The Carl Fritz Ulrick and Petronella Christina Ehrenberg Stormfeldt Family

Glovemakers of Malmo, Sweden

Carl (Karl) Fritz Ulrik Stormfelt or Stumpfeldt was born 16 August 1810 in Simrishamn, Kristianstad, Sweden to Carl Ulrik Stumpfeldt and Catharina Petterson or Stromberg of Swedish descent. Carl Ulrick Stumpfeldt Sr. was born in 1782 and came to Sweden from Demmin, Prussia. He may have lived in Demmin, but not born there.

Malmö, Malmöhus, Sweden in the southern-most province of Scåne, Sweden welcomed the Stormfeldt family to its shores in the 1700s. Its mild climate certainly would have been inviting to those looking for a home—a place to work and rear a family.

Carl [Jr.] was listed as a handskmakare or a glover, one who makes gloves. He also was a sailor, clockmaker and laborer. Carl  married Petronella Christine Ehrenberg on 23 February 1834 in Sankt Petri Fors, Malmö, Malmöhus, Sweden. Petronella Christina was born 22 March 1810 in Caroli, Malmo, Malmohus, Sweden to Michael Ehrenberg and Hedvig Magdalena Salonius, a woman of Finnish descent. Petronella had also lived in Ystad, Sweden. 

The Ehrenbergs could have been originally from Germany--maybe even German-Jewish. But from looking only at Petronella Christina’s name we can tell that the family at the time of her birth were of a Christian faith.

If the early Ehrenberg’s were Jewish, they were not legally welcomed into Sweden until the late 1700s and those who desired to settle in Sweden had to convert to the Lutheran religion. During the centuries preceding the Stormfeldt’s and Ehrenberg’s arrival to Sweden, Malmo, Sweden had fully converted to Lutheranism.

As one looks at a family group record of the Stormfeldts, it can be noted that of the four parents of the couple Carl Fritz Ulrik Stormfeldt and Petronella Christina Ehrenberg only one bears the more traditionally known Scandinavian suffix son or dotter in their last name.

Together the couple had seven children with six living to adulthood:

• Hedvig Magdalena born 1834
• Hedvig Maria born 1835
• Hendrika Charlotta born 1837
• Carl Fritz born 1840
• Johann Fredrik born 1843
• Johanna Henrietta born 1847
• Lars Christian Oscar born 1850

The children of Carl Fritz and Petronella were given the surname of Fritzsson by the Sankt Petri Fors Parish in Malmo, but family records only list the surname Stormfeldt.

Sankt Petri Fors Parish in Malmo

Carl Fritz Ulrik Stormfeldt died on 22 August 1850 in Malmo, Caroli, Malmohus, Sweden. We do not know how his family was supported after his death. But it is clear that during the decades of the 1850s and 1860s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came into the lives of this family.

Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in southern Sweden in the early 1850s. The first branch of the Church in Sweden began in Skönabäck in April of 1852 and soon after a branch was organized in Malmo. In June of 1853 the Skäne Conference was organized. It was from this conference that the Stormfeldt family would enjoy their Church membership.

Missionary from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preaching in Scandinavia

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden were persecuted. One of the reasons was the fact that the Church drew people away from the state-supported Lutheran church. In those early days, many Church members emigrated to Zion where they could enjoy living in a society of people who shared their faith. About one-half of all LDS converts in Scandinavia emigrated to the United States. On one occasion a member of the riksdag [parliamentary] was discussing the evil members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how they enticed people away from Sweden. He produced as evidence an LDS hymn about gathering to Zion. The response was, "So? Lots of churches sing about Zion." The man replied, "Yes, but the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really believe in what they're singing."

Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proselytizing in Sweden accelerated during the 1850s, finding its greatest success in the southern province of Skåne [where the Stormfeldts lived]. More than two thousand emigrated each decade from the 1860s through the 1880s. The early arrivals in Utah came largely from agricultural settings.

Hedvig Maria Stormfeldt joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 29 April 1851. She remained the only member of the Church in the Stormfeldt family for many years until her sister Henrika Charlotta followed on 7 May 1860, then brother Carl Fritz on 25 December 1861 followed by their younger sister Johanna Henrietta on 14 August 1862. We know their mother Petronella Christina and brother Johann Fredrik were also baptized in Sweden, but their dates are unknown.

In Sweden one of the Saints remembered, ““Everywhere among the Saints, the next year’s emigration is almost in their every thought.” Many Swedes changed their names upon arrival in the United States, whether for the sake of convenience of spelling, the desire to anglicize their names, or the need to drop Swedish names that in English had a peculiar sound or a derogatory meaning. As for the Stormfeldt family, their name was seen in Utah as Stormfelt, but when the sons lived in California, the name was changed to Stormfield. Carl changed his first name to Charles and Lars Christian Oscar went by Oscar Christian. Hedvig Maria went by Maria or Mary, Hendrika Charlotta went by Charlotta and Petronella Christina was called Christine but Johanna continued so.

Petronella Christina emigrated Sweden with her son Carl Fritz on 1 June 1866 leaving from Hamburg on the ship Cavour and entering New York City on 31 July 1866. They joined the Joseph S. Rawlins Company to complete their journey across the plains and entered the Salt Lake Valley on 2 October 1866.

It is likely Petronella Christina lived with or around the area where her daughter Henrika Charlotta and her husband Andrew Peterson lived on K Street in the Avenues of Salt Lake City, Utah. She must have been a beloved mother as each child who had daughters named one either Christine or Christina. She died on 2 December 1871 in Salt Lake City and is buried in the pauper's section of the Salt Lake City Utah Cemetery in an unmarked grave.