Christmas Crafts - 9 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

In 2007 I found the Genealogy Gems podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke. In one episode she talked about making your own Family History Christmas wreath and it sounded really inspiring. So I made one and gave to my parents and they put it up every Christmas.

It has small photos of my grandparents and my greatgrandparents.

My Family History Christmas Wreath

Closeup of my great grand mother Maria Liljedahl, my great grand father
Edvard Nikolai Seck and my great grand father Nils Anton Berlin.

And here are the instruction videos if you feel like making your own Family History Christmas Wreath.









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 lights - 4 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Christmas lights - yes. Well. candles.

About every other year I and some friends makes our own candles. It takes hours, we do it in a garage and it is usually pretty cold. But the result is good and it is nice to bring homemade candles as a gift at times.

Every Adventsunday before Christmas I light a candle in a special candleholder with four candles. This special holder I made in school when I was about 13.

Another special candleholder that always has been on my parents table during Christmas Eve and now is on my table used to be my greatgrandpartents, Nils Anton Berlin and Hanna Persson. It holds seven candles and when they all are lit it is definitely 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.

Treasure chest Thursday

My dad has been busy scanning old photos. Every other day when I talk with my parents there is another album that has been digitized. I love watching the photos on my computer or on my iPad, so easy to zoom in and look at details that is not as easy to notice when looking at the paper copies.

This picture is my great grandfather Nils Anton Berlin and is from 1937.

Friends or relatives - Friday's Faces from the Past

Every now and then I look trough my collection of scanned old photographies. Most of them belonged to my great grandfather Nils Anton Berlin and great grandmother Hanna Persson in Farstorp so probably they are a mix of their relatives and friends on their both family lines. And no, no notes of names anywhere, I mean, they were fully aware of who all these people were.

When looking I usually notice some new detail. I try to figure out by the clue of how many people there are on the picture, male/females, children and age what family it might be.

So, there are a some people that appears in more than one photo and today I am looking at two specific photos. One is of five men in uniform. One of them,  I think is a brother of my great grandmother.

Then there is this other man who appears on other pictures as well in uniform. Now I am thinking that he might be the same man that also appears on other photos that are more like family group photos.

Man in the middle might be my great-grandmothers brother. The man to the left, who is he?

The man in the back to the right, who is he?

So, is it possible that those two men are one and the same? 5-10 years of time difference between the photos perhaps. The lips, nose and ears looks pretty much the same I think.

Same man?

Now, if it happens to be the same man, then who is he? A relative or a good friend someone got to know when being in the military? A neighbor? 

And the children on the second picture, are they siblings?  I haven't found any relative that had seven children, five girls and two boys. Or, they could be cousins or even not related at all.

Anyhow, there are plenty of people in the pictures, meaning there would probably be more copies of those pictures. Perhaps even with names on it. 

Lots of questions still waiting for answers, they joy of genealogy - endless problem solving.

Have a nice Friday!

Fearless females - Else, born, married, dead and buried in the month of March

Today, 128 years ago it was the day before my second great grandmother Elses' wedding day. She got married on March 5 with my second great grandfather Jöns Torkelsson Berlin.

Jöns Berlin and Else Månsdotter got married on March 5 in 1886
ArkivDigital: Vinslöv EI:4  page 20 

The month of March contains the birthday of Else. She was born March 25, 1866, in Vinslöv, Sweden. As written above, she got married on March 5 in 1886. In the month of March she died on the 16th in 1893. Finally, on what that would have been her 32nd birthday, she was buried, March 25 in 1893.

Else is one of my favorite ancestors. I don't know much about her, but she and her husband Jöns were two of the first ancestors I had to do research to find. Before I started doing genealogy even their names were unknown to me. Also, seeing Else die so young, sixteen days after giving birth to her forth child made me a bit sad at the time I found out.

Wedding Wednesday - Unknown couple

This couple is in a photo album that has belonged to either my great grand parents Nils Anton Berlin and Hanna Persson in Farstorp or perhaps thier son-in-law. The photo is taken at Atelier Söderholm in Kristianstad so the couple probably lived somewhere in the Skåne area.

Unknown couple

Friday's Faces from the Past - Great grandparents Berlin

My great grandparents, Nils Anton Berlin and Hanna Persson.

Nils Anton Berlin and Hanna Persson.
Photographer Herman Piil, Hässleholm

Nils Anton Berlin: Born December 6, 1888, Farstorp
Parents: Jöns Torkelsson Berlin and Else Månsdotter

Hanna Persson: Born September 12, 1881, Farstorp.
Parents: Born out of wedlock. Mother: Karna Nilsdotter Rickard, father Unknown.

Married: February 17, 1912

Nils and Hanna.

Hanna died February 24, 1958 and Nils May 12, 1976.

Workday Wednesday

My grandfather, to the left, Erik Berlin. He was born in 1912 so I guess the picture is taken in the late 1920s. Probably in Gothenburg (Sweden) area.

Erik Berlin to the left

Friday’s Faces from the Past - Farstorp

Photo from 1909. The churches in the picture are Farstorp and Hästveda. My greatgrandfather Nils Anton Berlin was born and lived in Farstrop so when I found this photo I happily bought it, he was probably familiar with one or two of those priests.

Names in the picture. Herslow, Herrlin, Person, Lafvesson, Billing, Haslov, Rosenberg,
Ström, Helmers, Andersson, Theding. Löfström, Alf, Fokman, Pire

Military Monday - Jöns Torkelsson Berlin

Jöns Torkelsson Berlin was my greatgreatgrandfather. He was born on February 11, 1850 in Farstorp. His parents were Torkel Görtz and Kersti Nilsdotter. In 1868, August 29, he joined the cavalry, 18 years old.

Part of the document where Jöns signs up for the cavalry in 1868.

March 5, 1886 he married Else Månsdotter. They got married in Vinslöv where Else was born. Else then moved to Farstorp and the lived at Luhr 4. They had four children, Emma Christina (b March 2 1887), Nils Anton (b December 6 1888 (my great-grandfather), Anna (b December 24 1890) and Emil Anton (b February 28 in 1893). Else died when Emil Anton was only 25 days old. She was 31 years young.

When Jöns joined the cavalry, he got the soldier name Berlin. He was at Livskvadtonen, Kunliga Skånska Husarregementet. He stayed with the cavalry until September 21 in 1900 when he retired, 50 years old. He had been in the cavalry for 32 years. He got graded "excellent well"

Jöns Berlin, retiredocument from 1900

This is a picture that belonged to my greatgrandfather. It is possible that Jöns Berlin is one of the people in the picture. Ljungbyhed is where they had thier training.

Jöns Torkelsson Berlin, my greatgreatgrandfather
might be on this picture.

Jöns died April 5 in 1929, in Farstorp.

Christmas at a hospital? Unidentified photo

This picture, probably somewhere in Sweden, is from an old album that used to belong to my greatgrandfather with surname Berlin. He lived in Farstorp in the south of Sweden I dont know who the people in the picture are but it looks like it is Christmas celebration at a hospital?

31-day genealogy challenge - Day 16

My 31-day genealogy challenge is over, last day was August 7. Its been great trying to do something with genealogy / family history everyday for 31 days and at least one different thing every day. The hardest part has been to blog about it everyday, thats why the posts are somewhat delayed.

Anyway, day 16. About two months ago, going through "hints" on my trees at Ancestry.com I found something.. A tree with an cousin of my grandfather I didnt know about. I emailed the person who put up the tree and asked my mother if she ever had heard of that cousin. She had not. I looked into birthbooks and everything with this cousin was accurate. A few days later I got a reply from the woman who made the tree, which is my mothers second cousin. She and my mom talked on the phone a few times and Day 16 it was time to go visit her.

I brought my computer, camera and scanner with me and I went there together with my parents. We had a great time. Comparing photos and noticing we had the same ones. She also had letters written by my greatgrandfather to her sister which I scanned. We went to the cementary (which I ofcouse put up on Billiongraves.com) and we drove by the house where my greatgrandparents used to live. While going on this sightseeing, driving on those narrow roads we ran into one of my mothers cousins who probably hadent met in quite many years. I didnt know, but I and her son are born on the exact same date and year. Cool. She also told us that just around the corner another cousin of mom where working, chopping some woods. We went by and said hi to him as well.

So, I truly had a great time. Some of the photos got identified, that is awesome. I know most of the people on those photos are relatives but it is always nice to know exactly.

Emma Berlin - sister of my
greatgrandfather Nils Anton Berlin.
One of the pictures we got identified.

Even if we thought we knew about all of my grandfathers cousins, we didnt. And that is why it is so good to put your research online, in this case at ancestry where thanks to the hintssystem two secondcousins found eachother. Ive had simular experience at geni.com where Ive also found relatives.

Letter written by Nils Anton Berlin
in 1909 to his sister Emma Berlin while
he was in the military.

Day 16 completed:
*Visited my mothers second cousin we never met before
*Went to see my greatgrandfathers house
*Identified a lots a pictures, scanned letters and pictures.
*Added Farstorp at billiongraves.com

31-day genealogy challenge - Day 14

First, I was going to write and post this yesterday but I followed the news from the terrible happenings in Norway. First the bombing and then the shootings.  This is not at all a political blog but it is happenings like this that affects so many people and sure put a deep mark into my timeline.

Day 14.

I had a week of "genealogy light" and now Im back into the heavier stuff (can I write like that?). We went to Ängelholm to visit our favorite second-hand bookshop. It was closed, owner on vacation. So, we turned our heads toward the libary, old newspapers on microfilm is never wrong and they have different papers compared to the library i Helsingborg. Well, only to notice they have paper from 1992 on spot, older you need to order. Ok. Looked into the books. Found a great one. Svensk Bebyggelse, Kristianstad Län from 1945. Seems like back in the 1940s it was quite popular to drive through Sweden, taking a picture of every house and every farm, writing a little text about it (when its built, who is the ower, when is the owner born and who are the owner parents). Ive bought a DVD set with a simular booktitle (Svenska Gods och gårdar) but it has mainly farms and not houses in the cities in it.

Its not like you go out and look for a book like that, its hard to look for something you dont know excist. Browsed through it and I found two interesting entries.

First, one in Vinslöv. This is the house of my greatgrandmothers aunts husband sisters. The aunt and husband emigrated to the US, I found thier decendants awhile ago, we keep in touch and Im trying to find out everything I can on the husbands side of the family. They didnt have a clue he had two sisters who stayed in Sweden (nor that the wife had a sister that stayed as well).

Second. My grandfathers brother. He build the house. The book is from 1945 and he died that same year.

Day 14 completed:
 *Found a book at the libray that contained pictures of my relatives houses