Frans Olof Carlsson : Titanic Victim

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Mr Frans Olof Carlsson, 33, was born 29 September 1878 in Glava, Arvika, Värmland County, Sweden.

His father was the late Karl Magnus Nilsson, a skipper and farmer born 18 September 1835 in Glava parish, Värmland, and his mother Karolina (nee Magnusdotter; born 2 April 1833 in Glava.¹ His occupation was noted as 'mate sailing vessel' and he was said to have come to the USA in 1902. He had a sister and an aunt in Arvika, Sweden and a half-sister in Brooklyn, Mrs Caroline Carlsson.

In April 1912 he was to join the American Line's St Louis but because of the coal strike the ship was stuck in Southampton so the company gave him a first class ticket back to New York on Titanic.

Carlsson died in the sinking, his body, if recovered, was never identified. Land that he owned in Elmhurst, Long Island went to his heirs.

''In an attempt to clear up the estate of Frank Olaf Carlson, who perished in the Titanic disaster of 14 April last, Public Administrator Randolph White of Queens County, from his office in Jamaica is sending enquiries to banks in Manhattan and Brooklyn to get at trace of Carlson's various accounts.; Adminstrator White having learned that he had accounts in several financial institutions.

Before shipping on the Titanic, Carlson had been third officer on the steamship St. Louis of the American Line. Carlson had friends in Elmhurst, where he is said to have owned some property. They have found mortgages and a deed belonging to the dead man, personal effects worth about $3,000 and a bankbook showing that he had an account in the Seamen's Savings Bank. He is also believed to have had accounts in the Emigrants industrial Bank and the National Bank. In the latter institution, it is said that a portion of his father's estate, amounting to about $10,000 was deposited to his credit last March. Administrator White is also seeking to trace a sister of the dead man, who is said to live in Europe, and a stepsister who is believed to be in Manhattan.'' - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 29 July 1912, p. 7

Memorial to Frans Olof Carlsson
(Courtesy of Peter Engberg)

Notes

His parents had married 3 April 1875. His mother had died in 1888 and Karl Magnus had married again; his second wife was, remarkably, also Karolina Magnusdotter (b. 12 October 1851 in Arvika). The second marriage took place 17 November 1888. Frans had four siblings; Anna Lisa, born 18 May 1875, and Kristina Antonia, born 4 February 1889. A brother, Karl Vilhelm, was born 6 April 1891, and Maria Sofia, b. 22 May 1895. The younger siblings were born in Karl Magnus' second marriage. In 1890, the family employed a maid, Kajsa Eriksdotter, aged 51. In 1910, he lived at 321 50th Street in New York City, as a boarder with an Anna Lupman, a widow of German ancestry aged 60.