Christensen family of Manawatu, NZ

The Swedish Family of Ola Persson Dahlström

Ola (or Ole) Persson Dahlström, the adoptive father of Lydia Nicoline Christensen (daughter of A.C. and M. Christensen), was born on 3 May 1842, in Ottarp parish, in Malmohus lan (i.e. Malmohus county), Sweden. His parents being Per Olsson, a farmer, and his wife Sissa Hansdotter. In October 1857, he left the home of his parents in Kingelstad, in Ottarp parish, to work at a progression of different places around Malmohus. 

At first he worked as a farmhand in Vram parish (1857-1859). He next moved on to Morshog, in Bjuv parish (1859-1860), then to Saxtorp village in Saxtorp parish (1860-1865), to Kvarlov in Saxtorp parish (1865-1866), and then finally he returned to his former employer in Saxtorp village. He remained there until January 1870, at which time he left Sweden for Jutland in Denmark.

Thereafter his specific movements are less easy to trace. Certainly, though, he married the Danish-born Perine Martine Osterby on 7 August 1870 at Braband Church, in Arhus province, Denmark. They appear then to have returned to Sweden, as certainly he received his trade certificate as a bricklayer at Lund, Sweden, on 26 August 1872. Despite not yet having been tracked through the Swedish records since 1870, the Danish Emigration Archives state that the couple emigrated from Sweden, via Copenhagen, on 17 September 1875. 

It is possible that this lack of information is explained by a family tradition that he lived under another name at some period. The story goes that he either stole, or was accused of having stolen, a horse. This type of alleged activity certainly did not accompany him to New Zealand.