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.

Maritime Monday - Grandfather Erik Kvist part 1

My grandfather Erik Kvist was the oldest from eight siblings. He was born April 15 1900 in Bjuv. When he was 15 he became a ship's boy in Karlskrona. It was a tough time. The older boys were mean to the younger ones.

I have found an old article from 1889 where a boy sent a letter to the Swedish Crownprince at the time, Oscar Bermadotte,  describing how bad the younger boys were treated. One day the prince shows up at the ship and maybe it got better for a while.

Postcard of Jarramas

My grandfather was at the ship Jarramas. There is a story about how my greatgrandmother Maria made a little secret pocket in my grandfathers jacket where he could hide his money (the older boys stole the money from the younger ones). So, when they couldnt find any money on him they held him upsidedown and the coins fell out and he got beaten up for hidning his money.

My grandfather Erik Kvist as a shipboy  on Jarramas

From Jarramas 1919 - SVT (no sound)

In 1919 my grandfather was at the armourship called Dristigheten. On February 15, 1919 he ran away and stayed with his uncle August Liljedahl in Denmark. There was a small notice sent out on March 4 1919 to all police stations in Sweden. It has a description of how he looked like: Dark hair, greygreen eyes, pale skin and a big nose. On his right arm he had a rose tattoo and on his left arm he had his name. He also had a scar on one of his fingers.

While he was there his aunt and uncle had a child and my grandfather is listed as one of the sponsors and the child was named Karl Erik Martin Liljedahl.

Eventually Erik was found (or if he did return by himself, I dont know) on February 14 1920. This notice is also sent out to all police stations, that he has returned. The penalty was two more years and an extra year for the year he had been gone.

In 1924 he graduated as a mechanical engineer. There were good opportunites for a military career but my grandfather choosed to work on cargo vessels.          

In 1930 he started to work at the shipping company Transmarin. By that time he had met my grandmother Lilly, they were married, lived in Helsingborg and had three children.

Erik Martinus Kvist with siblings, parents and grandparents

To be continued..

31-day genealogy challenge - Day 7

One week and Ive done at least one genealogy related thing everyday and its been different things everyday. Day 7 I uploaded the findings I did on Sunday to the Fridolf / Liljedahl family group I created on Facebook in 2009. Facebook is such a great place to keep intouch with relatives. When my grandmother Lilly was alive I usually met my cousins, aunts and uncles when it was her birthday and sometimes at Christmas. Her place was the natural meeting place. Now its easy to be friends at Facebook but also easy to create a familygroup. I like to keep groups open, makes it easier to find if someone is looking but it could ofcourse be an invite-only group as well.

So, twenty years later Im meeting with my relatives at Facebook, keeping updated what that are up to, looking at the pics they upload and reading whats going on in thier daily life. And what else, Ive found "new" second cousins though Facebook living in the same town, other living all over Sweden and Australia,  third and four cousins in Canada and USA. Love Facebook for the easy way to keep intouch.

I also got an invite to try out Google+ so I signed up there and are checking it out.

Day 7 completed:
* Uploaded findings to the Fridolf / Liljedahl familygroup at Facebook.