My great-grandfather, Karl Gustaf Elg and his wife Kristina Jansdotter (both seated) outside their home at Hagge, Sweden, some time around the turn of the last century.
The tall young man is my great-uncle Axel Elg.

Introduction

This project started out as a search for my family roots. Somewhere along the way, as I got in touch with others sharing the same roots, the project got turned on its head, and is now a story about some of the descendants of our oldest known common ancestor, Pål Larsson Turpoinen, who moved from Finland to Säfsnäs, Sweden around 1620. Most of the story focuses on descendants of his great-great-great-grandson Petter Jansson, who took the family name Elg sometime in the early 18th century, most likely as a sign of becoming a master blacksmith.

Partly because of how the story unfolded, partly because of my personal interests, this has also become a social history of how Sweden developed from a backward corner of Europe to a modern industrial nation by the mid 20th century. This modernization did not come without a price. In the second half of the 19th century, close to one million Swedes - one quarter of the population - emigrated to the US in search of a better life. This included a major share of the Elg family, and a large part of this website is dedicated to telling their stories.

New: I have added a much expanded section under "Emigration", on Emma Fredrika (Bork) Burke and John Lindstrom , based on new information from Georgia Lewis. Emma was the daughter of Christina Elg and Johan Bork.

Navigating this website

The website is divided into four sections:

Early history tells the story of life in the iron-making districts of central Sweden, from Pl Larsson Turpoinen to the mass emigration in the late 19th century.

Emigration contains the stories of some of the Elg family branches in their new country.

Swedish family branches (not yet developed) will continue the history of some family branches in Sweden, and provide contact with others researching the Elg family and related families.

About the author gives you a little background about my own family, interests and history.

Family tree gives you access to detailed information about how we are related.

Clicking on a high-lighted name will get you directly to that person´s page in the family tree (use your web browser´s "Back" button to return)

At the bottom of each page is a navigation bar which gives you direct access to each page within a section, and a link to the overall table of contents.

Acknowledgements

This story could not have been told without the help of many who have traced various parts of the family history. My own role has mainly been to bring it all together.

Last updated 03-12-22, 13.17