Stina Lisa Andersdotter (1825-1882)

Biographical sketch composed in 1984 by Lillie Ingaborg Jensen Memmott, a granddaughter of Stina Lisa Andersdotter.  Guy L. Black edited the original text to correct dates and names and include additional history from materials found in parish records.

Stina Lisa Andersdotter was born on March 5, 1825 in Nyagjerde, Rydaholm, Jönköpings-Län, Sweden.  The following day she was christened in the Lutheran church by her parents, Anders Nilsson and Catrina Israelsdotter (age 24).

She married Johannes Abrahamsson, who was also a member of the same parish in Rydaholm.  They lived in a humble log house in Rydaholm, in very poor circumstances.

Stina Lisa was the mother of six children:  Anders Johan, who died before he was two years old; Christina; Anna Lisa; a second son named Anders Johan; Emma; and Inga Lisa.

Stina’s husband died when Inga Lisa was two years old.  On the night of his death Stina Lisa walked to get help.  She left her children at home alone in their beds.  Inga Lisa remembered being awakened by the crying of her older sisters.  She asked them why they were crying, and they told her that their father was dead.

For more than nine years after the death of her husband, Stina Lisa was left alone to raise her family of five children, which was not easy.  Sweden was a very poor country, and very little work was available.  Stina Lisa had to work in the fields, doing man’s labor.  This was very strenuous and hard on her, but her employers were satisfied with her work.  She worked hard, but often went hungry.  She had to see her family suffer for lack of food.  She suffered more at seeing her children go without food than she suffered by going hungry herself.

After years of struggling to feed her family by herself, Stina Lisa married again.  On December 29, 1876, she married Anders Kristoffersson, a local native of Rydaholm, who was more than sixteen years older than her, and age sixty-seven at the time of the marriage.  Anders was a widower, whose prior wife died just ten months before his marriage to Stina Lisa.  Anders was reportedly not very good to Stina Lisa.

When Inga Lisa was about sixteen years old, Stina Lisa became very ill.  A large lump was growing on the top of her head.  They did not have any doctors to help her; but a woman in Sweden claimed she could remove the lump.  After enduring the pain from the lump for a long time, she finally let the woman cut into the lump.

Stina Lisa was never well after that; she endured a great deal of pain, including pain that spread to her stomach.  A short time before she died, her feet became very cold and she was very thirsty.

To ease her mother’s thirst, Inga Lisa ran out to the well to get water for Stina Lisa.  When Inga Lisa returned from the well, her mother was screaming from the terrible pain in her stomach.  She did not have any doctors or hospitals to help her.  No pain medications were available to ease Stina Lisa’s suffering.  She was forced to just lie on her bed and suffer in agony until she died.

Just before she died, Stina Lisa told Inga Lisa, “Always be true to God.”  Those were her last words.

Stina Lisa Andersdotter died February 20, 1882 in her humble home in Rubblarp, Rydaholm, Sweden.  She was buried in a white waist and a black skirt.  Inga Lisa’s brother was in the service of his country.  Her sisters lived in Denmark.  They were unable to attend the funeral.  She was survived by her second husband.[1]

[1] Vital Records, Cemetery, and Obituary Sources:  Birth Certificate:  Volume C:5, Födde 1781-1860, p. 349, entry 5 for March 5, 1825, Rydaholm Parish, Jönköpings-Län, Sweden.  Family History Library Microfilm No. 136462. Genline GID No. 1126.27.84900.  This is the official parish birth record for Stina Lisa Andersdotter.  Marriage Record:  Volume C: 6, Vigde 1781-1860, p. 268, entry 6 (March 25, 1849), Rydaholm Parish, Jönköpings-Län, Sweden.  Family History Library Film No. 136462.  This is the official parish marriage record for Johannes Abrahamsson and Stina Lisa Andersdotter.  Death Record: Födde, Vigde, Döde, 1882, p. 317, entry 5, Rydaholm Parish, Jönköpings-Län, Sweden; Genline GID No. 100006.86.11400. This is the official parish death record for Stina Lisa Andersdotter.  Grave Location and Cemetery Directions:  Unknown.  Obituary:  No known obituary.