The Soldiers in the Photos: A Family’s Quest Through Lost Names and New Lands.

A journey through archives.

Last week I was contacted by a person named Håkan Bergquist from Malmö, Sweden, and he told me a very interesting story about his two ancestors who were soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War.

With some background information from Håkan I decided to write a small article about how it can be trying to find information about ancestors when initially not having all the present facts in hand.

It started with photos which were found in the household albums but with not much facts connected to them, until they looked at the back side of the photos. Here they found some names, and the hunt for more information could begin.

I have earlier described stories about families researching Swedish born soldiers who emigrated to North America. The descendants tried to find more information about the fate of the soldiers, but did not succeed. In those cases the emigrants changed their names and surnames when they arrived to their new country, which made it hard to find information in the archives.

In this situation Håkan’s family had a similar quest to solve when they tried to find more information about the military background of the soldiers in the photos.

Behind one of the photos below they found the text as follows:

“Detta är vår äldste son 1st Sergt Carl J.A.B Collins vidt de amerikanska trupperna i Frankrike sedan Sept 20 1917”

Translated into english it says as follows:

“This is our eldest son 1st Sergt Carl J.A.B Collins with the American troops in France since Sept 20 1917”

The family of today knew that their ancestors had emigrated to North America. The Brandquist family emigrated from their home in late July 1901. They left Malmö on August 15, 1901, passed Liverpool in the UK on August 20th, 1901, and arrived in Boston on August 30th, 1901, after have been travelling on the steam ship “Ultonia” from the Cunard Line.

Below some snippets from the Swedish church book and from the American census documents. In the document from the Swedish church book we find the parents, the mother Mathilda Fredrika Brandquist (Larsson) and the father Frans Oscar Brandquist, and all the children.

Here we can find the name Karl Jacob Amandus, and this could be our Carl mentioned above. In the documents the names of the other children are stated as well, such as Annie Mathilda Fransina, Fredrik Ossian Hyginus and Kate Mariana Persina. We can also find the name of the foster son Johan Peter Herbert, the son of Gerda Elisabeth Larsson. Gerda was the sister of Mathilda. Johan Peter joined his aunt Mathilda and his Grandmother, Anna Larsson, to North America.

However, I can’t find Johan Peter in the American census documents, and Håkan has no more information about the fate of Johan Peter. His mother, Gerda, died in Malmö on December 9th, 1932.

From the American census documents I can read out that the family was settled in Manchester, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, and later moved to Jamestown, New York, where they lived in 1925. Already in the American census document their names were changed as Frans became Frank, Karl can in the document be found as Carrol, Fredrik as Frederick and Kate as Katie, just to mention some of them.

Frans and Mathilda still lived in Jamestown when they died. Mathilda died already in 1949 and Frans died in 1961. Below some photos of Frans and Mathilda from Ancestry.

When Frans died in 1961 he left three daughters, three sons, 20 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren. Imagine what a large family.

Back to the soldiers

When looking at the text on the photograph of the soldier mentioned above, Håkan asked himself if Carl J A B Collins could be Carl Jacob Amandus Brandquist Collins. When he tried to find more documents connected to the military history of this person he was happy to have found the name Collins, which could lead him to more documents. Carl can be connected to the following documents.

Carl served with the 1st Motor Mechanic Regiment, in the 9th Company, and could have been involved in mounting Liberty Trucks which were mounted in the area of Bordeaux, France. Carl was drafted on June 5th, 1917, and was called upon in September 1917. He was a mechanic in his civilian life, and probably attended more classes of education in the Military School for mechanics in autumn 1917.

As stated in the document Carl had changed his surname to Collins which made it hard for Håkan to find data about Carl, after have been searching with the surname Brandquist in the beginning. The reason for why Carl changed his surname to Collins is unknown.

However, there were more military information to find about other individuals in the family of Brandquist.

When Håkan searched for and found the passenger lists from the American Expeditionary Force, where Carl was mentioned, he also found information about one of the other sons in the family, Fredrik Ossian Hyginus Brandquist. He was listed as Fred I Brandquist in the passenger lists, but he was also later to be found with the surname Collins in other documents.

Fred went on serving in the American Army already in March 1917, at the age of 19. In May 1917 Fred joined the Headquarter Company in the 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st US Division, in which he belonged through his service in the American Expeditionary Force.

Some of Fred’s actions are mentioned in the citations of the 1st Division General Orders No 94, from December 13th, 1918. Below a snippet from the document. It is not mentioned from which date or situation it is from, other than it was from the actions around the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Below a photo of Fred. On the photo Fred is flanked by his sisters Ebba and Florence Brandquist, born in the USA, Ebba in 1906 and Florence in 1907.

On the photo we can see the medal with all the campaign clasps, showing in which campaign he served in during his service within the American Expeditionary Force in France and Germany.

Fred (Collins) Brandquist got married in 1926 with Marie Simon. He was at the time a baker, a thing he learned after the war. They live in Jamestown as well, according to the American census documents. In the draft for the second world war, he gave the date of birth to be January 11, 1896, to make him two years older, which means that he stated he was 44.

Håkan has learned from earlier family contacts in the USA, that Fred one day left the home and never came back, and according to the contact in the USA, who also met Fred’s wife, Marie, knew where he went. They know that he applied for “Social security” from a destination in the state of Oregon. Maybe Fred was affected in some way from his service in the war, which may explain his actions. We will never know.

Fredrik Ossian Hyginus Brandquist, or Fred J Brandquist, as we have learned that he served under during the Great War, died as Fred Oscar Collins (Brandquist) on November 15th, 1963, in Deschutes, Oregon, in the USA.

Karl Jacob Amandus Brandquist, or Carl J Collins, the name as we have learned that he served under during the Great War, died as Carl Joseph Collins, on March 15, 1983, in Newport, Orleans, Vermont, in the USA. So Jacob later became Joseph on his headstone.

Researching Swedes who emigrated to North America and became soldiers in the Great War can be quite challenging, which can be learned from the facts mentioned above. I am glad that Håkan took contact with me, to give me much more insight about how it can be trying to find the history of the ancestors, when it comes to changing the surnames after emigration.

May Carl and Fred, as former soldiers in the Great War, rest in peace.