Keeping up with world affairs

 

A self-portrait of my father, Carl Erik Elg, from 1941. I guessed that he was reading Life Magazine, and by comparing this image to the online version of Life at Google Books, I was able to determine that this is indeed their May 19, 1941 issue. The article on the right hand page is about the technology of incendiary bombs, published under the “Science” heading.

 

There are a number of things which are remarkable about this picture. Having a color slide from 1941 is interesting in itself. But this photo is also taken in Sweden, during some of the darkest days of the second world war. In May 1941, Britain stood alone in fighting the Nazi regime. The European continent was under German occupation. It is still half a year until Pearl Harbor, and Russia is still allied to Germany through the Molotov – Ribbentrop agreement. Sweden is neutral, but to the west and south Norway and Denmark have been occupied by the Germans for more than a year, and to our east, the Finns are trying to recover from the 1939-1940 “winter war” against Russia. International trade is very limited by the war.

 

My father was very interested in international affairs, and a subscriber to Life until it ceased publishing. But how did Life magazine make its way to Sweden at this time? One story I seem to recall is that printing plates were flown to Sweden and the magazine printed locally, as part of the “information war” for hearts and minds, but this is half a year before the US joined the war? And in that case, would they have bothered making full color prints of advertising directed to the American market (they did later print a special version which was distributed to US forces overseas, but this did not include advertising)?

 

A royal connection

In an early letter, Todd Lindahl recalled a story about one of Gustaf Elg´s daughters cooking for royalty back in Sweden. I took this with a grain of salt at the time, but it appears there was some substance to this family tradition!

Gustaf and Maria Sofia´s first child was Emma Elisabeth Elg, born in Liljendal in 1857. I have now discovered a parish record which shows that in 1884, Emma Elisabeth moves to Gefle, an old merchant town on the Baltic coast. She is employed as a servant in the household of colonel Carl Bror Munck. Munck is commander the Helsingland infantry regiment, but he is also a member of the staff of King Oscar II, and his wife is a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, Victoria. Their royal duties were performed on a rotating basis, so he was able to fill his post as commander at the same time (until 1885, a regiment only trained for 42 days a year). It is not unlikely that he would have acted as host if a member of the royal family visited the city.

 

As you can see from the photo, Munck was quite an impressive figure in his dress uniform. The medals are for services to the king, Sweden has not been at war since 1814.

Emma emigrated to Minnesota with the rest of her family in 1892, where she married Harold Soderquist, another Swede. Emma passed away in 1915, in Fergus Falls.

 

Emma and Harold, with son Herbert, in 1902.

This must have been one of the first automobiles in Fergus Falls!

Inga-Britta Elg, 1922 - 2012

On May 27, 2012, my mother passed away, she was my last link to the older generation. It is hard to say that death comes unexpected at 89, still she seemed to be flourishing after we moved her to a nursing home in January. She was eating better, playing cards with other guests all evening, and enjoyed the garden outside her room. On her last day, she insisted on bringing her morning coffee outside to watch the spring flowers and enjoy the sun. By 7 PM the same day she was gone.. A cold had developed into pneumonia which became too much for her weak heart.
My mother was born in Ludvika, and spent most of her life there, except for her later school years. She spent her whole working life at the local post office, which meant that she became a well-known person in the small town, and seemed to know everyone we met on the street. Around 1944 she met my father, Carl-Erik Elg, they married in 1946 and had a loving marriage until Carl-Erik passed away in 1993.
My mother´s main interests were gardening - in her final years she still insisted on having fresh flowers in her room every day - and travel. Long before international travel became a mass-market commodity, she traveled with Carl-Erik to many corners of Europe, to Australia and the US, and introduced me and my sister to international travel at an early age.
She was a modern woman in many ways. She insisted on her own career, although we had a maid to look after us children while we were small. Her parents divorced while she was young and both re-married. Although I am sure the process was hard for her at the time, they were able to stay on friendly terms, and we kids saw nothing out of the ordinary in having an extra set of grandparents around at Christmas and other family gatherings.

Hammer mill restored at Gravendal

The old water-powered hammer mill at Gravendal, where many Elgs worked as blacksmiths, has been restored to working order. More photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/len_elg/sets/72157628668037499/

Everett Johnson, 1921-2011

Everett passed away on Wednesday, August 24, 2011, two months after celebrating his 90th birthday in a large circle of family and friends. Everett is survived by his wife of 64 years, Margaret, a daughter, Joyce, and a son, David, with families, a sister, Carol, and three grandchildren.

Everett was a grandson of my great-grandfather's cousin Jacob Elg Johnson, who emigrated to the US in 1880.

Link to Everett´s obituary

At the age of six, Everett moved with his family to the family ranch, now known as the "Mountain View Ranch", west of Laramie, and lived for the rest of his life there.

Margaret Johnson´s history of life on the ranch

A 1961 article about life on the Johnson ranch

Swedish naming practices

A very good article about Swedish naming practices:

http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/Naming%20practice_eng.htm

Alex Elge/Johnson - yet another twist..

I have now found the departure records for the Montana Elges in 1887. These records confirm some of my hunches, and adds yet another twist to the mystery of Alex´identity.

They did indeed emigrate from Oslo - or Kristiania, as the city was known at the time. Alexander, Maria, Edvard, Otto, Beata and Ernfrid Elge all depart Kristiania on March 4, 1887, on board the Elster Line´s ship "Rollo", with Helena, Montana, stated as their final destination. Rollo was a feeder ship which took them to Hull in England. Here they would board a train across England to Liverpool, where they boarded the Britannic for their Atlantic crossing.



Now come the interesting parts. They all use the Americanized spelling "Elge" already when boarding the ship in Kristiania. Alexander Elge is a US citizen, unmarried, and his age is listed as 36 years, which means he was born around 1850, not 1861 as listed in the 1900 Helena census.

A birth year of 1850 matches my prime suspect, that Alexander was in fact Per August Elg. It also gives him time to establish the ranch in Wyoming around 1877. Perhaps it was not "Alexander Johnson" who died, as stated in Margaret´s history of the ranch, but his wife Sophia? After which Alexander decides to make a fresh start with his younger siblings in Montana?