Well, since I got here, I’ve been in the Norrköping Library for about 7 hours as tehy have a really good geneological library and people to help out. I’ve found out a lot of things, especially about my father’s father’s family, but I’ve also done research on the other parts. The biggest thing I found out was that my great grandfather, Hjalmar Fredrik Mattsson, was the 4th of 5 children, but he was the only one who lived past the age of two. Also, he came to America with an 8 year old boy, who I’m not sure if he was a relative or not. More information needed to research.
Norrköping seems like Lowell if it were bigger. It’s nice city, and they’ve done a lot of nice things here (the way they’ve redone the mills here into museums and concert halls, artists studios, etc. is impressive.) I’ve walked around a bit, and gone into 2 museums, but I’ve mostly seen the library.
This will be my last post for a while, as I’m heading out tomorrow to the island of Utö in the Stockholm archipelego, where I’ll celebrate Midsommer with my friend Fred Hesslevik (who I sang with in Stämbandet) and his wife Lena. I’ll take a train from here to Stockholm, another to Västerhannige, a bus to the port, and then a ferry over to the island. I’m looking forward to a few days of not traveling and just hanging out. I’m probably eat and drink a lot too, and I’m looking forward to seeing how real Swede celebrate Midsommer. Everything closes down here soon, and the weather for Midsommer is the biggest thing on the news.
I should be in Stockholm on Sunday, but maybe Monday. I’m flying out to Iceland on Wednesday, and then I really won’t know the language.
Feel free to send me an email if you want to get to me.
Ken