Since the early 1960's various members of the Forsgren family have worked at tracking the descendants of the Forsgren siblings. A great deal of the ground work for this effort was done by Elias Peter Forsgren, a son of Peter Adolph Forsgren by his second wife Elise Thomassen. Others have carried on the work and we continue to do so today. The list is, of course, only as complete as the information provided to us by Forsgren descendants. We would love to have any contributions of your paper family group sheets or Personal Ancestral File email attachments.
To protect the privacy of living individuals I will not post the descendancy chart to this blog. I will be happy to send a copy to any family member who wishes to contact me and who can provide information concerning their own rightful spot in the family.
As of 1 Sep 2012 the descendant list contains 1228 individuals and 393 marriages and is 18 pp. long. There are large holes where information is needed since we are now into the 9th generation (from father Johan Olaf Forsgren), yet I do not have family records for some branches of John Erik's family beyond the 5th or 6th generations.
Sooooo...... please get a copy of the descendant's list, see where YOUR family stands, and help us fill in the gaps!
Dedicated to making available the research and history of John Erik Forsgren, first LDS missionary to Sweden & member of the Mormon Battalion.
John Erik Forsgren was a great force for good and growth for the early burgeoning church membership. It is stated by those who knew him then that he embraced the doctrine with great zeal and preached firm and fiery sermons. He led a group of Saints across the ocean and into the Salt Lake Valley, encouraging them and admonishing them all the way. He served in the Mormon Battalion.
It is also true that later in his life, for reasons we don't totally understand, he became disenchanted with the Church - or more accurately, with some of its leaders. He began to be very vocal in his statements against Brigham Young whom he felt had cheated him out of a land inheritance due him from his service in the Battalion. At this point people said of him that he became cantankerous and a religious fanatic. He set up a tent on the East Bench of Salt Lake City and began preaching his own form of religion. At first he had followers, but over time lost the attention of local residents and was ignored. Tragic events occurred in his life which are referred to in other blog posts. He died in great poverty after living for a time in Idaho, then wandering homeless in Utah - a nonmember of the Church he had earlier embraced with such zeal.
This part of the story is, of course, very distressing to his descendants who for many years did not want to talk about the last years of his life. But I feel that accurate history is honest history. Not addressing an unpleasant event does not change the event. What was, was. What OUR responsibility is is to not judge. We did not walk in his shoes or live inside his head. It is our job to look at the entirety of the life of this unique man, admire him for the incredible contributions he made and not be overly critical of things we don't know much about. John E. kept a huge journal of his life. The greatest tragedy for us is that that 720 page manuscript has disappeared and we can't know all that he related in it.
This blog was created for the purpose of setting forth all the information about John Erik Forsgren that I have been able to glean from as many sources as I could. It is very much a work in progress. It is my hope that his numerous and wonderful descendants might contribute, correct, question and help verify any data I have included here...and, that ultimately this be a means of reaching out to others who want to know more of this man. I have come to reverence and respect him as I have worked on details of his life and the individuals connected to him by blood and marriage. As keeper of the Forsgren Family Association Archives it is my great pleasure to offer up what information we have. Believe me, there is nothing that better "turns our hearts to our fathers" than researching details and events of their lives. Enjoy!
Adele Manwaring Austin, July 2010
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What a blessing! I am a descendant of John Erik Forsgren and live in Boise, Idaho too! I was SO excited to find your blog and see your most recent entry about John E. Forsgren. I am preparing for a talk in my ward for next Sunday on the importance of following the direction of the Lord and his leaders. I had read about John's excommunication from the Church and I wanted to relate the story of how a once dedicated member of the Church had fallen away and that this is a sad story that we will hopefully learn from. I don't know the details of the story, but your blog has helped immensely! I first heard this story in the records at Nauvoo when we visited there. Thank you so much for your work and for sharing it!!
ReplyDeleteEvaly A. Poole (descendant through Sarah Geneva Forsgren/Charles William Forsgren/John E. Forsgren
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ReplyDeleteHello Adele, I was wondering if you could email me a list of John Erik's Descendants. I recently went to Nauvoo and found the names, Anna C.H. Forsgren and Jonathan O. Forsgren on the wall of the "Exodus to Greatness" meaning that they died on their journey to the Salt Lake valley. I was wondering how they are related to JEF. My first thought was Jonathan O. Forsgren is his father, but he made it to Salt Lake so now I'm just confused. Thank you!
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