Ivar Sjögren (1887-1918)

Birth
Karl ‘’Ivar’’Rickard Sjögren was born on February 7 1887 in Ronneby parish, Blekinge county - as a twin to Nanny, dead July 3 1918, drowned between Hampstead and Port Washington on the american East Coast.

Parents
Karl Magnus Sjögren (1853-1938) Vilhelmina Judith Amanda Sjögren b. Englander (1855-1943).

Siblings
Karl Henrik Louis (1880-1966) Ruth Amanda Naëmi (1884-? >1912) Nanny Amanda Natalia (1887-1981), Ivar´s twin sister Ester Amanda Linnéa (1882-1966 Karl Hugo Albin (1888-1964)

Emigration
Ivar was enrolled in the Swedish Navy at Karlskrona, Blekinge before he emigrated. Owing to a hearsay he got involved in a fight with some person of command, ran away from Karlskrona and soon after emigrated to the USA.

Death and Burial
1918, at 31, he was a captain on board a so called sandship, operating along the american East Coast. The ship was owned by ‘Goodwin Gallaghers Sand and Gravel Co, 21 East 41 St Franklin Building, New York’. During the night before June 3 1918 the ship was anchored some distance from the shore between Hampstead and Port Washington, about 30 miles from New York. Ivar and a shipmate is said to have visited a party ashore. Intending to reach the ship rowing a small dinghy they capsized and drowned, though they both were good swimmers. Their bodies were found half a mile from the ship after 8 days and buried on June 12 at Nassau Cemetery, Port Washington N. Y. In a letter posted in New York July 18 1918, his sister Ester (living in the USA since 1900) writes to the father in Sweden about Ivar´s death. She tells that she and the sister Ruth had met and planned to see Ivar in New York, when they got the message about his death. They were told that the funeral had been arranged by a norwegian girl named Agnes Foss. a friend or maybe his fiancée, but unknown to Ivar´s family. On June 16 Ester and Ruth had visited the cemetery and found the graves, decorated with simple wooden crosses, both with “K. S.” encarved.