Need help re: my grandmother """"Bessie"""" Carlso

[Nancy Linder]

My grandmother, Bessie Carlson, was born somewhere in Sweden on 26 Feb., 1882; I am trying to learn where.  She emigrated to the US (Chicago) between 1897 and 1902.  Her parents are said to be Erik Carlson and Anna Erikson. These spellings, as well as the name Bessie seem to have been Americanized,and I imagine her mother's name may have been Eriksdotter as well.  
  In 1903, in Chicago, Bessie married my grandfather, Knut Leonard Linder (originally of Motala, Ostergotland).  I have found his records, but Bessie's remain a mystery.  There is no documentation of her birthplace or her original first name; I'm thinking her name was probably Elisabeth, but I really don't know.  There is an illegitimate child on the 1890 Swedish census in Motala named Bertha Cecilia, born in 1892--her 2nd family consists of an Erik Carlsson, born in 1854, probably her father.  I don't know if this is relevant, but it might fit.
  Knut and Bessie returned to Sweden between 1904 and 1906.  They returned to the US permanently in 1907; a record of that is found on the Ellis Island site (where they are classified as US citizens), but there is no record of their original immigrations, nor of their naturalizations.
  I (and my children) am the only descendent. My father thought his parents came from Goteborg, but he might have been thinking of the port of departure; he was very  young when he was there, an only child, and he died 25 years ago.  I was a small child in 1959 when Bessie died, but I remember a picture she had of 2 older people standing in front of a cottage in the country; presumably those people were her parents.  That picture has  been lost.  I also know she had a sister who also emigrated to the US and settled in MN.  One of the witnesses at Bessie's (civil) wedding to my grandfather was an Aug. Carlson.  Whether that was a brother is anyone's guess.  I never heard that there was a brother in Chicago, and Aug. [August(us)] Carlson was not an uncommon Swedish name at that time.
  My dad was baptized in 1904 at an unknown Swedish-speaking Methodist church in Chicago.  There were many such churches then, and the records no longer exist.  My grandfather's family in Sweden left the state church in 1893(?) and became Methodist.  After my grandfather's death (before 1915) Bessie reverted back to Lutheran.
  Beyond this, I know nothing.  This is everything I know, and I desperately need help and/or suggestions.  Tack  so mycket in advance.
 
Nancy

[Elisabeth Thorsell]

There are records still existing for many Swedish Lutheran churches in Chicago.  
 
Maybe you can find out from your grandmother's obituary which church she belonged to, and then ask at the Swenson Swedish Immigrant Research Center in Rock Island, Illinois, if they have microfilmed copies of the records of that church? If she is found in those church records you have the best entrance to the Swedish records.
 
Also, have you looked for her in the 1900 and 1910 US Censuses?

[Nancy Linder]

Thank you so much for your response.  
 
I have checked the censuses--she did not appear on the 1900 census for Chicago (which doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't there)and the 1910 census only says she was born in Sweden.  I have also hunted extensively for church records, even paying a researcher at the Swenson Center a few years ago, with no results.  There is no useful information contained in her marriage license, her death certificate, or her Social Security application, and I'm running out of avenues to pursue in the US.
 
In exploring my options for seeking information in Sweden, I have a few specific questions:
 
1. Is the name Bessie probably a diminutive of Elisabeth?
2. Having been born in 1882, would Bessie have been likely to have taken her father's (Erik Carlsson) surname or might she have emigrated using the name Eriksdotter? The timeframe is 1900,+/- 2 years. She did use Carlson in this country so I think it's unlikely, but...
3. Bessie probably left from Goteborg.  She left Sweden twice, once between 1898-1902 using her birth name, and again in September of 1907 using her married name, Bessie Linder (traveling with her husband Knut Leonard Linder and their child, Ivar).  Are records of these passages likely to be available somewhere?  
4. Also, Bessie, Knut Leonard, and Ivar traveled *to* Sweden from the US once between 1904-1906; is there likely to be a record in Sweden of their arrival and destination?  
5. In the US at that time, I don't believe passports were required; were they used in Sweden?
 
Again, thank you very much.  Nancy