    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
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Information
Resources
Robert A. L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific
Lutheran University
Tacoma, WASHINGTON 98447
Phone: (253) 535-7586 E-mail: archives@plu.edu
New Land
New Lives Oral History Collection
Elsa Anna Maria Nelsson Molund
A Guide to Her Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Molund, Elsa Anna Maria Nelsson
Collection Nr: t229
File Content:
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3 file folders
4 photographs
1 sound cassette
0 compact discs
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Processing Information:
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The
interview was conducted using a cassette recorder. A research
copy was also prepared from the original. To further preserve
the content of the interview, it is now being transferred
to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen
to the interviewee's own voice. The transcription index
highlights important aspects of the interview and the
tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides
and refer to the location of a subject on the cassette/CD.
Interviewed
by Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Restrictions:
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The
collection is available for research.
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Preferred Citation:
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[Collection
Number, Collection Title]
New Land New Lives Oral History Collection
Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection
Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447
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The
interview was conducted with Elsa Molund on February 28, 1983
in Tacoma, Washington. This interview contains information on
personal background, employment, marriage, emigration, adjustment,
church and community life, and heritage. The interview also
includes photographs of Elsa Molund as a young woman, Elsa at
her uncle's store in Kalmar, Sweden, Elsa's aunt and uncle (October
26, 1916), and Elsa at the time of the interview. The interview
was conducted in English with some Swedish throughout the interview.
Also see Erik Molund.
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Elsa
Anna Maria (Nelsson) Molund was born on April 11, 1894 in Resmo,
Öland, Sweden. The Nelsson family, including Elsa's three brothers,
lived in Mossebo, a town near Kalmar. After Elsa, known as Elsie,
went to school and was confirmed, she began working in Kalmar
at her uncle's store. Her family celebrated Christmas in the
traditional way with a decorated tree, customary food, dancing,
and a special morning church service. As Elsie grew up in Mossebo,
she worked as a housekeeper and worked in a hardware store.
She met her future husband, Erik Molund, in school, but he moved
to America for several years. They kept in contact through letters,
and when he returned to Sweden, they got married. Erik wanted
to move back to America, so the two of them left in May of 1922.
They settled in Iowa for a short time and then moved to Tacoma,
Washington. Erik worked in construction while Elsie cleaned
for a store in town. Elsie and Erik had three children-Elmer,
Inga, and Dorothy. Elsie says the hardest thing about moving
to America was learning the language. She returned on a ship
to Sweden for a visit in 1957. Elsie retains her Swedish heritage
by participating in Vasa, helping in the Lutheran church, and
cooking Swedish food. Her son Elmer has taken a particular interest
in Sweden and has visited several times.
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Full Name: |
Elsa Anna Maria Nelsson Molund
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Maiden Name: |
Elsa Anna Maria Nelsson
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Father: |
Karl Nelsson
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Mother: |
Ida Söderman Nelsson
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Paternal Grandfather: |
Edwin Nelsson
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Maternal Grandfather: |
Edward Söderman
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Maternal Grandmother: |
Venla Söderman
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Erik Karlsson
Bernard Karlsson
Sture Karlsson
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Spouse: |
Erik Wilhlem Molund
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Children: |
Elmer William Molund
Inga Marie Molund
Dorothy Bernice Molund
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Molund, Elsa Anna Maria
Nelsson, Elsa Anna Maria
Nelsson, Karl
Söderman, Ida
Nelsson, Edwin
Söderman, Edward
Söderman, Venla
Molund, Elmer William
Molund, Dorothy Bernice
Molund, Erik Wilhelm
Molund, Inga Marie
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Family Names |
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Molund family
Söderman family
Nelsson family
Karlsson family
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Geographical Names |
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Resmo, Öland (Sweden)
Iowa
Tacoma (Wash.)
Mossebo(Sweden)
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Subjects |
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Family -- Sweden
Marriage service -- Sweden
Sweden -- Emigration and immigration
Vasa Lodge (Tacoma, Wash.)
Sweden -- Social conditions -- 1945-
Family farms -- Sweden
Christmas -- Sweden
School attendance -- Sweden
Ocean travel
Stockholm (Steamship)
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Occupations |
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Farms and farming
Domestics
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Genre/Form |
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Oral history
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Institution |
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Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
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The
partial interview transcription highlights important aspects
of the interview. Numbers on the left may be used as guides
to important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate
that the first number is for cassette and the second for CD.
015 Elsa Anna Maria Nelsson Molund was born on Öland, Sweden,
an island not far from Kalmar, on April 11, 1984.
062 PARENTS: Karl and Ida Nelsson. Father was born in Öland.
Mother was born in Mossebo, a town near Kalmar, on the mainland.
Elsie's father took care of the pastor's place. They lived there
as well until her mother became sick. Then they moved to Mossebo
with mother's parents.
133 BROTHERS: Had three brother, Erik, Bernard, and Sture. They
all went to school in Mossebo. Father stayed in the farm in
Öland. Oldest brother was a sailor. He drowned. The second brother
helped out on the farm. The youngest brother stayed with Elsie
at their maternal grandmother's home. All of her brothers stayed
in Sweden.
208 CHILDHOOD: Didn't have far to go to school in Mossebo. The
church was a little farther away.
225 GRANDPARENTS: Maternal, Edward and Venla Söderman. Venla's
daughter, Marie (Elsie's aunt) raised Elsie and Sture. Marie
was married to a man who'd been in America. He had a store in
Kalmar. Elsie worked there when she got older. Paternal, doesn't
remember them. Elise left Öland and moved to Mossebo when her
mother died. Mother died of tuberculosis when Elsa was 9 years
old.
316 SCHOOL: There was a little school not far from where her
grandmother lived. One teacher took care of the whole class.
The older students would help the younger students.
353 CHURCH: Had to go to Visby to get confirmed. Sometimes had
to walk to confirmation class. Had a friend who had a horse.
Sometimes Elsie would get a ride to confirmation class.
373 WORK: After confirmation, Elsie went to Kalmar to work in
her aunt's husband's store.
390 CHRISTMAS: Had a Christmas tree. Had risgrynsgröt on Christmas
Eve. Had cookies, pepparkakor, spritz, coffee bread. Baked bread
in brick ovens. Elsie describes how they did this. They had
kroppkakor, mashed potatoes filled with pork and then cooked
them in salt water. They also had lutfisk. They put presents
under the tree. Made decorations for the tree. Danced around
it. Went to church by horse and sleigh early Christmas morning.
The sleigh bells sounded pretty. After church, they had friends
over for coffee. They had a smörgåsbord on Christmas day. Kept
the tree up for a month. Did a lot of visiting.
533 OTHER SWEDISH TRADITIONS: Had to learn to knit and sew.
Aunt was a seamstress.
553 Father remarried but quite some time after Elsie's mother's
death. Married someone who had been to America. He had a little
farm on Öland that he took care of. Helped other farmers too.
Elsie didn't spend much time with her father.
586 WORK: (See also I-373) Worked in a store in Kalmar. Sold
sugar loaves (sockertopp). Had to chop it into pieces with an
ax. Had to weigh the pieces. Had to cut butter into pieces too.
Syrup came in barrels. Had to open a spout for the syrup to
come out. She left it open one time. When she came back into
the room there was syrup all over the floor. Worked there for
2-3 years. Worked as a housekeeper for a family in Stockholm.
She worked in a hardware store in Stockholm after she quit her
job as a housekeeper.
698 MEETING SPOUSE: They went to the same school in Mossebo.
Elsie did not like Erik at that time. He went to America when
he was young. He wrote her letters. She worked for 1 years.
He came to Stockholm when she was 28 years old. Brought her
home. His parents were living in Förlösa. The man who had the
store in Kalmar bought a place in Borgholm on Öland. Elsie and
Erik got married in Slottskyrkan in Kalmar. "Slott" means castle.
There's a big castle in Kalmar. Elsie stayed with her aunt in
Kalmar before getting married.
780 WEDDING: Wore a dark blue dress. Had her aunt and a friend
stand with her at her wedding. After the wedding they went to
her grandmother's. They took the train there. They had a party
for them at her grandmother's house. Somebody who'd come from
America brought corn flakes to the party. It was something they'd
never seen before. They ate them at the wedding dinner. After
the dinner, the danced to accordion music. Many farmers from
Mossebo came to the dance. They had lots of cookies and kroppkakor.
849 REASONS FOR EMIGRATION: Erik wanted to go back. Elsie wasn't
too excited about it, but she didn't have much family left.
They had their tickets ready before they got married. Left in
May 1922.
890 TRIP TO AMERICA: Sailed from Göteborg (Gothenburg). Nice
trip, but got seasick. Had false teeth. Lost them when she got
sick. When they got to New York, she went to a dentist. He couldn't
help her (the reason is unclear). A dentist in Tacoma, WA fixed
her teeth and she hasn't had any problems since then. Elsie
was only sick once during the trip. Everybody was nice. There
was entertainment on the boat. Erik and Elsie had birthday parties
on the boat. The trip took nine days. The name of the boat was
the "Stockholm." Didn't have to go through Ellis Island.
962 ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK: Thought it was a big city. Took a train
from New York to Iowa. Erik had a brother living there. Erik
had a job putting tile on roofs. Elsie thought Iowa was terribly
hot. The thunder and rain were terrible.
982 MOVE TO TACOMA, WASHINGTON: Didn't stay in Iowa very long.
Erik had relatives in Tacoma so they moved to the West Coast.
They traveled by train. This was during the fall after they'd
come to America. Mrs. Sandin met them at the train station.
They stayed with her for a while. Erik got a job doing construction
work. They moved from the Sandin's when they bought the house
they live in now.
1021 WORK: (See also I-373, I-586) Worked a little. Got a job
cleaning a store in the Washington building.
1033 ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN AMERICA: The language was the most
difficult.
1039 CHILDREN: Elmer is farming. He is married and has three
daughters. He served in the Navy during WWII. Dorothy teaches
school. She's married and has three children. Inga died when
she was 38 years old. She had been married and had four children.
Dorothy is married to Stan Pederman. He works for Tacoma Plywood.
1101 TRIPS TO SWEDEN: Went back in 1957. Nice trip. Went on
the boat. Entertainment on the boat. Celebrated their birthdays
on the boat. Saw childhood home. Many changes. Visited brothers
Sture… (tape abruptly ends).
SIDE II
031 CHURCH: They belong to the Lutheran church. Elsie has helped
with the church's sewing projects and parties.
053 SWEDISH ORGANIZATIONS: Belongs to Vasa. Joined when her
kids got a little older.
079 SWEDISH TRADITIONS: Did a lot of Swedish cooking. Can't
do it anymore. Her children do it for her now. They spoke Swedish
in the home when the kids were small. Elmer spoke Swedish before
he started school. The kids don't speak Swedish now. Elmer "is
crazy about Sweden." He's been there two or three times.
155 SPEAKS SWEDISH.
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