Mr Carl Peter Widegren was born 6 March 1861 in Högsrums Parish, Kalmar County, Sweden, to worker Johan Gustaf (b. 18 October 1830, d. 5 November 1888) and Ingeborg Elisabeth Jaensdotter (b. 24 November 1828 in Algustrum's parish, Kalmar County) who had married 23 April 1858 in Algutsrum, Kalmar, Sweden.  

Carl Peter Widegren registered with the Sailors' Institute in Sweden in 1882, indicating he had started a seagoing career in his late teens or early twenties.

Carl married Paulina Gustafva Olsdotter (b. 17 March 1856 at Algutsrum) on 29 December 1885 and had two sons by her; Carl Gotthard Ivar (b. 21 May 1887, d. 7 January 1900), and Gustaf Gunnar Hugo, (b. 6 August 1888).  Tragedy soon struck the small family when Gustaf died on 29 August 1888, only three weeks old, and then Paulina died 29 April 1889.

In 1890, he was recorded as a  widowed seaman living with his son Carl Gotthard Ivar in Algutrum's parish.

In 1900, he was still living in the same parish, but alone, as by this time his first-born son, Carl had also died. By 1904 the vicar in his home parish seems not to have known where Carl Peter was living and on 18 November 1904, he was entered into the book of ''non-resident parishioners'' (bok över obefintliga). It seems likely that Mr Widegren had moved to England at some point after 1900 but before mid-1903, because in late 1903, he married Olga Edith Sutherland (Söderlund; b. 20 February 1882 at Algustrum), a secretary, in North Shields, Northumberland, England.

In 1905 Carl and Edith had a son whom they named Charles Edward (b. 10 June 1905 in Tynemouth, England). This son was later a fostered for a time in the family of Anders Fredrik Carlsson (b. 1852)  and his wife Emma Kristina (née Söderlund, b. 1841). Ms Carlsson, née Söderlund, seems to have been Edith's mother, and hence Charles' grandmother.

Carl and Edith Widegren travelled to the USA together in 1906; they left Liverpool, England, 19 September 1906 as steerage (i. e. third class) passengers on the steamer Majestic and were destined for Brooklyn, New York, where they arrived on 26 September. Mr Widegren was still listed as a mariner.  For a time they lived at Garfield Avenue, Jamaica South, New York (℅ Mrs. Erickson).

Carl Peter seems to have returned to Sweden in November 1909, and stated to the vicar that he had married – he said it was a civil marriage - a lady in England and that they had a son, but that his wife was staying in America for the time being.

In 1910, Carl Peter was back in Algutsrum's parish and is listed as a married former seaman, which might indicate he had retired from his seagoing life. His wife did not live with him in the household at the time. Mr Widegren was 5' 1½'' tall, had black hair and blue eyes. His son Charles came to Algutsrum from England 30 November 1911 and the vicar in his home parish noted that he was born in England to Carl Peter and Edit Olga Söderlund – he also noted that the child allegedly had been christened in England.

In 1912, Mr Widegren was returning to the USA, and left Gothenburg in early April, his first stop on his long journey being Hull, England, from where he travelled to Southampton to join the Titanic.

Widegren died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

The Mansion House Fund paid 1329.33 Kr (£73) to the son on 23 January 1913 and 3188.50 Kr (£175) damage claims were paid 10 June 1914. Both sums were held in trust by Mr Carlsson, the son's guardian.

As for Carl's wife Edith, in what must be one of the swiftest remarriages of a Titanic widow, she was remarried on 30 June 1912 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Her next suitor was a fellow-Swede named Arvid Anders Lybäck (b. 1874), a plasterer. Arvid, a widower with several children, had emigrated in 1891 and Edith was to be his third wife. They lived in Wakefield, Massachusetts and the 1920 census shows that Edith was joined by her son Charles in America for a time. By the 1930s Edith and her husband were living in Columbia, New York; she died there in 1935 and was buried Martindale Cemetery, Martindale, New York. Her widower Arvid took another wife before the close of the decade and remained in New York for the rest of his life before his death on 6 April 1961.

Son Charles returned to Massachusetts in October 1912, accompanied by his mother. He later moved to New York and worked as a carpenter before becoming a writer of fiction under the name Ed Lybeck (the anglicized version of his stepfather's surname).

He was married in 1933 to Ruth Augusta Larsson (1908-1964) and raised a family and later settled in Los Angeles. He died there on 26 June 1965 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.