Lovely that you got to experience and see parts of your family history like that. I believe that for many of us Swedes we don't actually have that - unless you happen to belong to a family that has lived in one place for many, many, years. Just lost history to us, I guess. Sweden, and all of the Nordics, used to be quite poor countries up until after WW2. I have this old, Swedish, geography/history book from 1914 (or so) and it for example states that "Norway is one of the poorest countries in Europe" - a far cry from todays super-rich Norway (they found oil in the 70's). Sweden got rich on industry and innovation instead, much like Finland. I guess Denmark did too, but they are "ye olde enemy" so no praising them :) As you may already know - In Sweden during the 1800's, many were unable to find work and thus couldn't feed their families, so many of the less-fortunate decided to scrape together what they could to buy tickets to America. About 1 million made the trip, so about 1/3 of Swedens population at the time.
Lovely indeed, and very eye opening to learning more about my family and myself. That's fair, if you didn't have a family that kept track and also moved a lot that would be difficult to have. I think for a lot of my family, more than a few of the cousins have always been interested in history and so they made it a point to keep records of things like that because they didn't want to lose their history. I'm very lucky to have had family members who valued that knowledge so highly. Yes they were poor countries indeed. I got to learn a little about the economy there before WW2 from my cousins. One of them had me purchase the book "The Last Letter Home" written by Moberg. I haven't had a chance to finish it yet but there are a few written by him that help kind of explain the economy and also why so many Swedes went to America as well. Wow, I didn't realize that it was 1/3 of the population though. I feel that many Americans have forgotten how much of a melting pot America was and is. So many people choose to be ignorant and choose cruelty towards foreigners and to be racists, when quit a few if they decided to expand their education would get the eye opening realization that many of their families started out as immigrants that came to America. History is important, more important than many people realize. Of course depending on who wrote your history book, the saying "the winner writes the history books" would explain why they were also described as that. That phrase has always made me curious about how wars and other things would of been portrayed had the opposite side won. Of course without a time machine its hard to find out hahaha.
Hello. It's always interesting to walk around a cemetery if you take the time to do so. In your case, you have relatives there and then it becomes extra personal and emotional. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was very common in Sweden to move houses to new places. Either because the new location was better or because the house was in the way of something else.
That it is. Cemeteries have unique energies at different ones in my opinion. That's true as well. Huh I didn't know that. Why was it so common? I think I found it just impressive that they took it apart piece by piece and reassembled it else where. I've never heard of another culture doing that instead of just building a new home in the new location. I very much appreciate the fact that in Sweden they just moved it hahaha.
So cool that you use old folk songs. Quite bold I might add, with you not understanding the lyrics. These old songs are usually about death and disaster, or drunk people fighting, then disaster and death. Or young women being mislead by handsome strangers, then death and disaster. And the occasional traumatically giving birth to a child out of wedlock, then disaster and death. I dont know who wrote these, most are just written down as "traditional", but I´m not entirely sure they were a happy bunch.
Thank you, I very much love how they sound. Yes I realize it's bold. With what Swedish I have learned I do know that there are a lot of dark folk songs, but that's also just part of the culture and history of Sweden. I don't think they were technically always written by the people who went through the scenarios though. In my mind I view them more as scare tactics, such as those used in Germany with the Grimms fairytales, they're more intended to teach you not to do those things out of fear of bad things happening. Do I support using fear tactics, not entirely, but again that was just part of the culture. They didn't have communication and access to information as we do now and so music and songs played by perhaps traveling entertainers helped in a way teach society about things that could be dangerous. You can learn a lot about a place and it's people if you study their folklore. For instance vampires, stories and a misunderstanding of how the body decomposes after death is part of what led to the creation of the creature known as a vampire, and from there you move towards Dracula, etc. Studying that folklore can give you an idea of the time frame in which a society or group of people perhaps started to learn about a topic, and as the stories change can give you a reference for how fast or slow a society was picking up on science, etc.
The great emigration from Sweden to the USA between around 1850 and 1930 saw almost 1.5 million Swedes moving to the USA (in 1930 there lived about 6 million people in Sweden so about 1/6 of the entire population emigrated). Kinda crazy to think about
It's never a good time to be poor but Sweden in the mid 19th century was really bad, the last starvation in 1867 made people "put their boats in the water" and escape. Also it was prohibited to exercise religion outside of the church building, many left because of that too. 4.3 million US americans have roots in Sweden today. In year 1900 Chicago was "Sweden's second largest city" with 100.000 swedes living there.
My cousin was telling me about the history of the starvation at that time. Oh, why was it not permitted to exercise religion outside of the church at the time? My grandma told me about the comment of Chicago being Sweden's second largest city, and the influence is very much noticed in farming areas in certain areas of Illinois. My family still has their farm in Illinois and in the summer there is an annual Swedish Days Festival that happens in Geneva Illinois. While growing up, the festival was my favorite time of year 😁
@@candytechadventures In midevial time it was the church that controlled the state, later say from the 16th-to 18th century it shifted to being the state that controlled the church. It became obligatory to go to the church on sunday (by law), because the priest would announce news and decrees that the state wanted forwarded to the population. Who's in jail this time, who is wanted by the law, what are this years taxes, who is drafted to go to war, etc. People lost faith in the church establishment because of this, probably part of why Sweden turned into one of the most secular countries today. In the19th century christianity and sobriety walked close and many small lodges appeared, but as they were "outside control of establishment" they were literally fought down by government and many obediant citizens (that needed their booze). People eventually emigrated to America to be free to exercise their religion because of that.
@@candytechadventures About 1.5 million citizens emigrated to america, out of a total of 4.5 million from the beginning. A staggering third of the population left the country during a 50-year period,. I think all swedes know of having relatives in the americas (USA/Canada foremost) although most have lost track of who they are today. The swedish/americans of today are as many as the whole of Sweden when the emigration began. Imagine if everyone living in Minnesota were a swede and you get an idea of the proportions.There has been written books and made movies about them and their life, search for Vilhelm Moberg's "Utvandrarna/The Emigrants". We also have a popular tv-show called Allt för Sverige/All for Sweden where Americans are brought to Sweden to find their heritage and roots, reconnecting to relatives that "stayed behind". Very emotional.
Been lovely following your journey!
Awe it makes me very happy to hear you've enjoyed the journey. Hopefully when I get back for another trip you will enjoy that one as well 😁
Lovely that you got to experience and see parts of your family history like that. I believe that for many of us Swedes we don't actually have that - unless you happen to belong to a family that has lived in one place for many, many, years. Just lost history to us, I guess.
Sweden, and all of the Nordics, used to be quite poor countries up until after WW2. I have this old, Swedish, geography/history book from 1914 (or so) and it for example states that "Norway is one of the poorest countries in Europe" - a far cry from todays super-rich Norway (they found oil in the 70's). Sweden got rich on industry and innovation instead, much like Finland. I guess Denmark did too, but they are "ye olde enemy" so no praising them :)
As you may already know - In Sweden during the 1800's, many were unable to find work and thus couldn't feed their families, so many of the less-fortunate decided to scrape together what they could to buy tickets to America. About 1 million made the trip, so about 1/3 of Swedens population at the time.
Lovely indeed, and very eye opening to learning more about my family and myself. That's fair, if you didn't have a family that kept track and also moved a lot that would be difficult to have. I think for a lot of my family, more than a few of the cousins have always been interested in history and so they made it a point to keep records of things like that because they didn't want to lose their history. I'm very lucky to have had family members who valued that knowledge so highly.
Yes they were poor countries indeed. I got to learn a little about the economy there before WW2 from my cousins. One of them had me purchase the book "The Last Letter Home" written by Moberg. I haven't had a chance to finish it yet but there are a few written by him that help kind of explain the economy and also why so many Swedes went to America as well. Wow, I didn't realize that it was 1/3 of the population though. I feel that many Americans have forgotten how much of a melting pot America was and is. So many people choose to be ignorant and choose cruelty towards foreigners and to be racists, when quit a few if they decided to expand their education would get the eye opening realization that many of their families started out as immigrants that came to America. History is important, more important than many people realize.
Of course depending on who wrote your history book, the saying "the winner writes the history books" would explain why they were also described as that. That phrase has always made me curious about how wars and other things would of been portrayed had the opposite side won. Of course without a time machine its hard to find out hahaha.
Hello. It's always interesting to walk around a cemetery if you take the time to do so. In your case, you have relatives there and then it becomes extra personal and emotional. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was very common in Sweden to move houses to new places. Either because the new location was better or because the house was in the way of something else.
That it is. Cemeteries have unique energies at different ones in my opinion. That's true as well. Huh I didn't know that. Why was it so common? I think I found it just impressive that they took it apart piece by piece and reassembled it else where. I've never heard of another culture doing that instead of just building a new home in the new location. I very much appreciate the fact that in Sweden they just moved it hahaha.
So cool that you use old folk songs. Quite bold I might add, with you not understanding the lyrics. These old songs are usually about death and disaster, or drunk people fighting, then disaster and death. Or young women being mislead by handsome strangers, then death and disaster. And the occasional traumatically giving birth to a child out of wedlock, then disaster and death. I dont know who wrote these, most are just written down as "traditional", but I´m not entirely sure they were a happy bunch.
Thank you, I very much love how they sound. Yes I realize it's bold. With what Swedish I have learned I do know that there are a lot of dark folk songs, but that's also just part of the culture and history of Sweden. I don't think they were technically always written by the people who went through the scenarios though. In my mind I view them more as scare tactics, such as those used in Germany with the Grimms fairytales, they're more intended to teach you not to do those things out of fear of bad things happening. Do I support using fear tactics, not entirely, but again that was just part of the culture. They didn't have communication and access to information as we do now and so music and songs played by perhaps traveling entertainers helped in a way teach society about things that could be dangerous. You can learn a lot about a place and it's people if you study their folklore. For instance vampires, stories and a misunderstanding of how the body decomposes after death is part of what led to the creation of the creature known as a vampire, and from there you move towards Dracula, etc. Studying that folklore can give you an idea of the time frame in which a society or group of people perhaps started to learn about a topic, and as the stories change can give you a reference for how fast or slow a society was picking up on science, etc.
The great emigration from Sweden to the USA between around 1850 and 1930 saw almost 1.5 million Swedes moving to the USA (in 1930 there lived about 6 million people in Sweden so about 1/6 of the entire population emigrated). Kinda crazy to think about
It's never a good time to be poor but Sweden in the mid 19th century was really bad, the last starvation in 1867 made people "put their boats in the water" and escape. Also it was prohibited to exercise religion outside of the church building, many left because of that too. 4.3 million US americans have roots in Sweden today. In year 1900 Chicago was "Sweden's second largest city" with 100.000 swedes living there.
Wow, I knew there were a lot who emigrated, but I didn't think it was that many. That's an impressive amount.
My cousin was telling me about the history of the starvation at that time. Oh, why was it not permitted to exercise religion outside of the church at the time? My grandma told me about the comment of Chicago being Sweden's second largest city, and the influence is very much noticed in farming areas in certain areas of Illinois. My family still has their farm in Illinois and in the summer there is an annual Swedish Days Festival that happens in Geneva Illinois. While growing up, the festival was my favorite time of year 😁
@@candytechadventures In midevial time it was the church that controlled the state, later say from the 16th-to 18th century it shifted to being the state that controlled the church. It became obligatory to go to the church on sunday (by law), because the priest would announce news and decrees that the state wanted forwarded to the population. Who's in jail this time, who is wanted by the law, what are this years taxes, who is drafted to go to war, etc. People lost faith in the church establishment because of this, probably part of why Sweden turned into one of the most secular countries today. In the19th century christianity and sobriety walked close and many small lodges appeared, but as they were "outside control of establishment" they were literally fought down by government and many obediant citizens (that needed their booze). People eventually emigrated to America to be free to exercise their religion because of that.
@@candytechadventures About 1.5 million citizens emigrated to america, out of a total of 4.5 million from the beginning. A staggering third of the population left the country during a 50-year period,. I think all swedes know of having relatives in the americas (USA/Canada foremost) although most have lost track of who they are today. The swedish/americans of today are as many as the whole of Sweden when the emigration began. Imagine if everyone living in Minnesota were a swede and you get an idea of the proportions.There has been written books and made movies about them and their life, search for Vilhelm Moberg's "Utvandrarna/The Emigrants". We also have a popular tv-show called Allt för Sverige/All for Sweden where Americans are brought to Sweden to find their heritage and roots, reconnecting to relatives that "stayed behind". Very emotional.