My great-great-grandfather Johan Håkansson was 17 years old when he emigrated from Sweden to America in 1875. He embarked from Gothenburg on a steamship and settled as a farmer in Minnesota.

I finally found the Gothenburg passenger list for my great-great-grandfather Johan Håkansson who emigrated from Virestad, Kronoberg, Småland, Sweden to America in 1875. This had been a roadblock in my genealogy project for some time. It shows he departed from Gothenburg on August 6, 1875 and travelled by way of Hull. This record wasn’t turning up in searches but I did not stop looking. I know this is him even though his last name is misspelled as Håkanson, his birthplace listed as Virestad, Jönköping instead of Virestad, Kronoberg, and his age shows 18 when he was actually 17. It shows that he traveled with his little sister Ingrid. Although her name is misspelled as Ingri and her age is listed as 11 when she was actually 12 years old. This was also a previously unknown revelation because I was under the assumption he had travelled alone. I never knew the name of the steamship until now either. I had guessed it might be either the Orlando or Rollo but now I know with certainty it was in fact the Rollo!

After I found the Gothenburg passenger list for my great-great-grandfather, I started looking for the passenger list for the last leg of his voyage: the transatlantic passage to America.

But no results on Ancestry or in National Archives. So I tried searching the passenger lists at Archive.org but the search feature kept generating errors. I knew that his trip from Gothenburg to Hull probably took about 2 days and the entire trip took about 3 weeks. So I figured he must have arrived in New York City on or about August 27, 1875. So I started looking through New York passenger lists around that time but found nothing. I manually searched through pages of microfilm for the Port of New York in that date range but also found nothing. So I searched the pre-Ellis Island records at Castlegarden.org but still found nothing. I even searched the Library of Congress old newspapers for ship arrivals but found nothing. I was at a loss at that point after exhausting every effort so I joined a genealogy group and asked for suggestions. That’s when a member of the group provided a possible clue that suggested he may have landed in Philadelphia and not New York. I’d never even thought of that.

So I searched the Philadelphia Passenger List Index. Eureka! There it was. The passenger manifest for my great-great-grandfather Johan Håkansson from his transatlantic voyage to America. His name is misspelled Jno Hokanson instead of Johan Håkansson, his little sister’s name is misspelled Ingre instead of Ingrid, and her gender is listed wrong. Their ages are listed wrong again as 18 years old and 11 instead of 17 and 12. Their nationality is also listed incorrectly as Norway instead of Sweden. Which is probably why I had so much trouble finding it. But I have no doubt this is them.

I now know for certain that he and his little sister left Virestad, Kronoberg, Småland, Sweden, departed from Gothenburg on Friday, August 6, 1875 aboard the steamship Rollo and may have stopped briefly in Kristiansand, Norway, before landing in Hull two days later. They then took a train from Hull to Liverpool, departed from Liverpool aboard the steamship S.S. Illinois, traversed the Atlantic in 2 weeks, arrived at port in Philadelphia on August 22, and completed immigration processing on August 23, 1875. I also discovered their immigration records. They eventually arrived in St. Peter, Nicollet County, Minnesota sometime later.