Släktbloggen

...you can see that this portrait is visible in the left mirror. It is said to be featuring an opera singer who Gustaf Lindman knew. Today it is hanging at Skeda, the farm that Helge and Anna Wennberg bought after inheriting money from Gustaf Lindman (who died in 1935). If Rosenlund was the gathering place until the 30's, Skeda has been it since the 40's.

...on Gustaf Lindman's 65th birthday, November 15, 1931. The back row: Arvid Wärle, Ernst Hagström, Ivar Wennberg, Anna Wennberg (nee Lindman), Helge Wennberg, Signe Rydsjö (nee Serner), Sven Wennberg, Inez Wennberg, Sten Wennberg.

The front row: Astrid Wärle (nee Serner), Ester Östrand (nee Wennberg), Karin Lindman, Brita Wennberg, Gustaf Lindman, Stina Wennberg, Signe Wennberg, Hilma Wennberg. The boy in sailor-suit is Gösta Wennberg, who would have been 90 years old the 4th of July. For sure we will remember him.

I don't know if it was before or after he set a house on fire.

I meet someone
and at the same moment
my step changes
a different worm  is crushed
a different  word follows
another  thought is born
a stroke of the brush
adds to the unfinished painting

At the same moment
I have a different life
I die a different death.

...features AnnStin and Ingrid Wennberg, wife and daughter of my great uncle Gösta. Although AnnStin, 91, is married into the family, I regard her as our Grand Old Lady.

...family history turns things upside down. Let me explain how. In our everyday lives we use a lot of energy not to make things wrong. If we make a mistake at work it's embarrasing. If we make mistakes in the relation to our family it's even worse. To be told that you have been a bad parent would be just awful.

But, TRY FOR A SECOND TO FORGET THE NOW and see things in a family historical perspective. Who would be the most fun person to have as a great grandfather: a nice and calm man or some violent, dangerous man? Who would be the most interesting great grandmother: someone who was always easy and diplomatic, or someone who was difficult and complicated?

Who would be the most exciting person to have as a relative: someone who lived an ordinary life with a well-payed job and a well-functioning marriage, who played golf and died peacefully at 80? OR someone who drank to much, couldn't keep a job, died at 50 - and maybe left some beautiful, revealing poems in his top drawer? I think this is a good perspective to have in mind.

... Greta Lindman's daughter. (As both her first and last name show, her father was from Denmark.) The photo was taken in Värnamo, maybe in 1938 when she was 14 and spent her first summer in Sweden. By this time both her parents were dead.

Else had an interesting ability to make men fall in love with her. All her male cousins did and I don't think it was just because of her looks; she had something strong, cheerful and encouraging in her appearance. And I guess there is a biological explanation why such people are easy to fall in love with. Strength and cheerfullness promise health, which in turn promises a good offspring; nature's way of keeping itself alive.

...Jimmy Ring, born 1957, son of Ted, brother of Kerstin, Jennifer and Vanessa Ring.
I should say there is a resemblance to Lydia.

...from 1988 features my brother, my father and moi by the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. A highly interesting journey which I did not enjoy since I had other, more urgent, matters on my mind. And I guess that's the most common problem in all kinds of education.

He lived from 1858 to 1897, had five daughters of whom my great grandmother Anna was the eldest. She was the last person to remember him. Today he's got about 90 descendants living in at least two continents.

In the family archive at Skeda we have about 20 letters that he wrote to Lydia, before and after they were married. He had an interesting, backward-leaning handwriting. From the letters we know that he was a cultivated man, interested in theatre and literature. He also enjoyed popular science.

Since he owned a successful grocery store (which he had taken over from his father) and had a number of political responsibilities, he was quite a prestigious person in Jönköping. Thanks to this, there is a short biography of him in the book Jönköpings stads och läns sparbank 1831-1930. It says "During the days when he was healthy, he was a restlessly working businessman and local politician. Behind his serious appearance there was a good heart and a good-natured, dry sense of humour".

...John Lindman (Lindy) Young and his wife Sandy. Lindy lives in Toronto, works as postman and was one of the earliest members of (what later became) the heavy metal group Rush. Today he plays in a coverband called "House of cats".