Skywalker Family

December 20: UPDATED: SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen The Force Awakens yet.

One tricky thing doing family history is when you look into the church books and it says: F.ather: unknown. And that is not only in our universe... So, I am a Star Wars fan. Well, I don't have tickets for the premiere today of The force awakens but I've seen the movies plenty of times and I like them. I enjoy going to sci-fi events and I've met Dave Prowse which of course was a really, really cool moment.

With the help of Wookieepedia I tried to create the Skywalker family tree. As with the tricky Father: Unknown, it is the same with the father of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, who was he? That is really a huge brick wall.

Anyway, before known as Darth Vader his name was Anakin Skywalker, the son of Shmi Skywalker but no-one seems to know who his father was. Now, the Y-DNA of Anakin would be a really cool thing to have, right?

Anakin married Padmé Naberrie aka Padme Amidala. She died when giving birth to Anakins' and her twins, Luke and Leia. It was about the same time as Anakin, very badly wounded by Obi-Wan Kenobi, was saved by Sheev Palpatine and turned into the Darth Vader we know. Palatine also lied to Darth Vader saying that it was Darth that was the one who killed Padmé.

To hide the children from Darth Vader and the dark side, Leia was adopted by Bail Organa and his wife Breha. Leia grew up on the planet Alderaan.

Luke was taken care of by Owen Lars and his wife Beru (Whitsun) on the planet Tatooine.

Owen Lars, was the son of Cliegg Lars who later was married to the mother of Anakin, Shmi Skywalker making Owen Lars and Anakin Skywalker stepbrothers.

In the Expanded Universe of Star Wars you will find the children of Han Solo and Leia: the twins Jania and Jacen Solo and their younger brother Anakin Solo. You will also find Ben Skywalker, son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. I have added them to the tree as well.

UPDATED December 20 2016.

So, today I saw The force Awakens and after that I have updated the tree with what is in the Star Wars Saga and not the Extended Universe.

Tuesday Tip - My favorite productive tool

This spring we got ourself a new gadget which have turned into my favorite productivity tool. It helps me getting my family history research done.

Well, I guess you all know sometimes it is hard to get genealogy time. So much other stuff that needs to get done. Sure, I can do the cleaning and dishes later but then I don't enjoy the research as much, knowing what I *should* be doing. Sure, I could start with the cleaning and then I will be tired when it is time for research and the motivation I felt to start with is gone...

At our home vacuum cleaning is a struggle. First of all, the dog gets way to excited when the vacuumcleaner comes out. He hunts it, barks at it making dust and dog hair whirl around even more. Second it doesn't get done as often as it should with a dog in the house. And third, even if it looks so nice when it is done, it is totally boring doing it.

So, I did some research and bought a vacuum clearer robot. I picked one that is specially for pet owners and that can handle the dog hair. I also picked one that doesn't randomly go over the room but that does it in a structured way, almost as I would have done it myself. We named him Brutus. If we let Brutus clean every day we only need to do some vacuum cleaning ourselves about once a month (and then it almost feels like a funny thing to do). Perhaps he misses a spot one day, but the next day he takes care of it.

It also made us do our home "Brutussafe". No messy cables laying around behind the TV, all nice and tidy now. Every morning when I get up and have made the bed, I put Brutus in the bedroom and close the door. I sit down and have my breakfast while he cleans the room, under the bed where I can't reach unless crawling on the floor. 10-15 minutes later he is done.

For me, this vacuum cleaner robot has really helped me being more productive and getting genealogy stuff done.

And on top of it, a robot vacuum cleaner is the "Christmasgift of the year" in Sweden.

Cleaning with a smile on the display

Wedding Wednesday - Blomberg in Brandenburg, Germany

Most of my more or less distant ancestors that emigrated went to the US. I have spent quite some time digging into on-line American genealogy resources so I find when its says America in the Moving to-column in the Swedish church books rather exciting.

Also, some of them went to Denmark. Not too bad but I haven't really had the time to dig that much in the Danish archives. But when it says Germany I feel it might just as well said "the moon" and I quickly turn around and away from that brick wall.

That is way I rolled my eyes when my 26-year old Carolina Blomgren with her six-month baby-girl born out of wedlock Anna Mathilda went to Brandenburg, Germany in 1880. That was the last thing I would see about them I thought.

But then suddenly, weeks later, the leaves began to shake at ancestry.com, record hint about Anna Mathilda. And it was a match.

Anna Mathilda Blomgren, born in Karlskrona, Sweden, November 16 in 1879 on October 22 in 1904 married Ferdinand Friedrich Christian Krüger in Prenzlau, Brandenburg, Germany. The record also states she is the daughter of Karolina Hangohr, born Blomgren.

Suddenly I find some more matching records. Ferdinand dies in December 1916 and Anna Mathilda married Johan August Max Lasser on May 2 in 1919.

I notice that in some records Blomgren is spelled Blumgrenn and that generates even more records. Carolina had a son, Wilhelm Ernst Hangohr in 1884. And he got married in Berlin 1909 to Johanna Ernestine.

Thanks to that first marriage record, my German immigrants doesn't feel like such a big brick wall anymore.

The databases on Ancestry.com where I found the information:
Prenzlau, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1923
Prenzlau, Germany, Births, 1874-1901
Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920

Sympathy Saturday - Dead on the ground

Dead on the ground is noted as cause of death of 73-year old Stina Svensdotter in Djursdala, Sweden. It seems like she disappeared on October 10 and on Christmas Eve her body was found. The body is mutilated and torn by predators writes the priest in the death-and funeral book.

The priest in Djurdala has written pretty detailed, much more than I am used to find in those areas I usually research.

She was born in the parish of Horn and the house Erstorp. Father was Sven Persson and mother Annika Svensdotter. Married 1770 to farmhand Johan Danielsson.

The funeral is on New Years Eve in 1809.

Her husband dies in 1813 of "vattusot", an old Swedish word meaning oedema.

Sorting Saturday - Organizing my DNA-relatives

You know, you got your huge list with DNA-relatives and trying to figure out how they are connected to you. I tested with FamilyTreeDNA September 2013 and I have been struggling on how to organize my matches in a clever way to find out our common ancestor.

If you are lucky, there is a tree attached to your match, but that is not always the case. And I understand why. A lot of people have relatives tested but are only interested in their common matches  to verify a certain relationship and don't add tree to every tested person. Understandable.

I use Reunion for mac as my main genealogy database. For DNA, I figured that the function Flags was a useful tool. I have added a flag "DNA known", that I use to flag people that have been tested and where we have found out out common ancestor.

I have added some people to my database where we are working on finding out how we are connected. They got the DNA flag. I have also created  haplogroupflags, for example, I myself have a flag called: HG D5a3a (mt), my mother has the same flag, my father have one flag for his Y and one for his mt and so on.

I have also chosen to show the flags in the familyview to when clicking around in my program I get a fast visual indicator on the DNA-status.

I am also able to search for everyone that has a certain flag, like everyone with the DNA flag checked or people with a certain haplogroupflag and I get the result fast in a nice list.

It is really easy to add flags in Reunion and flags can also be used to indicate people who emigrated, who were in the military or as "research done" (never used that one).

So, look into flags if you are using Reunion for mac or simular function in the program you are using to get those DNA-cousins a bit more organized.

Any other ideas on how to organize your DNA-relatives in your ordinary genealogy database?

Friday's Faces From the Past - DIY Bracelet

I made a bracelet for my mother for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. I printed out photos of my second great grandmothers, Marie Tedder and Karna Nilsdotter Rickard, my great grandmothers Julia Verno and Hanna Persson and my grandmother Ludmila Seck. I glued them onto small photo framependants I found at my local craft store and then attached them to a leather bracelet.

It took some hours to make it, first to get the right proportion of the pictures, I did have to print them out a couple of times before I got them right. Then deciding the design of the bracelet and getting the pendants to stay in place. But I think it turned out quite nice in the end. And now I want a bracelet like that of my own.

*UPDATE*

Surname Saturday - Верно (Verno).

Greatgrandmother, Julia, was born on April 30 1887 in.. well, that part of the family is a bit tricky. The city is called Pskov (Псков) in Russian, in older Russian, Plskov, Pihkva in Estoian and Pleskau in German.

The most tricky part in the spelling of the surname. I have seen so many variations in different documents. My relatives seems to have preferred the spelling Verno but even if that happens to be the right one, it doesn't help much when searching since one have to search for all variations being sure not to miss anything. And lets not forget doing searches in Russian either.

The name doesn't seem to be all that common, but common enough for making me confused how all the Vernos I find with different spellings are related (if they are at all). It doesn't seem to be a name of Estonian origin and neither Russian.

When my greatgrandmother applied for Swedish citizenship this is how the form was filled out:

This document is an extract from the houseexaminerolls and the name is spelled Vörmö, but under the name there is a question mark.

At FamilySearch.org there are indexed documents of Births and Baptism in Russia. In this document regarding Paul, brother of Julia, his name is spelled Worno.

Valdemar Verno, another brother of Julia, called Valodja by the family, was into theatre in Tallinn. Here is a photo he has signed with beautiful, Russian handwriting, using the spelling Верно - Verno. 

His headstone in Tallin has the same spelling. - Verno.

Greatgrandmothers sister Sofie is on this document called Werno.

Same sister at funeral records of San Franscisco, her fathers name is spelled Verno.

So, anyone out there with more information about the Verno surname, please let me know.

Friday's Faces from the Past - Old photo album

I love old photos and every now and then I buy photos or albums when the show up in my way. My ambition is always to scan them and upload them to photo databases like Porträttfynd and such, hoping someone will know who it is on the picture. Anyhow, there isn't always enough time so meanwhile I publish some of them on my blog.

This is an album I bought a couple of years ago. Most of the photos are from the north-west area of Skåne, like Helsingborg, Råå, Åstorp and Landskrona and a couple of them are from the US (Chicago and Massachusetts).

Unknown couple - Photographer J H Hagman Helsingborg / Cimbrishamn (Simrishamn)

The album

The photo below is one of the few hints to who the owner of this album was. The man in the picture is cousin Olson and it is from Chicago.

One of the photos are from Chicago and it is one of the few that has a name on
the back: cousin Olson

Nilson - Memory from Olson

I just love this photo, that could have been on any Facebookstatus and it has been published before on this blog ( http://cousinlinda.blogspot.se/2014/04/friday-funny-party-time.html)

Photo by H P Hafström - Skromberga

First man in space

Today, 54 years ago, Yuri Gagarin went into space with Vostok. That was of course news that spread all over the world and I have added a page from Great Bend Daily from April 12 in 1961.

The familytree of Yuri Gagarin can be found at here at Geni.com

Moving and starting over

Today I am starting my Swedish blog kusinlinda.se. I have been working on it for quite some time, learning WordPress, trying to find a theme I like and so on. I will continue to update this blog so I am not leaving, I will continue to blog here in English as well.

I started to blog sometime in 2001/2002 and I have had a couple of different blogs since then. Before I started to blog I had a couple of homepages, digging into htmlcoding. I first got in touch with The Net in the early 1990s when I was studying computer technology at a university college. After I finished my studies I moved back to my old hometown in the south of Sweden. A company started to provide internet connections and I got connected again. Pretty early I guess. I loved the world of internet. Now it is only as far away as the smartphone for most people.

In 2007 I started looking into genealogy and I was soooo hooked after only a couple of hours. Using modern technology to find information and then tell the story of someone that might be forgotten many, many years using creative visualisation is a combination that I really feel passionate about.

I will continue sharing stories from my research and hopefully inspire someone to find out information about your own family history.

Christmas Eve - 24 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Allt för Sverige - The big Swedish adventure Christmas special. Four Americans from the show get to come back to Sweden, met some relatives and learn more about Swedish Christmas traditions.





During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

The meaning of Christmas - 23 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Homecoming - 22 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

There are many people from the past I wish I could met only once. So many in fact it is absolutely impossible to pick just one. My grand parents and my great grandparents would be a good start. Then there are so many other that I "got to know" when doing my family history research.


During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Wishes - 21 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

I guess I don't wish for anything special for Christmas. Only that we will have a good time. But in my genealogy I wish for a couple of things. Right now to find out more about the Worno / Vorno / Verno line in my family. I also wish for a photo of my great granduncle Andrew Richardson, there must be one, somewhere.. but probably not in any gift from Santa this year. I'll keep wishing and looking.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Parties - 20 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

If you are going on a Christmas party in Sweden Im pretty sure you will end up at a "julbord".  That would be a buffet with the traditional Swedish Christmas food and drinks. Arriving at the restaurant, often an old inn or a castle, you will get some warm glögg with almonds and raisins to drink.

Trolleholm Castle

Then you will sit down at your table (and you are probably at this place with family, friends or work). You will drink beer, and as an non-alcoholic option you will have julmust (Coca-Cola is fighting hard to get Swedes to drink coke at Christmas and not the Swedish julmust). You will probably also have a snaps (or two).

First out is the pickled herring. There will be with onion, mustard and many other tastes. You will have hardboiled egg and different types of salmon with different sauces. There will be a special salad made of red beets, apple and mayonnaise. There will also be a warm dish, lika a gratin with anchovies, onion, potatoes and cream. That is the Jansson temptation. So, you walk around the buffet taking a small piece of everything. There will also be bread, wurtbread and hard bread. You eat the herring and drink your snaps.

Picked herring, egg, salmon with a mayo-shirmp-mix

Then its is time to walk the meat round (well, you might want to do another round of herring first, that is ok). Here you will find ham, different mustards, different sausages (cold) like liver sausage and other spicy sausages. You will also find different types of paté.

Meatballs, red beetsalad, sausage, both liver and other and ham.

After the meat round it is time for the warm dishes. This includes meatballs, small sausages (warm), ribs, red cabbage, green cabbage, brown cabbage. At some places they have pigfeets.

Next round is the rice pudding, there are different type, sometimes is a warm rice porridge and sometimes it is a cold dish called Ris ala Malta, which is cold, containing a lot of whipped cream.

If you have room, then you will have a almond clam cookie with whipped cream and strawberrry jam with your coffee. And with your coffee you also take a tour to the candy table and perhaps an avec as well.

That is pretty much the food we eat for Christmas, but often you visit a "julbord" a couple of times before Christmas Eve. This year I have been at two julbord events.





During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Gifts - 19 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Santa arrives about 6pm on Christmas Eve, when everyone is stuffed with Christmas food and all the dishes is done. After Santa has left it is time to open the gifts and everyone opens a gift at a time in order. Some years there might be a clue in rhyme about the gift, usually put together in the evening of the 23rd.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Baking - 18 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Every year I make a special bread for Christmas, called Vörtbröd. Some of the spices used is cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger. A beer is also used and rye flour. And raisins. Very tasty bread and if often eaten with a slice of ham and mustard for breakfast on Christmas day.

The picture below is from last year when I used an Russian Imperial Stout beer. I usually don't bake the bread until closer to Christmas Eve.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Stories - 17 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

In December, before going on Christmas vacation during my first school years, we all had a candle at our schooldesks. Teacher turned off the light and we would all lit our candles. Then our teacher read from a book called Mary's Little Donkey by Gunhild Sehlin. We did this every year for a couple of years, starting from the beginning of the book every time. And I don't think we ever finished it.

I recall I thought it was a quite exciting story and it was quite nice with all the candles in the classroom. 

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Tree decorations - 15 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

I don't have a lot of variation of Christmas Tree decorations. I usually decide a color theme and use silver and blue or red decorations. Its only perhaps the last 10+ or so  years there has been other than the traditional ornament available to buy here in Sweden. I mean the ones that look like cupcakes, lipstick or a Ninja turtle. I like those old traditional the most, especially ones that looks like birds, made out of glass.

In the picture is a photo of a Christmas Tree from 1942 taken by my grandfather. In the top is a star and under it looks like it is the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic flag. There are som ornaments looking like snowstorm and it looks like a Santa and a gingerbread cookie lady made out of yarn are hanging there as well. Sparkles, which I loved (and still do) and a couple of candles. And some glitter.

Christmas Tree in Sweden, 1942

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Cookies - 14 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

There somewhere behind all the Santas is a ginger bread house. Ginger bread houses and ginger bread cookies is typical Christmas.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.