Carl Wilhelm Rud

Carl Wilhelm was Born April 6, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was baptised at Hedvig Eleonora församling on April 10, 1833. He was placed in foster care by his 29-year-old birth mother on December 4, 1833, when he was almost 8 months old.

At this time it was illegal to have an illegitimate child in Sweden, as decreed by the King. To avoid the fine, some orphanages allowed unwed mothers to anonymously give their children up for adoption or put them in foster care, giving only their age and occupation, sometimes an address. So far all we know of her is that she was born about 1803/04.

Carl Wilhelm could have been the illegitimate son of elected Swedish King Carl Johann XIV, aka Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (hence the name Carl), or the illegitimate son of Carl Johann's son, King Oscar I. Oscar I was well known to have had many mistresses and some of their names are public record (like Jaquette Löwenhielm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquette_L%C3%B6wenhielm and Emilie Högquist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_H%C3%B6gquist ). The illegitimate children were often given up to middle class families. Our family story is that Carl Wilhelm's mother likely worked in the Stockholms slott or Kungliga slottet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_in_Stockholm . In any event, many people in our family look uncannily like many people in the Swedish Royal family and to a lesser extent the Dutch Royal family.

Carl Wilhelm was fostered and re-abandoned several times by different families. The final family who adopted him at age 6 was headed by a soldier named Daniel Rud.

He learned the trade of master shoemaker and made his living. He emigrated to Norway where he met his future wife, Ana Katarina Hansdottir, another Swede. They married and settled in Fredrikstad, having three children.