In the guestbook...
Person-to-be no. 3
This is Ruth Liljenberg, born November 10, daughter of my cousin Jakob Lindström and his wife Nico. Here she is together with her brother Seth, born 2007. If you ask me, Ruth is a miniature of her mother.
For everyone interested...
...I have now enlarged the section about Salomon and Lydia and their daughters / Salomon och Lydia och deras döttrar with some more interesting pictures.
Person-to-be no. 2
May I present Irma Tillman Råsten, born on July 5, daughter of Jennifer Råsten (a third cousin that I would like to meet but haven't) and Magnus Tillman. Grandparents are Anita and Jim Råsten.
Person-to-be no. 1
This is my cousin Catrin Ovebring with her son Victor, born on March 27. Father is Per Ovebring and grandparents are Birgitta and Mikael Mossberg.
During the year 2009...
So who are they?
This is my aunt Anniqua...
...with her husband Peter Lindström. Two weeks ago they had their fourth grandchild, Ruth. And today Anniqua sent me her personal presentation, which you will find under "The Family Society". (Photo by R. Ulonska.)
For everyone interested...
May I present...
...my dear second cousin Karin Wennberg (to the left) with her friend Johanna. She is daughter of Ingrid Wennberg and granddaughter of Gösta Wennberg. Since she was born in 1993 she is my youngest second cousin (at least that I know of). The photo was taken in Skåne this summer. Karin Wennberg's blog
What family history is all about
To be interested in your family history is, to me, basically to be interested in yourself. It is to have an emotional relationship to your progenitors and to find it a little fun to meet people of the same origin. It is impossible to have an emotional relationship to all your progenitors but if some of them are availible by photos, letters, diaries etc. it is most natural, at least for me, to be attracted of getting to know them.
Intellectually I can understand and accept people who do not feel this attraction. Emotionally I find it much more difficult. I would like every descendant of Salomon and Lydia to have at least a basic interest but must accept that this will never be the case. All I can do is to tell you all what I find interesting and why.
As long as I live the Salomon and Lydia-site will exist. As long as there are a number of people interested, it will be updated. And the more feedback I get from my relatives in Sweden, US and Canada, the more motivated I will be to go on with this project.
Today and yesterday
Things were different yesterday. At least if yesterday means the time, say, before radio and television existed. But how much does a different society change the people: their thougts, conversations and behaviour? How much does it change their sex life and the language related to it?
100 years ago my great grandmother Anna was 20 years old. What did she talk about with her friends? What did she say about the things that were most private? I know some of the things that young women, and also men, talk about over a bottle of wine at a late Friday night (and it is definetely not contemplation about the ancestors). I wonder if my great grandmother ever had that kind of conversation. And if she had, did she use the same words that her great granddaughters would use today? How big would the difference be?
And life goes on...
This is Dick with his two sons, Stephen and Michael, in a photo from 1987. As you can see, young people of today have no respect for the older generations. I guess that in the future everyone under 20 will be violent and evil.
For everyone interested...
It is grand...
...for me to present this photo of Kerstin, Dickie and Lydia, taken in 1936. Dick calls it "the threesome" and it really is special for us today since it connects us with the past more than any other document that we have. Dick, today 79 years old, is the only survivor in his generation and the only one left who has met Lydia.
When I see this last photo of Lydia I cannot help wondering: what was she thinking of? What did they talk about? Here she looks much older and skinnier than she does in the photos taken just a few years earlier. On September 16, 1936, she was found dead in her apartment in Olsborg outside Karlshamn. Just a few weeks earlier she had this visit (a longer stay) by Kerstin and Dickie, which you can read about in those letters from Lydia to Anna / brev från Lydia till Anna.
I read...
This photo...
...(by Rainer Ulonska) shows my great grandmother Anna and her grandchild Ulla with daughter Martha. Some days ago I had an email from Martha; she lives in Trondheim, Norway, where she studies at the Art Academy. There are indeed some artists in the family. (But don't think that I had an email from a baby. The photo is from 1985 and she is a little older today.)
May I present...
...Margaret's great granddaughter Tori Madison Shea, born 2004. Her mother is Cathy McKay, one of the third cousins that I've never met. Maybe Skeda 2011 will bring us all together.
Margaret about Lydia
A picture from yesterday
My dear grandmother Brita together with her cousin Margaret from the US, when she visited Skeda in 1979. I know that my grandmother and her siblings were very fond of her. Since she had lived in Sweden in her youth she was able to speak some Swedish. In his essay about Lydia, Gösta writes: "Margaret (my beloved cousin Andy) was going to have her education here, living with us for a start. She came like a breeze with her jazz records, funny American songs (which still amuse me) and a cheerful temperament."
My aunt Anniqua...
...sent me this picture of her son Jakob and his girlfriend Nico. After 10 years and one son, Seth, they finally got married. Congratulations. Wonder if the thing under her dress knows that it's a descendant of Salomon and Lydia. Or if it cares.
