Ernst Nelson

One of the areas we will be visiting is the province of (Kalmar and the island of Oland) in the southeastern part of Sweden. Mom's grandmother, Louisa was born in Oland and was one of the first groups of Swedes to immigrate to Minnesota. Ernst Nelson, Mom's grandfather came to the United States in 1887 when he was fifteen years old. He traveled alone from Kalmar, Sweden, through New York to Taylors Falls, Minnesota. Ernst was part of the mass exodus from Sweden that took place from 1843 to 1930 where 25% of the population in Smaland emigrated. As a young man, he worked as a lumberjack in the forest. He met Louisa and began farming.

Ernst is the affable fellow in this picture with Kim and me. He's probably around 82 years old here. Ernst has the characteristic shock of thick white hair; if you know Mom and Kim, you'll know that they definitely inherited this gene. Also, if you could see his feet, I am sure that he was barefooted. He was always barefoot, in all seasons. By this I mean, summer, spring, fall AND winter! Don't you love the shadow of the person taking the picture reflected him. I'd say it's Mom.

The Three Matriarchs!

We can't believe that in just one week we will finally be going to Sweden. The idea for this trip sort of began last summer when Mom had asked Kris and me to take her to a class reunion in Clayton, Wisconsin where she had attended elementary school. While we were in this part of the country, we explored the area where her grandfather, Ernst Nelson had settled after emigrating from Sweden at the age of sixteen. One thing led to another and before we were done, we had found the little town where his boat had landed in Taylors Falls, found the village where he met his bride, Mom's grandmother, visited their homestead where they raised a family, and many other key areas of their history. Mom has copies of letters that Ernst wrote home during his emigration and one of the common threads throughout his letters was his desire to return home to Sweden to see his family again. It was so sad to think that he was never able to achieve this goal. So, in a way, we are doing that for him.