Congratulations Amelie...
...30 years old today! She is daughter of my aunt Birgitta and hence we have 50% of all ancestors in common. Right now she works in Mexico for a company called Swedish Trade, but rumour says she is planning on returning to Sweden, or at least to Europe. Amelie is well-read, sporty and known for her itchy feet. Also interested in politics. She doesn't like false people; herself she is a very straightforward person. That, together with the fact that she has a bit of family interest, is the one of Amelie's qualities that I appreciate the most.
Family history...
...is a wonderful thing because it will never change. When it changes, it changes forwards. It will never leave you. It won't die as long as it's remembered. It has stories that you can tell. It contains persons, endeavors, problems that really mattered but do not matter anymore because they are history. It is there for you. It is true, or at least it has true components. It is recreated, but has an origin in true, grey, real reality.
The photo shows our grand old lady, Lydia, with Kerstin and Dickie, who is now, today, our grand old man. A beautiful view and family history in a nutshell.
This photo...
...from the 1950's shows Else's children Anita, Chris and Björn. Anita is the only one that I have met - so far. Their father was Folke Wennberg, a second cousin of Else. By this relation, they are not only siblings but also third cousins.
This is Anthon Wennberg...
...a third cousin that I have never met. He was born in 1989, son of Chris Wennberg, grandson of Else Wennberg and great grandson of Greta Lindman.
During 10 years of my life...
...1983-1993, I followed Dallas every Saturday in the Swedish Television. Almost everyone followed it. The series, or rather the phenomena, was and still is a part of my life. And believe it or not, director Ingmar Bergman was fond of it; I read that Dallas was one of the inspiration sources for his masterpiece Fanny and Alexander.
Five years ago the first season of Dallas came on DVD and ever since then I'm reliving it; I have just finished season 12 with two more to go. I cannot say that it is very realistic, still it has something special, at least for me. It inspires me to make things in my own life better.
But when I say that I would like to be more like JR, people usually misunderstand me. I don't say that I want to be like him (how on earth would that be possible); I say that I want to be more like him. Which means a little more superficial, a little more calculating and a little more business minded.
May I present...
...Amanda Young, born 1978, daughter of Lindy Young, granddaughter of Louise Ring, great granddaughter of Kerstin Lindman. If I say in Swedish that she is my "brylling", it sounds as if we are very distantly related; if I say that she is my third cousin it sounds a little closer.
I met her at the family reunion in Toronto last summer; she was nice but I didn't realize until some days ago that we had something in common. In Facebook she wrote that "there is an illusion set-up in the mind that you need something outside to be peaceful and contented. But the truth of the matter is that the nature of the mind is set up to be discontented. [...] You already have it inside you... that wonderful sense of inward sufficiency". Just like me, Amanda is interested in inward devolopment.
Otherwise I would guess that we are quite unalike. She writes about her interests that she likes all kinds of sports, simply "anything outdoors". If I would characterize myself, I would rather say "anything indoors".
Another poem by Gösta...
Verkligheten är oändlig
men tanken drar gränser
myran tror att stacken är allt
tilldess fågeln tar henne
fisken tror att vattnet är allt
tilldess kroken lyfter henne
sinnena är väggar
tanken är en spegel
den visar alltets vrångbild
men ger längtan
tanken fångar varat
som sållet vattnet
att fånga vågen är omöjligt
ty hon förändras ständigt
hon är förändringen
och under vågen havet.
Reality is limitless
but the mind sets limits
the ant believes the hill is all
until the bird takes it
the fish believes the water is all
until the hook lifts it
the senses are walls
the mind is a mirror
showing everything distorted
but making you long
the mind captures the world
like the bolter captures the water
to capture the wave is impossible
because it's ever changing
it is the change
and under it is the ocean.
.
In 2006....
...Louise Young, nee Ring (1921-2007) celebrated her 85th birthday. She was married to (and later divorced from) Jonathan Young, and had the children Nancy, Lindy and Barbara (standing behind her). According to brother Dick she was "an extremely caring person, and very much devoted to her family, to her daughters and son and grandchildren; did a lot of babysitting, quite involved in the family, and tremendously well loved."
As the only one of Kerstin Lindman's children, she didn't go with her mother to Sweden, but stayed with her father in Canada during the depression. They went through very tough times together and not until 1946, when the war was over, the family could reconcile after 11 years of separation. In a conversation with Jennifer Ring, Louise commented this: "My blood runs cold when I think of what the depression did to our family."
This photo...
...from 1972 shows my grandmother and great grandmother pealing apples at Skeda. By this time, they only lived at Skeda in the summer. My great grandmother lived there permanently from 1976, my grandmother came in 1981, after she was widowed.
Those two people - gosh what they have ment to me. And to my family interest. I had my great grandmother until I was 15 and my grandmother until I was 30. Thereby I had the chance to ask them (at least my grandmother) a lot of questions.
Still it is now a long time ago; a lot have happened since I met them. What would I ask them if I had the chance to meet them again? Probably I would focus on the cultural changes which - at least on the surface - have taken place in Sweden since the 1950's. If they could, I would ask them to compare today with yesterday. Also, I would ask them about the ways that they have dealt with the problems of their lives, and I would tell them how I deal with mine.
My dear second cousin...
Last summer in Canada...
...I photographed Dick under a linden, just to illustrate (his translation of) the Lindman motto: From the family tree the future unfolds; in Swedish Ur släktens stam skall framtid spira; in Latin Ex stirpe genus omne futurum florescet.
The Lindman family crest...
...has a lot of symbols in it. First of all, the blue and yellow which are the colours of the Swedish flag. Secondly, in the crest there is a linden, in Swedish called "lind". Around the linden there is space, in Swedish called "rum". This is a symbol for Lindrum, the hamlet in Ölsremma, Västergötland where the progenitor, vicar Arvid (1670-1741), was born.
From the crest a wolf is coming up, which symbolizes Ölsremma (the prefix "öls" is an old word for "wolf"). The wolf is holding a linden twig with three leaves. Those symbolize Arvid's three sons in his marriage with Maria Elisabeth Wekander: Johan, Olof and Sven. (Sven is our progenitor, Johan is the progenitor of prime minister Lindman.)
The family crest was originated by forest officer Bengt Lindman, Tranås, when the Family Society Lindman of Lindrum was founded in 1999. All of Arvid Lindman's descendants (and they are many!) are permitted to use it. That's why the crest is also a symbol for the Family Society Salomon and Lydia' Descendants.
For all my relatives...
Another Värnamo photo...
...showing Else, Chris, Anna, Gösta, Karin and Dick. I wish Karin had taken that thing off her head before she was photographed.
