"Lat Gud regera, dina dagar alla..."
Translation of Swedish Hymn: "Let God control your days on earth remaining..."
This past weekend, my family was lucky enough to attend the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Bengtson emigration to America (although my Grandpa's Dad actually came over about 10 years earlier- his future wife came over with the rest in 1910). This event was held in Dassel, MN with over 100 Bengtsons in attendance.
Before I go into the details, however, I have to put this experience into a bit of personal context. I have always been fascinated by history. My favorite books as a child were historical fiction (think Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jane Austen, etc.). I had a very active imagination and used to dream of a girl coming from the "olden days" to visit me. Or, I also wished I could see what life was like then. Because my family is Swedish, I loved hearing the stories of my grandparents' parents- those who came to America. I loved (and still do) anything Swedish because it connected me in some way to these people and their stories. Grandpa would still speak Swedish from time to time, and Grandma's Swedish meatballs, Ingebretson's sausage, herring, and Grandma's rye bread were staples for our holiday meals together. It probably didn't hurt my identification with Swedish-ness that there was a doll and whole series of books about a Swedish immigrant girl named Kirsten (which, by the way, I never had the doll- ironic I know- they were ridiculously expensive and I was more of a baby-doll kind of girl anyway)! So I have always been interested in family geneology and heritage, and was looking forward to this time to learn more about our roots.
The Bengtson story is unique because three brothers from Sweden married three sisters from Sweden. One couple was married in Sweden, while the other two couples were married after they had all moved to the U.S. (worked out nicely for the bachelor brothers and bachelorette sisters!). Thus, their children were "double-cousins" because they are related on both their moms' side and their dads' side. Funny huh?? So while my Grandpa lost both of his sisters when they were young, he did have a number of "double-cousins" that served as pseudo siblings. One of the three Swedish couples had 10 children- this is the family that organized the event. Between their grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great-grandkids, this group made up the majority of the reunion. For the next couple, David and Esther, my Grandpa was the only one of his siblings to live into adulthood, so our string of the family is much smaller. The third couple had only one child that had their own kids, so they were small too. Because we are part of the smaller string, we don't know many from the large family, so it was fun to hear their stories and history as well. My Dad and Jim (from the other small string) lead the worship service portion of the reunion because they are the two of their generations who are in the ministry (we have A LOT of dentists- and one other sociologist:)
One perk of the reunion is that we received a book of family history that is over 300 pages long! For a history, heritage, family, Swedishness, and picture lover like myself, this thing is heaven! We just got it on Saturday and I am already almost halfway done (and these are big pages- think encyclopedia pages not novel pages). Here's the great thing about the double cousin phenomenon. One of the men in the large family has done a great deal of work to trace his parents' geneology and learn about the family's life all the way back to the 1700's in Sweden. Since his parents were related to BOTH of my Grandpa's parents, now I have a complete history of my grandpa's entire family history, on both sides. Thanks to no effort of my own, I know about the Bengtsons in Sweden as far as records go back (1700s) and estimates about times even prior to that. How cool is that?
So what have I learned of interest so far?
* Our family is REALLY Covenant. Family back in Sweden on both sides were very into the free (evangelical/pietism??) movement. My great-great-great-great Grandpa was the first in his community to buy his own Bible, after saving up his wages for 5 months. They held house meetings and Bible studies in their homes, in addition to their regular attendance at the Lutheran State church. This was called the Mission church, and they continued to form these churches when they moved to America. These eventually became known as the Evangelical Covenant Church. The vast majority of those at the reunion went to NOrth Park and are still Covenant.
*Immigration was not easy for the first generation. Within the first 20 years of living in the U.S., my Great-Grandma lost her husband and two daughters (with only my Grandpa remaining). Failed crops, lots of mouths to feed (for the big family), and rough weather meant that financial security was probably never really experienced by the first generation (at least not until the mid 1950's). An interesting story- my Great-Grandma's sister actually delivered one of her children by HERSELF. Her husband was gone and the midwife wasn't there- yikes!
*I may be related to half of Minnesota. That's what it feels like at least, reading the geneology! There were a great number of other relatives back in Sweden that ended up immigrating to Minnesota.
* I still wish I lived in the "olden days". This is even after reading all of the crazy stories about delivering your own babies, using a "biffy" in the middle of winter, and manually thawing the well pipes just to get water for cooking, drinking, or bathing.
*Did you know that everyone used to come into town on Saturday evenings in small towns, to do their shopping (like pre-1930's) and socialize? Apparently this was common, and the community band would play. My Grandpa's uncles would keep their meat markets open as late as midnight on those nights because it was their busiest time! Fascinating.
I have only gotten half way through the book, so I'm sure I will have more later!
Until next time,
Kirsten
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