My 5th great-grandfather Carl Tolf was a master blacksmith (hammarsmedsmästare) or in the words of Google Translate a “blacksmith’s hammer champion“. Carl lived primarily in Lindefors Bruk, Svenarum, Sweden for 60 years.

He was born on this day in 1768 – that was 247 years ago. I have located a number of the Swedish church records in which Carl appears

and frankly wasn’t sure what more I could learn about this direct line ancestor. Then Santa gave me a subscription to ArkivDigital! (Thank you my love.) 🙂

One of the first shiny objects on ArkivDigital that caught my eye was Carl’s estate inventory (bouppteckning), a document somewhat similar to probate records in the United States. This record contains a treasure trove of genealogical information – I can’t wait to read what it says!

For cousins trying to place Carl and me in our family tree:

• my maternal grandmother was Harriette Kathlyn Tolf (1909-1954); one of three children born to
• Julia Christine Thompson (1888-1964) and Harry Wilhelm Tolf (1884-1964); one of three children born to
• Augusta Sophia Landstrom (1858-1936) and Peter August Tolf (1858-1929); one of eight children born to
• Helena Christina Aman (1822-1901) and Carl Tolf (1824-1890); one of seven children born to
• Maja Lisa Lidstrom (1797-1856) and Carl Jonas Tolf (1795-1833); one of at least two children born to
• Helena Jonasdotter Widerberg (1767-1841) and Carl Tolf (1767-1827).

Interested in collaborating on Tolf family history? I can be reached at where2look4ancestors [at] gmail [dot] com.

My 2015 goal for Carl is to translate and transcribe his bouppteckning.

My 2015 organizational goal for Carl is to bring all of his documentation from out-of-date to up-to-date on Ancestry, Dropbox, Family Tree Maker, and in his paper files.

Guess I’d better get busy!