Pearson - Maria Christine

[Liz Chater]

Hello listers,
 
After 5 long years, I have recently discovered from various ship manifests, that Lady Maria Christine Chater (nee Pearson) listed her place of birth sometimes as Sala, and other times as Granberga Heby. I do not know the difference between these places, nor where they are geographically, or what
they were like historically in 1874.    I believe her to have been born in
May 1874.  Her father was Lars Pearson, a merchant.  She also had 4 sisters and a brother, they were:
 
Emma Pearson
Hilda Pearson married unknown LINDSTRUM
Erica Pearson married unknown ERICSON
Anna Pearson married unknown SCHEDIN
Peter John Bennett
 
She also had a niece called Agnes Matilda SWANSON
 
Whatever her beginnings were, her married life, right up until the time she died, was indeed a very gilded and opulent life.  From around 1890, she lived in a magnificent mansion in the hills of Hong Kong with her extremely well known, well liked and extremely successful husband, Sir Catchick Paul Chater who was orphaned at 7 in Calcutta when both his Armenian parents died within 2 years of each other.  Maria Christine's early life has been almost impossible for me to trace, so I thought the best place to start would be here with the list. Maria Christine and Sir Paul Chater never had children.
 
If anyone has anything that they might care to pass on, or indeed any ideas as to where I can start searching properly for her early life in Sweden, I would be extremely grateful.
 
Best wishes
Liz Chater
Chater in India?
Please go to www.chater-genealogy.com

[Ingela Martenius]

Hello Liz,
 
I think Lady Chater maybe simplified things a little.
Sala and Heby are two small towns some 100 kms (abt 60 miles) northeast of Stockholm (the capital of Sweden). They lie less than 15 kms (10 miles) apart; in fact the municipalities today share a border, although Sala is in the province of Västmanland and Heby is in the province of Uppland.
Granberga is/was a tiny village (by village I mean a couple of farms together) in the parish of Huddunge which today lies within the municipality of Heby. Huddunge by (by = village) is a proper little village with a church.
If Lady Chater was born at Granberga, she was born in the parish of Huddunge in the county of Västmanland (this is most important, everything is done by parish here).
I suspect Lady Chater felt that she had to say Heby or Sala because these places (especially Sala) can be found on a map - you have to have a very good map indeed to find the small village of Huddunge. Sala was once quite an important place since one of the most important mines in Sweden was located here, a silver mine. So chances were that some of her husband's business associates had at least a vague idea about Sala.
Today Sala has less than 14,000 inhabitants, Heby has abt 2,700 inhabitants. Huddunge parish has abt 500 inhabitants, which means that the village proper has even fewer people living there.
 
Here is a link to some pictures of preserved typical houses of this area:
http://www.sala.se/moklinta/gammelgarden.htm
 
Unfortunately, the records for the county of Västmanland are not completely online yet. Since this is the case and since I live in the wrong part of the country I cannot search the records for you.
Maybe someone else here lives in Uppsala where the physical records for Huddunge are kept?
 
If you don't get an answer here within a few days, you can email the regional Archive in Uppsala (in English of course) and ask them to look for the birth record:
landsarkivet@landsarkivet-uppsala.ra.se
 
Ingela

[Liz Chater]

Dear Ingela
 
Very Many thanks indeed for replying, I very much appreciate you taking the time to do so.  I think Lady Chater simplified a lot of things in her life - particularly her age, so I suspect you are spot on with your assessment!  I think I shall email the archives anyway, and see what they say.  Many thanks again
 
Liz Chater