Johanna Ahlin
Mrs. Johanna Persdotter Ahlin was a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Johanna Persdotter Pettersson was born on Wednesday, June 21st, 1871 in Västermo, Södermanland, Sweden. She was the daughter of a crofter, Per Larsson Pettersson and his wife Anna Stina Larsdotter who was a native of Arboga, Västmanland, Sweden. The couple had married on September 26th, 1869 and went on to have ten children of which Johanna was the eldest.
Her siblings were; Emma Sofia, born in 1873, Carl Oscar, born in 1875, Augusta, born in 1877, Charlotta, born in 1879, followed by Per Viktor in 1881, Emma Christina in 1883, Olof Arvid in 1884, Johan Emil in 1886 and Hulda Maria was the last in 1889.
Sometime in her life, she moved to Ojä, Södermanland, Sweden. This is where, on June 17th, 1894, she got married to Lars Johan Karlsson Ahlin, a fisherman. The couple had a total of six children, sadly four of them died in infancy; Hilda Josefina in 1894 but she died the next year. Their second daughter was Anna Augusta in September 1895, but she had died in October the same year. Third child was Wendela Teresia, born in Octobe 1896 but died within a month just like her sister and then Karl Ivar was born in 1897, to die only two years later.
Their last 2 children survived childhood, they were Sven Gunnar, born in 1899 and Johan David in 1901.
On August 3rd, 1903, Lars left Sweden to try and build a new life for his family in America. After nearly two years of savings by working as a cement labourer, he finally came back to Ojä to collect his family. They traveled to Liverpool, Merseyside, England where, on March 28th, 1905, they boarded the SS Ivernia as Third Class passengers.
On April 6th, 1905, they arrived at Boston, Massachusetts, United States. From there, they traveled to Chicago, Illinois, United States and went to live with Lars's brother Victor at 94 Sedgwick Street for a while. In 1910, the family lived at 2051 Belle Plaine Avenue in Chicago and Lars was by then described as a stock keeper in the dairy industry. The family were never official citizens of the United States.
In early 1912, Johanna went back to Sweden to visit her parents on their farm in Närlunda. While in Sweden, she managed to convince her youngest brother Johan to come and live in the United States. So, on March 18th, 1912, the duo left for a journey to Southampton. They first took a train to Göteborg, Västergötland, Sweden where they boarded a ship to Southampton.
Titanic[]
For their crossing to the United States, they booked tickets for Third Class on the Titanic. Johanna's ticket was number 7546, which cost her £9 9s 6d. They boarded the ship on April 10th, 1912.
On April 14, at the late night, Titanic found an obstacle on her way as an iceberg was spotted at the last minute but couldn't be avoided in time. The result was collision on the starboard side, which opened up small gashes in her hull below the waterline. The seawater flowed into the ship very fast. Inspection was carried out and 5 minutes after midnight, the ship's highest officer decided that they needed to after the ship's designer's mathematics led to the conclusion she would founder in less than 3 hours.
Titanic sank and broke apart at 2:20 A.M. Both Johanna and Johan were lost in the sinking and their bodies, if ever recovered, were never identified.
After her death[]
The Mansion House Fund paid £48 to Lars and their sons with a further £39 42s in damages paid to her Lars on June 4th, 1914. On June 3rd, 1916, Lars remarried to Sophie Swanson. The couple lived in Chicago before moving to Lake County, Illinois, United States and never had children. Sven never got married and worked as a timekeeper until his death in 1939. Johan worked as a clerk and remarried to Eleanor Christopherson but had no further children. He died in 1983.