THE LARSON COLLECTION
From a family in Sweden to a household in Duluth. Follow the names on both sides of the letters.
Their children · siblings
BEHIND THE NAMES
Open a chapter when you want to stay a little longer.
In August 1908, Erik’s letter belongs to the Sweden side of the story. By February 1910, he supplies a Duluth address. The journey lies between those points.
There is no passenger manifest in this example packet. Naming a ship would make the story look complete while making the evidence worse. The collection instead says plainly what the letters support.
The first American letter has a practical purpose: an address where the next reply will reach him. A family event that later feels momentous appears here as a problem of keeping in touch.
A real extension of the research would compare departure records, passenger lists, and later immigration statements. Any candidate would need to match more than a familiar name.
Two similar names are not enough to identify one person. Here the connection rests on the invented letter’s own statement, its reference to the same parents, and the continuity of the family packet.
Erik says he writes Larson “here.” The album retains Larsson as another recorded spelling. It does not turn this one sentence into a general story about immigration officials changing names.
The 1912 wage entry uses Larson too. It places a carpenter of that name in Duluth at that moment. The family references do more of the identity work than the occupation alone.
A real source log would preserve each record’s spelling exactly as written, then explain why the entries are believed to refer to the same person.
The family register records Erik and Ingrid’s marriage in June 1913. Anna follows in April 1914 and Martin in October 1917. Those entries give the household its next generation.
The register does not say how the couple met. It does not establish Ingrid’s route to Minnesota or her parents’ names. Her unanswered questions remain hers; they are not filled by borrowing Erik’s story.
Anna’s later memory places Ingrid beside the family letters, keeping them together in a biscuit tin. That is a recollection of care rather than a record of a ceremony or a birth.
Together the register and the remembered tin show two different kinds of inheritance: relationships that can be named, and habits that kept the paper trail alive.
Anna remembered being told to keep the envelopes. A letter’s page can carry a story, but an envelope can preserve an address, a date stamp, or a married name.
In this imagined collection, the addresses create the timeline’s firmest travel boundary. They are modest pieces of evidence with a useful job to do.
The album does not claim that every letter survived. Missing years remain missing. A neat folder assembled later can hide the breaks unless the source notes make them visible.
The next family task would be to keep fronts, backs, and enclosures together when scanning. Record who held the papers and what that person knows about them before separating anything.
Erik writes in August using Larsson.
S1The February letter uses Larson and names his family connection.
S2One dated entry records Erik’s work.
S4The family register gives 12 June.
S3The register names her as the couple’s daughter.
S3A second child appears in the register.
S3The family list gives 1967.
S6Her letters remain with the family in the imagined story.
S4The memory preserves a habit of keeping envelopes.
S5PHOTOGRAPHS & KEEPSAKES
These genuine archive photographs illustrate the collection. They do not show the fictional Larson family.
The six genealogy exhibits below are invented for this demonstration. Real projects link findings to real records. The archive photographs are credited separately.
The fictional letters place Erik in Sweden in August 1908 and Duluth by February 1910. Their family references connect the spellings Larsson and Larson within this example. No passenger vessel, port, or exact arrival date is established.
S1 · Personal correspondence
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-01, invented letter dated 20 August 1908, signed Erik Larsson: “Mother Karin, Father Nils — I will write when I have an address.” The letter is placed in Sweden in the demonstration.
It gives a last dated point before the journey, not a departure date.
S2 · Personal correspondence
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-02, invented letter dated 14 February 1910: “Dear Mother, The address below will find me now. Tell Father I have kept the little notebook. I write Larson here, but you will know it is me. Your Erik.”
This creates a name-spelling link within the fictional case. No actual letter or passenger record is represented.
S3 · Family register
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-03, invented family-register transcription: Erik Larson and Ingrid Berg, married 12 June 1913; Anna, 4 April 1914; Martin, 8 October 1917.
It names parents and children. In real research, a later register would be compared with original records.
S4 · Work record
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-04, invented wage-book abstract dated April 1912: Erik Larson, carpenter, Duluth. A family note gives Erik 1884–1967 and Ingrid 1890–1975.
Evidence for one period of work only; it does not establish his first job in America.
S5 · Family recollection
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-05, invented recollection dated 1982: Anna recalls Ingrid keeping letters in a biscuit tin and telling the children not to discard the envelopes.
Attributed memory, not proof of travel dates. No claim of an actual interview.
S6 · Family record
Fictional demonstration exhibit. Larson packet, L-06, invented family-list transcription: Nils Larsson 1849–1928; Karin Holm 1854–1931; their son Erik 1884–1967. Anna 1914–1998; Martin 1917–1990.
These dates are invented demonstration data. Nils and Karin’s parents are outside the selected scope.
Compared the dated correspondence. After August 1908 and by February 1910 in this fictional case.
Search actual migration records if this were a commissioned case; no vessel is claimed here.
Correlated named parents, the letter’s explicit statement, and the later work entry. The exhibit packet supports the connection.
Keep both spellings in any later record searches.
Checked the register and recollection. The packet establishes her household, not her migration.
Treat her origins as a separate question with a separately agreed scope.
YOURS TO KEEP
Save the interactive collection, read the printable report, print the family-tree chart, or download the complete project.
Erik’s father in Sweden
1849–1928
Nils Larsson was Erik’s father in Sweden. When Erik wrote from Duluth in 1910, he asked his mother to tell Nils that he had kept the little notebook.
Erik writes in August using Larsson.
S1The February letter uses Larson and names his family connection.
S2The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S1 The last letter from SwedenS2 The first Duluth addressS6 The earlier generationFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
The mother receiving the letters
1854–1931
Karin Holm was the mother at the other end of Erik’s letters. He wrote to her before leaving Sweden and again with an address in Duluth where the next reply would find him.
Erik writes in August using Larsson.
S1The February letter uses Larson and names his family connection.
S2The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S1 The last letter from SwedenS6 The earlier generationS2 The first Duluth addressFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
A carpenter with two spellings
1884–1967
Erik wrote Larsson in Sweden and Larson in Duluth. His letters connect the two spellings and trace a journey between 1908 and 1910. A later wage entry places him at work as a carpenter.
Erik writes in August using Larsson.
S1The February letter uses Larson and names his family connection.
S2One dated entry records Erik’s work.
S4The family register gives 12 June.
S3The register names her as the couple’s daughter.
S3A second child appears in the register.
S3The family list gives 1967.
S6The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S1 The last letter from SwedenS2 The first Duluth addressS4 The address beside the wagesS6 The earlier generationS3 A household beginsFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
Keeper of the letters
1890–1975
Ingrid and Erik married in June 1913, and Anna and Martin followed. Anna remembered her mother keeping the family letters in a biscuit tin and reminding the children to save the envelopes.
The family register gives 12 June.
S3The register names her as the couple’s daughter.
S3A second child appears in the register.
S3Her letters remain with the family in the imagined story.
S4The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S3 A household beginsS4 The address beside the wagesS5 Anna’s box of envelopesFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
The daughter who kept the envelopes
1914–1998
Anna was Erik and Ingrid’s eldest child. She remembered the biscuit tin and her mother’s rule about envelopes—a small household habit that helped preserve the family’s addresses and dates.
The register names her as the couple’s daughter.
S3The memory preserves a habit of keeping envelopes.
S5The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S3 A household beginsS5 Anna’s box of envelopesS6 The earlier generationFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
Anna’s younger brother
1917–1990
Martin, born in October 1917, was Anna’s younger brother. The family register connects him to Erik and Ingrid. This collection has little about his later life, leaving his story open for further research.
A second child appears in the register.
S3The demonstration exhibits supporting this profile:
S3 A household beginsS6 The earlier generationFictional sample profile. People, dates, stories, and genealogy exhibits are invented.
