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The Ancestor Puzzle

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Swedes and Americans at Tyresbo, Rumskulla meeting for the first time Sept. 2024 Swedish relatives adding to 21 foot long family tree that I brought with me.   Two years ago, with the help of a Swedish genealogist, Christine Bayne, I was able to locate and write letters to surviving relatives in Sweden. I told them about my quest and that I wanted to meet them. I immediately received welcoming and excited letters and emails from about 10 of them. My cousin Birgir Svensson wrote, “I can inform you that we are 34 cousins who meet every 15 years or so. Our ages range from 67 to 93 and most of us are still living. My brother Yngve Svensson is one of the few who still live in Rumskulla today. He lives in Hamra, Rumskulla. He plans to coordinate your visit....So, Carol, I think you will have a great welcome home to Rumskulla when you arrive.”   And we did have quite the welcome home! We had a day long reunion in Rumskulla, a small town in rural south-central Sweden in a ...
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The Revolutionary Swedish Aesthetic of Carl and Karin Larsson

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    Learning about Carl and Karin Larsson and visiting their former home in Sundborn (now a museum, 3 hours nw of Stockholm), was a highlight of our trip. The rural home this artist couple established beginning in 1888 and continuing for the next 30 years   became an integral part of Swedish national culture and even influenced the development of the  folkhem  concept - society akin to a family, looking after one another and emphasizing equality and consensus. This idea became a foundation for social democratic ideals there. One of Carl's paintings of the house itself.     Their vision of a home was unique for bourgeois life at that time, and truly reflected the old Swedish proverb that the home is the mirror of the soul. Family, functionality and shared space were central. It was “child friendly, positive, inexpensive. There was no best room. All the doors were open....There was a summer atmosphere indoors, even when the snow was whirling ou...
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"For Us Democracy is a Question of Human Dignity" - Olof Palme

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      Sweden has an advanced welfare society, perhaps more so than any country in history. It reflects a longstanding and widely shared understanding and national commitment among Swedes to support a humane and caring society. We grew to appreciate this during our trip. We even began to  feel  some of the positive vibes and security that permeate daily life for Swedes. And are often so lacking in the U.S. ·        We never throughout our travels saw a property that appeared run down ·        There was no obvious homeless population, and only a few people on the street seeking charity. ·        The weather was beautiful (Ok, that’s not a result of any social policy, but it contributed to the vibes) ·        No one seemed negative or critical of their situations, though there was some grumbling about taxes ·        N...
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Raoul Wallenberg

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   Perhaps no Swede has received as much international acclaim as Raoul Wallenberg.  Only 31years old, he organized and led an effort that rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation and likely death. Leveraging Swedish and U.S. support, he fearlessly and boldly challenged, bribed and tricked the Nazis and Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists over a six month period. Wallenberg as he is depicted in the advertising for an exhibit about him at the Holocaust Museum in Stockholm.     Arriving in Budapest in July 1944, he was armed only with fluency in German and Hungarian.  But with Swedish diplomatic cover he built a network of 300 people to support the work.  Wallenberg initiated a series of bold rescue actions, including designing and issuing protective (fake) Swedish passports (Schutzpasses), establishing 31 safe houses under Swedish protection, and directly intervening to save Jews from deportation trains and death marches. Monument to Wallenb...
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Angels With Diamond Rings

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    In April-May 1945 Sweden orchestrated a series of rescue and evacuation operations that transported around 20,000 Jewish survivors from concentration camps in Germany to safety in Sweden. One of those rescued, from Bergen-Belsen, was Carl’s cousin's mother. Welcomed by the Swedes, she stayed, met her husband who had come separately from Poland, and gave birth there to his cousin.  Until our trip to Sweden, Carl did not know that his cousin had this Swedish "back story."    Frida described the Swedish relief workers as “angels, well-dressed, mostly blonde, tall women with diamonds on their fingers that sparkled so brightly they hurt her eyes.” Some were killed in allied bombing raids (the war was still going on).      One of the rescue operations came to be known as the “White Buses” because it used buses and trucks painted white with red crosses to make them easily identifiable as neutral, humanitarian vehicles. Others were rescued ...
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Fika!

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   Swedes drink a lot of coffee, an average of 3-4 cups/day. It is one of the highest rates of consumption in the world, and we most became aware of this going on picnics with cousins or friends. Picnic baskets always contain a large thermos (or two) filled with coffee.     But coffee culture in Sweden is not only about the ubiquity of the beverage. It is also about the cherished custom of fika. Fika is a centuries-old tradition revolving around the importance of regularly taking a coffee break, not only at work or with colleagues, but also with friends, family and at home on weekends. It is everywhere, as our friend Stina says, “from the kitchen table to the corridors of Parliament.” And here is one of the best parts: fika almost always involves a sweet treat too, with a cinnamon bun (kanelbulle) being the most traditional. (Every year on October 4 Swedes celebrate Cinnamon Bun Day .) Carol and our friend Stina getting ready to enjoy Fika with Stina's homemade cinna...
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Sweden's "Daddy Months" and Carol's Cousin in the Riksdag

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    At the Maritime Museum in Göteborg last week, the 2 nd museum we visited there with a kids’ playroom, we chanced upon a group of men, each with a young child in tow. It struck us that this was “so Swedish” (but we didn’t react quickly enough to ask for a photo). Sweden, as most know, provides one of the most comprehensive childcare benefits in the world. They aim to support work-life balance, encourage gender equality, and ensure children's well-being. A group of Swedish daddies similar to the ones we saw in the Maritime Museum.        Parents have access to 480 days of paid parental leave per child, at about 80% of their wage with weekends paid too. Ninety days are reserved for each parent, meaning that parents have paid access to only 390 days if, for example, the father does no childcare (“use it or lose it”). This is meant to encourage more equal sharing, specifically getting fathers involved. And it works! The introduction of these “daddy mont...
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