Surprise! You're Swedish!

 One of the biggest surprises I found after taking an Ancestry DNA test was how high the estimate of Swedish/Danish DNA was. I knew my maternal grandfather was full Swedish, but that would have given my mother around 50%, and I should have received about 25%, more or less. Instead, my Swedish/Danish estimate was close to 50%, and my mother and some of her siblings were at 50% or more. How was this possible? Did I have more Swedish ancestors I didn't know about? The answer was to look back into the history of the Baltic Sea area.

I knew for a fact that some of my ancestors had lived in southern Sweden. I also discovered that other ancestors had lived in northern Germany, and northwestern present day Poland. In fact, I traced many of my ancestors back to areas that bordered right along the Baltic Sea. It was time to look at the history of this area, and specifically Sweden.

Today, Sweden stays neutral and doesn't get involved in wars among countries. In the past, it was much different. The Viking Age of Sweden was from 800-1050 AD. The Vikings sailed around the Baltic Sea, up rivers, and pretty much all over Europe. Some stayed in these new found lands, while others brought slaves and wives back to Sweden. During the 14th century trade among towns and villages on the Baltic Coast began to grow. The Hanseatic League was formed. Many towns were part of this trade and business alliance. North German towns would trade with Scandinavian towns. Migration occurred and people scattered. When I was in Bergin, Norway last summer our tour guide told us about how the locals didn't appreciate the German merchants coming and taking Norwegian girls back to Germany as their brides.  

Sweden also had a foreign policy of which the aim was to dominate the Baltic Sea area. There were repeated wars with Denmark. Eventually Sweden controlled the area from Sweden east to Finland, along the Baltic coast and down to northern Germany. All land area bordering the Baltic Sea was under Swedish control. This was in the 1600's. Sweden was unable to keep control of such a large empire, though, and eventually lost control of this land. This was the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. Sweden fought against Denmark, Poland, and Russia. During the Napoleonic wars Sweden lost Finland to Russia. Norway was forced into a union with Sweden in 1814. Norway gained their independence from Sweden in 1905.

So, when you take all this into account and see how much land Sweden used to control in the Baltic Sea area, and see where our ancestors lived, then it's not surprising that so much Swedish/Danish DNA shows up. 

This is just a very small, brief, Cliff Notes version of Swedish history. One day I'll do a more in depth blog of Sweden's military past, and the Hanseatic League. Information for this came from Sweden's history 

Adversity - The Swedish Famine of 1867/1868

 The prompt for this week is "Adversity." Now, most of us are familiar with the Irish famine of 1845-1852 that led to the deaths of one million Irish citizens and was responsible for the large number of Irish immigrants in the mid 1800's. There was another famine in Europe that also had a direct impact on immigration to America. 

The 1860's were not very kind to Sweden. Swedish farmers had numerous crop failures and it was a difficult time trying to harvest crops and grow enough food to feed family and farm animals. Times were hard. In 1867 times were going to get harder. Due to the weather patterns the winter of 1866-1867 was colder and lasted longer than normal. Spring came so late that farmers had to wait to sow seeds. The summer was very short lived and then Fall came. It became difficult to feed animals, and people. The price of food increased, making it tougher. The early arrival of ice and snow also made travel and communications throughout the land harder. All parts of Sweden were affected, but the northern parts of Sweden suffered the most. In southern Sweden, where Carl and Ulrika Andersson lived, the large farms were able to export their crops, but the smaller farmers, like Carl, had a harder time. In 1868, instead of cold and rainy weather, a drought occurred. No rain meant crops still couldn't be grown or harvested so the famine continued for another year. Little to no food for people or animals. 

Fundraisers were held in America to help the Swedish famine victims and money was sent to Sweden. The Swedish government also sent money to the affected areas to help. However, local authorities would put their own restrictions on who was able to receive the money. People would have to agree to work, or supply labor, to receive the funds. Exceptions were made for people who physically couldn't work or the very old, but many people were turned away for aid if they couldn't say they could work for the funds. In turn, much of the relief money stayed with local authorities or went to wealthy and large farmers who could guarantee work for the funds. Famine victims were often told to eat bark bread. Bark bread is bread made from the inner bark of trees, and lichen. It's mixed with flour and gives the bread a greyish green appearance. The bread doesn't rise much and eating too much of it can cause vomiting and nausea, especially in children. The Swedish press criticized the distribution of the relief funds. Some felt that the lack of aid extended the suffering of the poor. 

Swedish famine victim eating bark bread.

Newspaper cartoon criticizing aid. Aid given to County Governor, then wealthy officials, wealthy farmers, then the poor getting what's left over.

 Carl and Ulrika moved out of Hjalmserd Parish in 1870. Carl was listed as a lodging pauper. That year 105 people left the parish. Annika from "Find a Swede" notes that between 1861 and 1870, 11,514 people left Jonkoping County. The Swedish famine, and the Swedish response to it, was the beginning of the great Swedish migration to America. 

Sources:

Swedish_famine_of_1867%E2%80%931869

Find a Swede

Viola Mildred Strand Henrickson

 Today, September 9, 2023, we're celebrating the 101 year birthday of Viola Mildred Strand Henrickson. Last year was her actual 100th birthday. Viola is one year older than the Walt Disney Company which is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. 

Viola was born to Mildred and Carl Strand on September 9, 1922 in Allegan, Michigan. Viola was the only child of Carl and Mildred's 7 children to be born in a hospital, the others all being born at home with Mildred's mother Elnora acting as a midwife. Shortly after being born Mildred suffered from post partem depression and voluntarily checked into the Kalamazoo State Hospital. Older brother Howard went to live with his Bellingar grandparents and Viola was taken care of by neighbor Jay Treece and family. Viola slept in a dresser drawer. Mildred eventually came back home and got better with help from a local Native American medicine man.

In the 1930's Viola and her family moved to the Strand family farm. It was while she was living on this farm that as a teenager she met Raymond Henrickson, a local farmer. Ray and Viola started seeing each other and became engaged. They were married in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 20, 1940. On April 6, 1941 Viola was baptized into the Lutheran faith and confirmed as a member of the Sandhem Lutheran Church. 

Ray and Viola lived on the Henrickson family farm Ray had taken over from his parents. Together Ray and Viola raised 8 children on the farm. There were 20 grandchildren, and even great grandchildren born before Viola passed away on December 8, 1999 at home. Viola raised children, cooked, cleaned, helped with farm chores and always had food on the table. Despite Ray saying her cooking wasn't as good as his mother's, Viola's children thought her cooking was pretty good, especially her pies and cookies. I can attest to the fact that the macaroni and cheese, and chicken and dumplings she made while visiting us in Florida once were the best I'd ever tasted. I always enjoyed any time I got to spend with her. One time while visiting her on the farm a phone solicitor called and said she had won a free prize. She said, Great, send it to me then. He said she had to pay for the shipping and handling. Viola huffed and said, "It's not free then, is it?!" and slammed down the phone. lol. I knew then I'd never have to worry about her being scammed. I also remember how she and Ray would sit and watch Jerry Springer every day and get a hoot out of the people who came on. She was definitely a treasure and continues to be missed. 

Mildred and most likely Howard and Viola

Mildred, with Viola standing to the left, Mildred's right.

Viola and Milton

Viola and Ray, and kids, having dinner with Carl and Mildred. 

Viola, 2nd from right, front row. With Carl and Mildred and brothers and sisters, circa 1970.

Feel free to leave any stories about Viola down below. I know there are a lot of good ones out there. The prompt for this week was "prosperity". I think prosperity fits Viola. She brought a lot of happiness and joy to all who knew her. She may not have been prosperous in a financial sense, but she was prosperous in friends and family. 

Tradesman-Carl Albert Strand

 With Labor Day approaching, the prompt for this week is "Tradesman."  When looking over the family tree I settled on Carl Strand. He seems to have had the most varied careers.

Carl's first job was as a young boy when he was hired to dig up potatoes for a neighbor. Carl was allowed to keep the potatoes that were too small to sell at market. This helped feed his family who often struggled for food. After completing the 8th grade Carl quit school and started working. One of his first jobs was working the family farm, which he enjoyed and seemed to be rather good at. Conflicts with his father over the running of the farm gave way to Carl leaving home and finding work elsewhere. Carl worked for the Michigan and Chicago Railway. He made his way to Battle Creek, Michigan where he then went to work for the Nichols and Shepard Farm Equipment Manufacturing Company. They built threshing machines.

In 1920 Carl married Mildred Bellingar. By now he was working for the  E.W. Eady shoe factory. In fact, on Carl and Mildred's marriage license, Carl is listed as a shoemaker.

During the 1920's the family moved to Kalamazoo. There, Carl worked as a truck driver, owning his own truck. He also had a construction business too. Life was pretty good. Then the Great Depression hit.

With it being hard to make ends meet, both for Carl and for his parents, Carl moved his family back to the family farm and began life as a farmer again. Being a farmer was hard and the family often had trouble making ends meet, but they made it through. Life began to get easier again in the 1940's. In April 1949 Carl began to try out a new career, as a politician.

Carl was named Watson Township supervisor after the current supervisor resigned the post. He eventually ran for the post, and won, by one vote! Carl stayed active in local politics up until his later years. 

Carl Albert Strand worked as a potato digger, railway man, shoe factory worker, factory assembler, truck driver, construction, farmer, and politician. Definitely a jack of all trades.