Dalin

Tack, min svenska kusin!

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to a newly discovered Swedish 3rd cousin, a few more pieces of my family history puzzle are in place.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been hard at work researching my father’s Swedish roots, primarily through the website ArkivDigital.

I really cannot say enough good stuff about this website. Provided you have a location with which to begin your research, the records are amazing. I had heard that Swedish records were some of the best in the genealogy world – and believe me, they are. Earlier this year I also spent some time researching this database and since then, I have identified and downloaded 70 or so records, all relating to my Swedish great grandparents and their ancestors.

Armed with all the new information I’ve obtained, I was able to do additional searching in Ancestry. And a few weeks ago, I noticed there were some Ancestry users from Sweden who had some of the same people in their tree that I have in mine. I contacted several of them – and finally located a Swedish cousin (svenska kusin)!!

My “new” cousin and I have determined that our great great grandfathers Äkers Lars Andersson (1827-1913)1 and Erik Andersson (1837-1919) were brothers.2 They were the sons of Östbors Goth Lars Larsson (1764-1834) and Östbors Margreta Larsdotter (1767-1807). Lars and Margreta had nine children total.

I will share more detailed information later, along with source information. But for now, I wanted to share my excitement over discovering a “new” cousin!

And just one more fun fact before I close this post. Through her research, my cousin learned that Lars was a boat or ship maker in Hudiksvall. In fact, she told me, he was “some kind of boss”.

And she also said that the boats he made were “most certainly” wooden.

Hmmm, I thought. Wooden boat. Why does that sound so familiar?

And then I remembered this photo of my great grandfather, Lars’ son Anders (“Andrew”) Dalin.

And now we know where “Grampa Dalin” learned to make a wooden boat.

NOTES
  1. My new cousin tells me that the word “Äkers” on the front of Lars‘ name indicates either where he lived or was born, and was a common practice in the county where he was born. ↩
  2. At some point later in their lives, both brothers added new surnames to their original names. Lars added DAHLIN (sometimes spelled DALIN) and Erik added GLAD. I am a descendent of Lars on my father’s side and can confirm that DALIN is the surname that was handed down. I had recently wondered if the DALIN name was what they refer to in Sweden as a “soldier name”. But my cousin confirmed that Lars was not a soldier. However, Lars‘ brother Erik was a soldier and GLAD is a soldier name. Click here for more information on Swedish soldier names. ↩

Cid at Work

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

I got to thinking about my grandmother’s remark that my grandfather always wore a “cap with a hard visor” in his various jobs. This morning I looked at my files and came across these three photos. I’m not sure the first cap had a hard visor – but it’s fun to have these wonderful photos that document his working career throughout the years.

 

1919 photo_Cid Dalin Sr standing and friend in wagon_est_fr negative
Cid posing in front of what appears to be a delivery wagon for the New York Store, later Fligelman’s Department Store. Photo probably taken about 1916.

 

1920 photo_Cid Dalin Sr inside trolley car
This photo was taken during the time Cid worked as a conductor for the City Street Car line, circa 1920.

 

1946 09 00 photo_Cid Dalin Sr in front of Coca-Cola truck
Cid began working for the H. F. Sheehan Company in about 1930. This photo was taken in 1946.

Once Upon a Time . . .

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

About a year after my paternal grandfather died in July of 1952, my grandmother – Georgiana Frances (Schenck) Dalin – wrote this beautiful story in her journal.

July 27, 1953

“Once Upon a Time”

You have heard people say “once upon a time when I was young” or “once upon a time I was thin and tall”.

Cid Dalin Sr. circa 1916
Cid circa 1916

“Once upon a time” I was very much in love. He was tall – 6 ft. 1 inch tall, dark and very handsome. He had the sweetest smile. He was a motorman and conductor on a City Street Car line, never letting an older man or woman get on the street car without getting off and assisting them onto the car, always removing his hat at the same time. Somehow his work always required him wearing a cap with a hard visor. After the conductor’s cap, the bus cap – then the Coca-Cola cap which he wore for nearly 20 years.

We never really officially met, but instantly knew our love for each other and could never be separated not even for a time.

“Once Upon a Time” there was a World War I. My Cid was on a photograph of a group of soldiers who had enlisted and were leaving for the Service. I saw this photograph at Marysville before ever meeting him and picked him out as my ideal. So odd that we should meet a year later.

He always did the nicest things for me, often bringing a rose to my place of employment during working hours. Always he sent me flowers. He strived in every way to make his family happy and giving them anything they wanted or wished for. Never passed on his way but always alert to see who he could help in some way, never wanting to pass a hitch hiker on the road.

He was a wonderful Father, always doing for someone of his family, his happiness consisted in doing for others, no matter what the cost physically or otherwise.

Our love grew deeper and greater as the years passed. After 31 years, Our Blessed Lord sent for him and [we] must go on alone. Seems impossible at times, but Heaven is so beautiful and Cid’s happiness there so great. [I] find after this year of loneliness we can spare him, safe with God and His Blessed Mother, and would not wish him back. If only we could pay back in some way (other than prayers for him) what he has done for us.

Fran and Cid circa 1930
Fran and Cid circa 1930

One Life, One Love, One Heart – I have a very warm love to remember.

Fran

Who is the woman in this photo? Part 3

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

This is Part 3 of “Who is the woman in this photo?” Click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2.

Once again, here are the three photos I sent to Maureen for review prior to our phone consultation.

Maureen’s Analysis

First, I’d like to say how much I enjoyed my chat with Maureen. She was very friendly and generous with her tips and observations. I would recommend her to anyone who might need a professional to take a look at their family photos.

  • Maureen estimated that Photo #1 was probably taken around 1890. And she made a comment that she thought the boy in the photo looked ill, which is interesting considering Johan died when he was only 4 years old – and Maureen knew nothing about that fact prior to the phone call.
  • Having already established that Brita is probably the woman in Photos #2 and #3, Maureen agreed that the woman in Photo #1 is probably Brita Dalin. Her assessment was based primarily on the woman’s large eyes, which she said were quite visible in both Photo #1 and Photo #3, and only slightly less obvious in Photo #2 due to the glare from the glasses she is wearing.
  • On an interesting side note, Maureen asked if I knew how Johan had died. I told her that I had only recently located a birth record for Johan but not a death record. The morning after we talked, I made another search for his death record and located it at Ancestry.com. He was four years old when he died in April of 1892 and the cause of death was listed as “lung inflammation”.1 In addition, Maureen commented that Brita looked very sad in all three photos. And I agreed.1892 Johan Dahlin death record

 

 

  • Maureen also thought Photo #3 looked like either a passport photo or perhaps a photo taken to finalize her citizenship. I have not yet located any record to show that she traveled to a location requiring a passport nor have I located any citizenship documents, although her husband Andrew filed a “Declaration of Intention” to become a citizen in 1918.

Oh, and then a funny thing happened. You know, one of those “How in the world did I not see this before??” kind of thing.

seals on back of photoAs I was reviewing the back of Photo #2 for this blog post, I noticed there were six medallion-type images that contained references to several locations and dates, as well as several words that resembled the phrases “Silver Medal” and “Bronze Medal”. After running a few of these phrases through Google Translate (Swedish to English), it appears the back of the photo contains images of six medals that were awarded to the photographer in various years, including 1879, 1882 and 18892 – which means, of course, that at least Photo #2 must be dated after 1889.

And then for fun, I cropped head shots of all of Brita’s children (from two different photos) so I could compare them side by side. The birth order of these children is as indicated in the photo.

Do you think the little boy on the left is the sibling of the four children on the right? I think the lips of the three boys, and possibly Freda, are similar. And Johan, Cid and Osma all seem to have high foreheads.

Brita's children

In conclusion, the discovery of the death record of Johan finally puts to rest the story my father told me so long ago – about his grandparents Andrew and Brita who immigrated to the United States, and how they had a son named “John” who was born in Sweden but died when he was a young boy.

And here I want to say a great big “Thank You!” to Maureen for her assistance in helping me fill in the pieces of this family story.

Next, I plan to search Swedish records for more information about Andrew and Brita and their birth parents.3

Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart
FOOTNOTES
  1.  Gavleborg County, Halsingland, Sweden, Death Records, Hudiksvall, Johan Lars Anders Dahlin, 1 April 1892; image, “Sweden, Selected Indexed Death Records, 1840-1860 and 1878-1942,” Ancestry.com (https://ancestry.com : accessed 24 May 2016); citing Swedish Church Records Archive. Johanneshov, Sweden: Genline AB. ↩
  2. Although “1889” is a little difficult to read and could be “1869″. ↩
  3. In between drafting and finalizing this blog post, I did some research on the web site Arkivdigital.com, which proved very successful. I’ll be reporting on those findings in an upcoming blog post. ↩