This past June we went to Sweden looking for family history. My mother's family came from the far north at the arctic circle. My father's parents came from the south of Sweden. (they met in Brooklyn NY) On the south coast of Sweden is a small town called Hoganas where my grandmother lived. I finally met face to face with some internet friends who had been helping with my research. (I can speak enough Swedish to get by) They had sent me the family tree back to 1786 in Hoganas and they also pinpointed the houses where the family lived back as far as 1813. It seems that many people from the ceramics operations in the Hoganas area moved to Worcester MA to work in the ceramics industry (Norton).

In the ceramics museum in Hoganas there are maps and pictures of Worcester on the walls. They call Worcester a sister city. That is probably why my grandparents moved from Brooklyn to Worcester. They most likely had friends or relatives there. Who were they ? Someday I will find out.

My grandparents were Gustaf Algot RUDBERG born 1873 and Maria LARSON RUDBERG born 1874. Gustaf was born in Motala Sweden and moved to Brooklyn New York in 1893. There he met Maria LARSON who had moved from Hoganas Sweden with her mother and brother in 1888. In Brooklyn they married and had a son, Gustaf William in 1896, and then about 1898 they moved to Worcester MA.

Gustaf was a baker and worked at several bakeries in Worcester. In 1898 he worked at H N Jennison & Co. at 122 Millbury St., in 1902 at Archibald H Mitchell's at 120 Green St., Then in 1903 at a bakery at 220 Chandler St. The directories list their homes as 10 Suffield St. and 1 Tufts St. They had a daughter in 1900 but she died young (before the 1910 census). My father, George RUDBERG was born in Worcester in 1903. Maria's mother, Beata LARSON, born in Sweden in 1844, lived with them.

There was a Victor RUDBERG who was also a baker living in Worcester at that time. He worked at some of the same shops as Gustaf but so far I have not established a connection. My mother said that Gustaf Algot Rudberg had a brother who was a baker too. Perhaps the Victor in Worcester was that brother. In addition there was a Caroline Rudberg living in a boarding house at 7 Lund St. and she was listed as the widow of Olaf Rudberg. Was he related ?

In 1905 they moved to Springfield MA. The 1910 census shows them living at 389 Walnut St. and operating a boarding house. Gustaf died in 1912 from lung problems most likely related to breathing flour dust. Later Maria remarried and moved to Bridgeport CT, Philadelphia, Palatine NJ, and Williamstown NJ. The man she married was also from Sweden and he took her family name, LARSON, when they were married. Maria died in NJ in 1933.

I would like to correspond with anyone who has any information about the RUDBERGs or LARSONs in Worcester. Meanwhile I will continue to search for more clues. My address is: