The Emigrant Journey

It was a lot that needed to be organized before the emigrants could commence their journey to North America. It was not just the farm or homestead and other possessions that had to be sold before the journey. There were also other things to be settled, such as fixing permits, certificates etc. before the ticket could be bought and the journey begin. Which certificates that were needed has changed throughout the decades of the emigration period. However, a certificate that was mandatory was the so-called Flyttningsbetyget (The Moving Certificate). This certificate was issued by the local parish minister in the parish where the emigrant lived before the journey.

Flyttningsbetyg - Moving

Certificates

Flyttningsbetyg (the moving certificates) are also known as flyttningsbevis or flyttningsattest in Swedish. When a Swedish person moved from one place to another he or she had to have a moving certificate (Flyttningsbetyg) issued by the parish minister in the parish the person migrated from. The certificate then had to be presented to the parish minister in the parish the person migrated to. So, when a person moved he was crossed out in the household examination roll (Husförhörslängd) of the old parish and entered in the roll of the new parish. A moving certificate was also needed when a person emigrated to another country. The moving certificate primarily contained church annotations about the person in question but also information such as vaccination, tax debts, conduct, right to receive Holy Communion and catechism knowledge. Moving certificates became compulsory in the Residential Registration Act of 1812 (Mantalsskrivningsförordning). A moving certificateIt was available and issued free of charge; however, failure to present a certificate was punished with a fine. In the Parish Registration Decree of 1894 (Kyrkobokföringsförordning) the rules and regulations about the moving certificates were changed and the fine penalty was abolished. However, erring people could be subjected to a fee. It was the migrating person’s responsibility to present the certificate to the parish minister of the new parish.

Flyttningsbetyg - Emigration

Before an emigrant could execute his plan to emigrate he was obliged to obtain a moving certificate (Flyttningsbetyg). The certificate was issued by the parish minister of the home parish. It was a general prohibition for conscripts to emigrate to other countries without permission. It wasn’t that difficult to obtain permission to leave the country though. During the second half of the 1800’s the authorities were generally generous with the permissions. However, at the end of the 1800’s fulfillment of conscription was needed to get permission to emigrate. Without a such exit permit you couldn’t get a moving certificate from the parish minister and thereby not be able to buy an emigrant ticket through an emigrant agent. The Police Departments in the Swedish emigrant ports checked that the regulations were followed and that the emigrants were legal emigrants. From 1884 the emigrants had to present a moving certificate to the emigrant agent before the emigrant contract could be signed and the ticket paid for. The Police Departments of the ports of departure checked the emigrants’ papers to verify that they were legal emigrants. The Police often stamped the moving certificates, for example ”Poliskammaren i Göteborg” (Police Department of Gothenburg). The only possibility to emigrate without a moving certificate was illegal emigration. Normally they then went to Denmark or Norway and from there to the United States. An entry “rymd” (escaped) was then made in the household examination rolls (Husförhörslängd) for these emigrants. Below is a moving certificate for Per Hilmer Johansson who emigrated from Förslöv, Kristiandstad Län, Sweden to the United States in 1904. His port of departure was Helsingborg. Per Hilmer’s certificate does not contain a stamp made by the police. Further down on the page is his emigrant contract and the ship manifests he is noted in.

Flyttningsbetyg for Per Hilmer Johansson dated May 17, 1904 in Förslöv parish, Kristianstads Län, signed by the parish minister. Bottom left is a stamp made by the Parish registrar's office in Förslöv. Row 16 shows the destination, “N. Amerika” (North America). On the back of the moving certificate is space to make notes about possible underage children. Since Per Hilmer emigrated by himself the back was left blank. The certificate is shown with consent of Peter Johnson, New York City, son of Per Hilmer Johansson. Household Examination Rolls: I frequently refer to the household examination rolls in this article and here follows a description of these rolls. A Household Examination Roll (Husförhörslängd (HFL)) was a Swedish church roll or ledger of the parishioners covering a period of 5 years. Every 5th year the parish minister began with a new ledger and transcribed the information from the old ledger to the new one. The rolls were kept parish by parish. The rolls were normally ordered geographically, seldom or never alphabetically. In the rolls we find village by village and within a village farmstead by farmstead, crofts etc. Within each farmstead we have all the family members including farmhands and maids. So, an individual was registered in the roll at the location where he lived. When he moved he was crossed out at the old location and entered in the ledger at the new location. When he moved to a location in another parish he needed a moving certificate, issued by the parish minister in the old parish. This certificate was handed to the parish minister of the new parish where the person was entered into the roll of that parish.

The Voyage Accross the Atlantic

Better Means of Transportation

The early emigrants had to organize the journey to the United States by themselves. There were no passenger ships across the Atlantic at this time. Instead these emigrants had to travel as “ballast” aboard the cargo sailing ships carrying iron. In other words they had to stay in the cargo storage areas. This was not a comfortable way of traveling, the conditions were very bad and the journey could take up to 3 months, or at least 1 1/2 months. These freighters sailed from Gothenburg (Göteborg) to the United States. By the time traveling conditions improved both within Sweden and across the Atlantic. The first railroad line, The Western Trunk Line (Västra stambanan), between Stockholm City on the east coast and Gothenburg City on the west coast, was opened in 1862. Two years later, 1864, The Southern Trunk Line (Södra stambanan) to Malmö City in the south of Sweden was opened. Private railroad side lines connected the major trunk lines. Travel to Gothenburg, the major port of emigration in Sweden, vastly improved with the opening of the railroad. The journeys across the Atlantic also improved for the passengers and could be undertaken on better terms and conditions than before. From the 1860’s there were pure passenger sailing ships and from the 1880’s fast steam ships where the comforts of the passengers were in focus. The traveling time was reduced to between 16 to 24 days. As early as the 1860’s there were steamships under sail though, i.e. steamships rigged with sails. There was no direct passenger traffic between Sweden and North America during the era of the mass emigration. Instead the Swedish emigrants had to travel by ship from Gothenburg to England and from there on passenger ships to the United States. The first direct line from Sweden to the United States opened in 1915; the Swedish American Line (SAL). Via England: From the 1860’s and up to 1915 the Swedish emigrants had first to travel via England. The journey from Gothenburg was undertaken by smaller passenger ships, often by the Wilson Line, across the North Sea to Hull or Grimsby on the English east coast. This journey took 2 days. In 1850 the Wilson Line received the rights to postal traffic from Sweden. The Wilson Line’s ships were green and had all a name ending on the letter ”o”, like Rollo, Hero, Ariosto and Romeo. The image to the right shows an example of the routes from Sweden to USA. Hans Högman 2013. In England the emigrants had to go by train from Hull or Grimsby to any of the major ports of departure; Liverpool, Southampton or possibly Glasgow. Here they boarded the big transatlantic liners with destinations of New York or Boston in the United States or Quebec and Halifax in Canada. New York was however the major port of arrival for the emigrants. An example of shipping lines that brought emigrants from England to the United States is Inman Line, Cunard Line, White Star Line, Allan Line and Guion Line. The Wilson Line was the major shipping line on the route from Gothenburg to England. Liverpool with Pier Head was the major port of emigration for most of the European emigrants. The image to the left shows a view of Pier Head in the port of Liverpool where the Atlantic Liners landed. The landing stage at Pier Head, where the people in the photo are, was a floating pier with footbridges up to the quay. The image to the right shows Pier Head, Liverpool from the sea with The Three Graces which are the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building plus the Anglican Cathedral in the background. Free image Wikipedia. The first United States Consulate in Europe actually opened in Liverpool in 1790.

The Emigrant Agents

A factor that affected the raising of the mass emigration was the many emigrant agents. The agents helped the emigrants with all practical arrangements necessary for the journey to the United States. They were in other words a kind of travel agency. The agents commonly worked together with one or more emigrant shipping lines. The different shipping lines usually had a general agent in Sweden. Each general agent in turn had several subagents all around Sweden. The subagents had representatives in most parishes. All agencies were organized in a similar way and thereby covered practically every corner of Sweden. Like today’s travel agencies the emigrant agents had to deposit a certain amount of money as a guarantee for their services. The emigrant agents simply made it easier to emigrate to the United States. The agents’ representatives handed out leaflets and posted up placards. It was through these leaflets and placards the intending emigrants got their information. The shipping companies rarely made any directed propaganda about the travels but distributed leaflets with travel information and guaranteed their own shipping company’s splendid qualities. The agents and their representatives then distributed the leaflets around Sweden. From the United States there was also activity and propaganda directed to Europe to attract emigrants to America. The different American states granted free land or sold it at a low cost with terms that outdid each other in attraction. The American railroad companies also tempted immigrants with cheap land. This was land they didn’t need for the tracks and sold it to the immigrants. The railroad companies were interested in getting communities to grow alongside the tracks and thereby attract passengers to the trains. The image to the left shows the Swedish American Line's (Svenska Amerika Linjen - SAL) ship SS Stockholm in the New Yorks harbor entrance. From 1915 SAL operated a direct line from Gothenburg (Göteborg) to North America. Hans Högman 2013, own collection. Example of Emigrant Agents: The Inman Line's general agent in Sweden was Frederik Nelson with office in Gothenburg. Nelson had divided Sweden into 18 districts and in every one of these he had subagents. The subagents had in turn representatives around the districts. Bröderna Larsson & Co: Another example is the Guion Line’s general agent Bröderna Larsson & Co (The Larsson Brothers & Co) who had many subagents around Sweden. One of the brothers, Elis Larsson, emigrated himself to the United States in 1873 and therefore had a personal experience of emigration. In the US he met another Swede, Bo Christian Roos af Hjelmsäter, and together they established a company that became an agent for Guion & Co in Liverpool. Larsson returned to Sweden and managed the business from Sweden while Roos managed the business from the United States. However, the cooperation between the two partners ended in 1877. Elis Larsson reconstructed the company in 1878 and invited his two brothers Samuel and August Larsson to become joint owners with him. In the beginning, Bröderna Larsson & Co was a local Gothenburg company but in 1881 they expanded their business to other parts of Sweden. The three brothers managed their own office in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö. Elis F. Larsson was the President of the company and accounted for the Stockholm office, Samuel Larsson for the Gothenburg office and August Larsson for the Malmö office. In 1882 the agency had 220 subagents around Sweden. Not only did they have many extra subagents in Värmland, Kronoberg, Kristianstad and Älvsborgs Län but also in Norrland and Finland. You had to apply for permission to the authorities to work as an agent in Sweden. This had to be done for each Län the emigrant agent operated in but permissions were not difficult to obtain. The subagents usually received a commission of 5 SEK (the Swedish currency) for each emigrant who made a down payment on their ticket. Furthermore, people who had already made up their minds to emigrate were often used by the agents to attract additional emigrants. If these emigrants managed to gather a group of about 20 emigrants they could be rewarded with a free ticket. It was also common to use Swedes who had already emigrated to the United States to attract even more people to emigrate. These Swedish-Americans would then send prepaid tickets to relatives and friends in Sweden. Also Swedish-Americans who made a revisit to Sweden were used to persuade more to emigrate. These visiting Swedes, often referred to as Yankees, also received a commission, often a higher one than the subagents. They could get as much as 10 SEK per emigrant. Another benefit was free first class tickets for each journey they made with emigrants. It was a keen competition between the different shipping companies’ agents.

Passenger lists

In 1869 Sweden adopted a law that required the registration of emigrants leaving Sweden and thereby we saw the birth of passenger lists. Emigrant agents were thereafter obliged to keep passenger lists, i.e. to draw up emigrant contracts and enter the emigrants into special lists. These passenger lists were then handed over to the Police Departments at the ports of departure. The Police ticked off every passenger on the lists when the emigrants boarded the ships. Over time the agents’ service to the emigrants improved, like meeting the emigrants at the railroad station and accompanying them to their offices, etc. An important source of income for the agents was the exchange of currency. They also sold checks to emigrants who didn’t want to carry much cash. To avoid being robbed on the journey the agents also sold special money belts to the emigrants where they could hide their money, the so-called ”Amerikanske penningbältet” (American money belts).

The image above is an extract from a passenger list from the Gothenburg Police Department (Göteborgs poliskammare) and shows Swedish emigrants departing Gothenburg, Sweden, on the Wilson Line steamship Rollo with destination Hull, England on July 30, 1880. In the column to the far right, Bestämmelseort (Destination), we see that a few of the emigrants are going to the Bishop Hill Colony, IL, USA. Source: Göteborgs poliskammare (-1900) (O) EIX:16 (1880-1880) Bild 200 / Sida 37.

Gothenburg (Göteborg) - The Major Port of

Emigration

Sillgatan in Gothenburg was the number one emigrant street (The street was renamed to Postgatan in 1895). Sillgatan stretched from the Central Station to the harbor and Stora Tullhuset (The Grand Customs House) and Packhusplatsen (Storehouse Square) where the "Amerika piren" (the America quay-berth) was located. All the major transatlantic shipping companies had their offices along this street. Here, the different emigrant agents’ offices were also located. Around 1869 there were about 10 emigrant agencies represented in Gothenburg. For anyone wanting to do business with the emigrants it was of great importance to have their offices or stores at Sillgatan. Prior to 1869 there were really no laws or rules restricting the ways the agents conducted their businesses. Board and lodging in Gothenburg was not included in the emigrant ticket. The emigrants had to pay for their lodging separately. The agents urged the emigrants to arrive in good time before the departure to America. We are not talking about hours now but days. There were therefore plenty of lodging houses on Sillgatan and on its side streets. These people who were taking lodgers wanted as high profit as possible and the emigrants were often fooled to hire poor lodgings. Sometimes the rooms were more than overcrowded by emigrants. A lodging house on 44 Sillgatan with 8 rooms once accommodated 103 emigrants. That’s an average of 13 people per room. The new emigrant act of 1869 also had a paragraph about how many emigrants were allowed to be lodged per room. The letters that overstepped the allowed amount were fined 5 Riksdaler (the Swedish currency at the time). When the new rules came into effect in 1869 the agents began to cooperate and established special “emigrant hotels”. The rooms offered included beds and sheets and blankets and were offered at a price of 25 öre (100 öre = 1 krona), [25 öre was about 3 US cents at the time]. Also included in the price was breakfast that consisted of coffee and dried bread. One hotel also offered an "amerikansk-svensk språkskola" (American- Swedish linguistic training course). See also The Swedish monetary system The image to the right shows Wilson Line's ship the SS Romeo in the harbor of Gothenburg, circa 1895. The SS Romeo was launched in 1884 and used on the route Hull (UK) - Gothenburg until 1904. Free image Wikipedia. When the emigrants were quartered and had settled their business with the emigrant agents there was time to shop for what they possibly would be in need of during their first time in the United States. There were plenty of stores on Sillgatan and its side streets who sold commodities which could be handy to have on the journey and during the first weeks in America. This could be clothing, shoes, tools, etc. These stores often claimed that it was better to do this shopping here in Sweden since it was much more expensive in America, which they, of course, claimed to promote their business. Sillgatan was a lively street where things always happened. Here were musicians, good fortunetellers, acrobats, conjurers, etc. There were also plenty of bars and cafeterias. However, the emigrants who did not watch out could lose both money and tickets. The entire Sillgatan was decorated with banners and flags when ships arrived or departed. When stores in central Gothenburg closed for the day, stores, bars and cafeterias on and around Sillgatan remained open.

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