the landlord of several buildings. He and his
wife Alma had one son, Leroy Walfrid Henrickson, my father. Leroy
died when I was one year old. We lived next door to my grandparents,
and so Grandpa Henrickson became the man who had the most influence
on my life. He was a faithful Christian, active in his church, and a
good role model. He died at the age of 89 in November, 1972, when I
was 19.

Johan Henriksson moved back to Sweden, to Torbal, where at least two
of his grandchildren, Hans Henriksson and Kurt Henriksson, still
live. Adolph Henrickson became a pastor in the Augustana Synod. (In
fact, he was the pastor who baptized me.) The other siblings,
Josefina, Mathilda, and Halvord, all stayed in Sweden.

Much of this information I discovered in the last few days by doing
some searching on the Internet. The actual date of emigration I
found out just last night. I'm glad to have learned it in time for
the centennial this Sunday, and this is a nice way for me to
celebrate my 49th birthday today.

Charles Henrickson
henricksonc@...
Affton, Missouri