Photo: Marie Louise Bratt

Glad Påsk!
... Happy Easter!
Time of blommor (flowers), påskägg (Easter eggs), snow drops and crocuses. The tulips above are from last spring. We are still waiting for them to reappear... The mountains of snow on our balcony is almost gone, so there is hope. All of you who live in California and Florida might not know what this means to frozen Swedes, but if you live in Minnesota or in Canada you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The Bridge to Sweden newsletter have not been appearing as often as I would like. The reason? Lots of research to find your Swedish relatives - as well as visits with children and grandchildren in Florida and Canada.

What's in this newsletter? 

 Easter in Sweden, Påsk, is a celebration of spring more than a religious holiday. The extremely religious country that was Sweden in the 1800s, when attendance of church was obligatory, is long gone. I'll tell you a bit more about our Easter celebration below.

Virtual Sweden: If grandma is not able to travel to Sweden, what is second best? Perhaps a CD with photos from where her mother or father grew up? Maybe a great present for her 90th birthday?

Old and new CDs: Necessary to find your Swedish family

Long before påsk, while snow is still deep, bakeries present wonderful cakes called semla. A large bun, filled with almond paste and covered with whipped cream and sugar - eaten with warm milk poured over it! This is also when we pick our påskris: long twigs cut from a birch tree, decorated with colored feathers. When the leaves appear, spring is here!

The best part of påsk, when I was a child, was dressing up as a witch, påskkärring, on Skärtorsdagen to visit neighbors and get candy and sometimes coins. A little bit like Halloween... Second best? Definitely the Easter egg filled with candy and chocolate.

The most boring part of påsk? Good Friday, here called Långfredagen, the long Friday. Stores were closed that day, and so were movie theaters. Nothing fun was going on and it seemed very, very long to me.

Here are a few more little witches you might want to visit. 
 

Lonny (my husband) and I, both experienced photographers, will travel to that village, in Småland or in Västergötland (or anywhere else in Sweden), and photograph the area for you. We'll put the edited pictures on a CD, with text, and send it to you. A very special present for one of your relatives, or simply for yourself, your children and grandchildren.

What will we photograph?

• the whole surrounding area and the village itself
• the church where grandma was baptized and her parents married
• the cemetery where many of her relatives were buried
• the house, farm or homestead where grandpa grew up - or where his house once was, perhaps there is now only a foundation, an old apple tree or old pump

What do you get?

• At least 100 carefully edited photos (selected among the many hundreds we'll take)
• Every photo will have some explaining text (perhaps even a story or two also)
• Ten copies of the CD for you to give to your relatives, and have enough for yourself too

How much does it cost?

• We charge US$2500, which includes all our expenses (our time to travel and stay in the area for several days, to edit the photographs, add text and prepare the CDs).
• A suggestion: Join together with other family members! With 10 of you, the price will be reduced to only $250 per person. And each of you will get a CD.

You can get an idea of the quality of our work in previous newsletters with many photos. Bill Woodruff, a customer and professional photographer, who had expected to be responsible for trip photos for his group, wrote the following:
Your service and photos were superb. You helped me relax and enjoy the trip much more. Knowing that you were taking care of your assignment to our group helped me to have a wonderful holiday.

One more thing: In order to find the place here in Sweden, we need a few things:

• the exact name and date of birth of the person who emigrated
• the name of the parish and village
• the name of the farm or homestead (Swedish farms and even cottages always have names!)

If you don't have this information, I'd be happy to do the necessary research for you. Just send me an email and I'll give you a proposal.

3. Old and new research tools
CDs, Internet sites and books help me find your Swedish relatives. Here are a few I use:

• The Swedish Census from 1880, 1890, 1900, 1970 and 1980.
• Sveriges dödbok, a CD including those who died between 1947 and 2006.
• CDs covering various parts of Stockholm, for example Gamla Stan, Söder and Kungsholmen.
• Emigranten and Emibas, with information about large numbers of emigrants.

Without all this material, and many books and websites too, I would not be able to help you. New CDs are coming soon, for example a Sveriges dödbok for the years 1901 to 1946 and the census of 1910. Both will help with later information, from after year 1900, which remains difficult to find. So I'll be one of the first to order these new CDs!

This material helps me find your relatives in Sweden, those who emigrated and those alive today!  Swedes are searching, and so are many of you! A man named Bob left Sweden with his parents in the 1930s, while still very young. His parents' brothers and sisters remained in Sweden and had families there. The frequent letter writing ended when the parents died. Recently, when Bob was in his 70s, I found one of his Swedish cousins, who actually had tried to find Bill for many years. How exciting for all of us!

If your grandparent left Sweden, perhaps in the early 1900s, your Swedish second cousins might still be looking for you. Perhaps you, and they, have heard the stories and still have the old photographs and letters. If your great grandparent emigrated, perhaps in late 1800s, ties are weaker and memories maybe gone with an earlier generation. But many Swedes are as interested in genealogy as you are and would love to find cousins from across the oceans.

With the help of CDs and more I can help!

I received a couple of wonderful emails from two of my customers and I want to share them with you (with their permission):

...  writing to thank you  for all the good work you did in finding our  Swedish family.   It truly was a very exciting time..  Your information and directions were right on the mark... we met all the relatives.  They  were all very gracious and as  glad to see us as we were to see them.   They showed us where Herman's  family home was but is no more... we had a wonderful  time, learned a lot about my family.  I wanted you to know we had a wonderful time with our Swedish relatives  and thank you so much for finding them for us.   If I hear of any one searching for relatives in Sweden I certainly would recommend you.  Thank you. With admiration
Harriet Walden (90 years old, who visited her family in Sweden last summer)

Dear Marie Louise,
I can’t thank you enough for the work you have done on my behalf.  The family is so pleased with the results and I am looking forward to our trip to Sweden to meet our relatives.... Again, thank you, Marie Louise.  You have made a dream come true for us and we are most grateful. My very best wishes,
Shelley Jones (who is planning a trip to Sweden this summer)

Words like these warm my heart!

A piece of advise: If your relative speaks only Swedish, don't give up! Programs on the Internet can translate for you, not perfectly, but it's better than losing a relative! This one was recommended by one of my customers, World Lingo.

Perhaps you are planning a visit Sweden soon and you would love to be able to speak some Swedish? Then I recommend a great program called Rosetta Stone. It's not cheap, but fun and very easy to use. My grandchildren, age 4 and 8, call it "the Swedish game". (no, Rosetta Stone is not paying me for telling you about their program... )

If you believe that your mother, sister or friend might be interested in this newsletter, please send it on to them. And if you no longer want to receive it, let me know. 

Marie Louise Bratt
Vigelsjöhöjden 1B
76152 Norrtälje
Sweden

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