What traces will we leave behind, once we're gone? I don't know if my missionary relatives asked themselves that question in respect to anything but their ultimate goal - heaven. To them, the salvation of souls within their mission in China was number one. They didn't try to reach fame or become uplifted members of... Continue Reading →
The Yellow River or Huang He is the second longest river i China after the Yangtze River. It's an impressive flow of water, vital to the transport of goods and people in a country where it's not always been easy to travel by land. Huang He was of course very important for the missionaries as... Continue Reading →
With the pandemic still blocking what used to be our lives, people are looking to dig where they stand. In Sweden, house prices are soaring as we move out of the city centres to do our distance work from a more pleasant environment. People now mainly look for that extra room where you can put... Continue Reading →
From the stories my grandmother used to tell me when I was little, there is one I often think about come Christmas. It was 1895 and my grandfather's parents, Dagny and Robert, were newlyweds. They lived in a small Chinese mountain village called Hancheng in the northwest. There were no other Europeans there, and it... Continue Reading →
How I love research! It's something about finding those connections throughout time that fascinates me. When you make that discovery you didn't expect to - even if it's a tiny one. It's like laying a puzzle where you don't have all the pieces when you start and you never know how big that puzzle is... Continue Reading →
I noticed that I often refer to my grandparents' and their parents' different experiences with the dangerous robber bands that were an inevitable part of travelling in China back in the days. The stories of how my relatives met and escaped different robbers have been part of a narrative that's been following me throughout my... Continue Reading →
"We had two scout troops. One for the boys and one for the girls." My grandmother Edna always told her childhood stories in a very soft voice. Her life stories were my bedtime fairytales, and perhaps that is why I remember them so vividly. "When we had days off, we went on hikes down to... Continue Reading →
Staycation can be a way of discovering your own environment. In this post my grandparents staycation in the 1950's is a backdrop to my own staycation in 2020.
About what one might think is lost forever can turn up most unexpectedly - and perhaps even better.
Her name was Li-Niang. She worked with Olga and Nils at the station in Dali/Tungchowfu in China. Li-Niang was a hard-working woman, who helped my great grandparents take care of their children. My grandmother Edna loved Li-Niang. It was Li-Niang who taught her Chinese, who made sure she got bathed and hid Edna when bandits... Continue Reading →
My grandparents were both born in China - only five days apart. They met for the first time when they were one year old and later became friends, fiancés and a couple for life. When my grandparents were 14 years old, they had to leave China due to the turmoil at the time. My grandmother... Continue Reading →
China missionary Olga turns up again - this time in an influencial old nurses' dictionary by Honnor Morten.
Do you get frustrated when the bus or train is late, or all the roads are clogged, and you have to sit in car queues waisting your valuable time? One of the reasons I use my bike whenever the weather allows, is that I don't like to wait to get going. I want to decide... Continue Reading →
The discovery of a rare photograph of my great grandmother playing in the snow.
Since I have been looking into my family history and reading letters from the past, I have become increasingly interested in the context my relatives lived in. They were born in the 19th century and passed into the 20th, with everything that happened and was invented at the time. Just as I find it hard... Continue Reading →
Photography is the art of preserving what we do not want to forget. Through photography we can see the world both as it is, and discover new interpretations of that same reality. Back in the days, when photos didn’t lie – when retouching and editing photos was non-existing – photography was something very special. People... Continue Reading →
Going through some photos from my ancestor's time in China, I find it fascinating to scrutinize the contents of those photos that - at a first glance - don't seem very interesting. Have you done that? Really looked at the details in a photograph and discovered something that reveals a new dimension? I had that... Continue Reading →
A story about family geneaology research, a wedding picture and how a braid was a determining factor in my familys' continutiy.
This man is part of my family. He stands proudly in his place on the window seal, together with photos of my husband and kids. He is by far the most prominent-looking of them all. He is all dressed up in his finest gear. But who is he? My grandmother told me that he was... Continue Reading →
Reading letters from my great grandmother I slowly unveil her history and piece together the puzzle that is our familys' legacy
Thérèse Amnéus 