Ida Magdalena Almstrom was born October 31, 1882 in the farming village of Almarod, just a mile or so outside of Skifvarp (now spelled Skivarp). She was one of six children born to Anders Almstrom and his wife Ingrid Persson (earlier named "Persdotter" before standardized names came into use). Her siblings were Ida Mathilda, born October 29, 1878, Anna Mathilda, born July 29, 1880, Alma Karolina born October 2, 1884, Marten Gabriel, born March 24, 1887 and Emma Kristina, born August 29, 1890.
Anders and his family bought a home and a piece of property in Skivarp, where he worked as a master tailor. The house on this property stood until 1983 when it was torn down after becoming very decrepit, there being no family in the area to maintain it. Ida recalled that he had several tailors who worked for him in the shop, which was attached to their home. Her maternal grandfather, Pehr Olsson, also apparently lived and worked nearby, practicing the trade of shoemaker. Ida said he made expensive leather shoes but many people wore the cheaper wooden shoes. Pehr Olsson died October 13, 1892.
Many, if not most, of the family members have seen Ida's description of her early years in "Reflections of Sweden" which is included on this web page. It gives many details of her life and activities and paints a wonderful picture of what her life was like before she emigrated to America.
Tragically, of the five siblings she had, only Ida and Anna Mathilda lived to adulthood. Anders and Ingrid's firstborn child, Ida Mathilda died very early at the age of about 11 months. Then an unknown misfortune struck the family in 1892 when three more of the children died: Emma in February, Alma in May and Marten in November of that year. This was also the year that Ida's grandfather died, in October. Perhaps a deadly influenza epidemic swept the village and killed many of the inhabitants. It must have been extrememly difficult for Anders and Ingrid to bury three of their five remaining children in the space of nine months, plus seeing Ingrid's father also pass away during that time.
It seems by looking through the parish records that most Swedish children left home at about the age of 16. Ida was no exception. In 1897 she moved to the farm of Nils Martensson and Cecilia Olsdotter in Ormolla, a few miles from Skifvarp toward the Baltic Sea. Here she was with many people her age, as the family had two girls, Marian and Hilda, and two boys, Marten and Oskar. Also, they employed four young men, who, like Ida, had left home to work elsewhere. Ida remained on this farm until 1899 when she moved back to Almarod to work on the farm of Bengt Svensson along with a housekeeper and four other girls.
A few years later Ida left Sweden forever and emigrated to America. She left in 1904 aboard the ship "Celtic" and travelled to America with her 16 year old cousin Emil Alm, the son of her sister, Kjersti. Kjersti had married the soldier Jons Alm, whose original name had been Jons Olsson. He was Lars Olsson Ekberg's brother, and therefore Olof's uncle. Since he married Ida's sister, he was also Ida's uncle. We know that Ida knew Olof Ekberg before she left Sweden as she told the immigration authorities in New York that she was going to Sweetwater to be with her friend Olof Ekberg. Olof, at the time, was staying near his sister Louisa. Within a year of arriving in America Ida had married Olof and they began their life together.
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