Linnea Andersson, 18, from Bårslöv is caught by the searching for her roots. That’s why she is doing a website about genealogy as examination-work as a senior in high school.

   Genealogy – that’s something for old ladies and men… That’s what most people think. But a new trend is coming. More and more young people are interested in their origin and curious to know more about it.

   An example of this is Linnea Andersson, 18, from Bårslöv. As examination-work at school she is doing a website about genealogy. It contains a database where you can search in the birth records for the parish of Förslöv, her own family tree, some tips and links to other pages that could be useful to genealogists.

   Linnea Andersson is in her last year in the social subjects and media program at Filbornaskolan in Helsingborg. Two years ago she started to search for her roots and found some relatives on the internet, in a database called DDSS. That wet the appetite.

   - My uncle had done some research before. He did it as examination-work too. That inspired me.

   Linnea Andersson is a member of Bjäre Släktring and Kullabygdens släktforskare, where she also joined a genealogical-course for beginners.  In the beginning there was a lot to think of.

   - I didn’t even know what a microform looked like, Linnea says. Now I’ve been to the regional archives in Lund many times. I’ve been copying Förslöv’s birth records there. I’ve been able to do it since I’m free on Thursdays, Linnea says.

   The work with the website will be finished in week 9. Then Linnea is supposed to hand in a scientific report on her work. Janne Petersson, teacher in media, at Filbornaskolan is her instructor. The website's URL is http://buffy.hogpack.com/genealogi and the look is pleasing. The family tree is built by the program “Min Släkt”.

   The work with the website is in full progress and the database with the birth records of Förslöv is being filled up all the time. There is no doubt Linnea is doing this out of interest in the matter.

   Linnea Andersson is lucky to have access to a lot of the family’s old photos and letters. For example there is an investigation about the farm in Hesslebo, Jonstorp, which has been in the family’s possession since 1629.

   - I’ve got the investigation from my grandparents, Linnea says.

A lot of the material about the family is to be found with Linnea Andersson’s father’s aunt Ruth Andersson in Helsingborg.

   - She has got a whole box with old letters and she knows a lot about many things. She has told me a lot. And I can always ask my grandparents.

   Linnea Andersson keeps all the stuff in different folders.

   - I scan or take photos of the pictures and I write the letters on the computer.

   Linnea Andersson has got most of her roots in Bjäre, Kullabygden and Örkelljunga. Some of the parishes in question are: Jonstorp, Farhult, Brunnby, Väsby, Förslöv, Oderljunga, Hjärnarp, Rebbelberga, Fleninge, Kattarp and Västra Broby but also Åsljunga, Örkelljunga, Röke, Kågeröd, Perstorp, Ottarp and Skånes Fagerhult. Long time ago Linnea Andersson had ancestors in Laholm and Våxtorp in Halland and Berga in Småland.

   A genealogist is often caught by some special fortunes. That has happened to Linnea Andersson too. There is a name – and you want to know more. In Linnea’s case that person is Patrik Strömblad, born in Bölsåkra, Jonstorp on the 3^rd of June 1869. He was the son of the sailor Christian Strömblad (1836-1881) and his wife Catharina Kullenberg (1840-1887).

   - In fact I have a photo of Catharina Kullenberg. That’s the oldest picture I have, says a proud Linnea.

   Patrik Strömblad left the family for USA in 1887, only 18 years old. He was the half-brother of Linnea’s grandfather’s grandmother.

   - I wanted to know what happened to him, Linnea says. And maybe I’ve now found it out. An e-mail which came from California last week gave some answers.

   But to start from the very beginning: There are two maintaining portraits of him. On the back of one of them a relative has dropped these few lines: “Mother’s brother, went to America and wasn’t heard from. Last time was when he wrote to our father and asked if he could send the little money he had here in Sweden”.

   But there are some clues. Some letters from Patrik Strömblad are well kept and they unveil some things – but not everything.

   Probably there were a lot of feelings involved when he decided to emigrate. His mother passed away a month earlier and now he dreamt of a better life in America.

   Patrik Strömblad left from Denmark. The ticket was for Portland, Oregon.

   And in the beginning he kept in touch with his Swedish relatives.

   - I have some old letters that he has written, Linnea Andersson says. That’s what makes it’s so exciting.

   He sent the letters to his half-sister Hilda (1865-1954) who was married to the farmer Nils Andersson in Hesslebo, Jonstorp.

The letters from America was certainly received by a lot of expectation.

   - The first two letters were sent from Astoria in 1887. He wrote that he worked in some kind of goldmine, Linnea says. Later he was promoted to operator.

   The third letter is from 1889.

   - He lived in Douglas City, Alaska at that time. He wrote in the letter that there was real wilderness and that he was afraid of the Indians. And it was very cold. That’s why he moved. In this letter he sent a photo of himself.

   The last letter is postmarked the 22^nd of June 1891 in De Lamar, Idaho, where he lived at that time.

   - He writes that he was less paid, but the weather was better so he liked it anyway. He also wrote that if he met a nice girl he would marry her because he found it tiresome to live in a hotel all the time.

All this has caught the present-day relative Linnea Andersson.

   - The first letters were written in Swedish, the last one was half in Swedish and half in English. I wonder if the family in Jonstorp understood what he wrote, Linnea says.

   Earlier Linnea Andersson made a notification of Patrik on Emigrantforum and Porträttfynd on the website Rötter. She has also sent in a photo of Patrik Strömblad to Porträttfynd.

Then some time passed – but last week the search got a new push. Linnea Andersson had some information which said that Patrik Strömblad worked in a mine in Town of Lundy, Mono County, California in 1910.

   Linnea tells me about her successful search:

   - I found a genealogical website in Mono County wrote to the webmistress, Denise S. Flynn, and told her all I knew about Patrik Strömblad. I asked for help to find out what happened to him.

   The answer from Denise S. Flynn (who has ancestors in Norrköping) soon arrived. Her search in a couple of databases gave result. There was a match in a register of deaths in California:

   It turned out that Patrik Strömblad died in a big avalanche in Jordan/Lundy in March 1911. His name can be found among the other victims on a tombstone in a boarded cemetery.

   Patrik Strömblad died at the age of 42.

   Whether he had a family or not is unknown.

Written by Roland Classon for HD 31^st of January 2005
http://hd.se/familj/slaktforskning/index.shtml?050131

Translation by Linnea Andersson