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.

Tombstone Tuesday - Servant Nils Lundin at Rosendal

Last night was the second episode of the Swedish version of Who Do You Think You Are. The celeb of the day was Mia Skäringer. Since she is from the Värmland area I was quite surprised when she suddenly showed up in Helsingborg. Even more surprised, and truly happy, when she went to the Rosendal castle nearby. It turned out she had a relative who worked as a servant at the castle, Nils Lundin,  and his daughter Olivia was born there in 1859.

A couple of months ago I registerd tombstones at the cemetery of Kropp that was inventoried in the 1990s. ( Database found here: http://www.genealogi.se/gravproj/Gravsoklist.php ). I recognized the name so I did a search and sure I found it.

Now, it would have been awesome if Mia had visited the cemetery as well, looking at the tombstone, when she was in the area. The cemetery is only a few kilometers from the castle. Maybe she was, it wasn't shown on TV in that case.

The stone is not in its original place, it has been moved but is kept and it is integrated in the stonewall surrounding the cemetery.

So, I went there and took a new picture of the stone today.

Tombstone in the wall - Servant Nils Lundin and his wife Hanna Lundin. Nils worked
at the Rosendal castle

It is quite hard to read but is say Nils Lundin. If you move the stones on the ground away you will see his wife's name Hanna as well.

Hard to read but is says Nils Lundin

View of Kropp cemetery with the wall in the background

Follow Friday - Arkiv Digital - free this weekend

This weekend is a big weekend for genealogy in Sweden. It is time for the genealogy event of the year. This year it is held in Köping. Everyone will be there. Well, I am not going this year but I am sure it will be a great time.

So, if you are not going, you could try out Arkiv Digital that will be free of charge this weekend (August 24-25).  If you have Swedish ancestors and you know where they lived you could try and see if you can find them in perhaps a brithbook or a deathbook. I am a subscriber to Arkiv Digital, but I also uses the Swedish National Archives site (Svar) and at times I use Genline (records also available on ancestry.com) as well. The nice thing with Arkiv Digital is that the pictures of the book/records are in color.

They also have an iPad app which I wrote about in an other post).

So, have a look at arkivdigital.net this weekend. You would need to register and then you will have to download the software (available for Windows, Mac and Linux).

This is a screen dump from birthbook of Nättraby, Blekinge. Henrik was married to my
great grandaunt Hilma Charlotta Hansdotter. They were both deaf.

Wordless Wednesday - Boys on horses

Two boys and two horses in front of a house. From an album that belonged to my great grandparents who lived in Farstop (Skåne, Sweden). I don't know who those boys are or where the picture was taken.

Friday Funny - Swedish Midsummer

Today is Midsummer Eve, one of the most celebrated days in Sweden. This is the day when we rise a pole, decorated with flowers and then we dance around it. We eat herring, potatoes, sour cream and chives. For desert, strawberries. We drink beer and lots of snaps. We sing a song before every snaps... lots of singing. If you go to a place where there is an traditional celebration you will see people dressed up in folkcostumes. You will hear typical Swedish music and see people dance folkdance. What will you do for midsummer or how was your midsummer will be a good talking topic upcoming weeks.

You will see girls of all ages having a garland made of flowers on thier head. Late at night you will see girls picking seven different flowers in silence to put under thier pillow. In thier dreams they will see their  furture husband.

This photo is from 1909. I dont know who are in the picture but probably some relatives.

Today, in Sweden it is truly a funny Friday. I found a video at youtube, Swedish Midsummer for Dummies that explains a lot as well. There are lots more Swedish midsummer-movies to be found on youtube.

Happy Midsummer or as we would say in Sweden: Glad Midsommar!!!

Wordless Wendesday - Handsome young man

The handsome young man in this photo taken at Stoner Studio, 222 Court Street, Brooklyn have some connection to Sweden. He might be born in Sweden or perhaps his parents are.

Wordless Wendesday - Birthday and tradtional cake

This is an unidentified woman at an unidentified place. Guessing it would be her birthday party I think everyone would agree to. Also that the place is somewhere in Sweden, since it seems to be  Swedish flags in the decoration hanging in the ceiling. I also think it is in the south of Sweden (Skåne).

The special cake on the table is a typical cake from the Skåne-area called spettekaka. You make it from egg, sugar and potato flour. And then icing. It has quite special taste, it is sweet and it melts in your mouth just like meringue. Traditionally you make it on a stick that rotates and then you pour the cake batter on the stick. You often see that cake on birthdays and weddings and I love it!

Spettekaka or spiddekaga in Skåneaccent

This Youtubeclip shows how its done.

Friday’s Faces from the Past - Bothilda Magnuson

Everytime I am at a fleemarket I keep my eyes open for Carte de visite. I just love those photographs. When I find a picture with a name written on it I try to find out some more information about the person / persons. Now I have more photos than time so here is a sweet one taken by photographer Ruesher, Fulton street, Brooklyn, New York.

Bothilda Magnuson

On the backside someone has written Bothilda Magnuson, typical Swedish name. The photo is bougt at a fleemarket here in Sweden as well.

Anna Lindholm from Kropp, Sweden, emigrates in 1893 to USA

One of my favorite records on Ancestry is the US Passport Applications. You can get a lot of information about a person looking at those records. Birthdate and birthplace, if the person is an immigrant you can find the year of immigration, what ship they came on, how long they have been a US citizen. Color of eyes and hair. A description of the nose, the mouth and chin. Length. And if you are lucky, there is a photo.

Just for fun, I did a search on people born in Kropp, Sweden and I came up with a couple of matches. I picked one of them, Anna Lindholm, born in Kropp January 26 in 1858. In 1919 she has been in the US for 26 years, she and her husband lives in Webster, Wisconsin and she is a house keeper. She is going to Sweden to visit relatives.

She is 61 years old and she got blue eyes.

Anna was born in 1858, so I looked into the house exam roll for 1858 - 1860 from Kropp. There she is at Holk nr 4. Her father was Per Svensson, b 1829 and her mother Elna Andersdotter born in 1833. In this book she has three siblings, two older brothers, Nils born in 1854 and Sven born in 1856. She also had a little sister, Hanna, born 1859 but she died in 1860.

Anna with parents and siblings 1858 - 1860
Kropp AII 13 1858 - 1860 page 60

A couple of years later, in 1871 - 1875, the family has grown, now it is Per and Elna, the children Nils, Sven Anna, Anders (b 1861), Petronella (b 1863), Hanna (b 1865), Jöns (b 1867), Johannes (b 1870), Peter (b 1872) and Gustaf (b 1874).

Anna and her family in 1871 - 1875
Kropp AI:16 1871 - 1875 page 92

 According to the passport Anna emigrated in 1893. I did a lookup at the database Emibas and it says she, her husband Nils Lindholm, a preacher and thier son, Carl Oskar Emanuel Nilsson Lindholm emigrated to the US from Hybo, Ljusdal. For some reason I cant find them in the Ljusdal churckbook, but I found Carl Oskar Emanuel in the birthbook, with the note of unbaptized..

Carl Oskar Emanuel with his parents and the note "odöpt" (unbaptized)
Ljusdal CI:9 page 167

Looking into the US census of 1910 I find the family in Meenon township, Burnett, Wisconsin: N A Lindholm, with wife Annie and son Chas O E all from Sweden, immigrated in 1893. Then there is a daughter Ruth A (age 16) born in South Dakota, a son Joseph P (age 14) born in Minnesota, a son Enoch G (age 13) born in Iowa and a daughter Annie E (age 11) born in Minnesota.

US Census 1910, Meenon, Burnett, Wisconsin

Below is a picture of the church in Kropp.

Church in Kropp

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?