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Two Swedish GiantsContinued from previous pageGeneral Assembly. Hammarskjöldbelonged to the Swedish government afew years before his appointment as UNSecretary General and Eliasson was for ashort period our Minister for ForeignAffairs. He is still at the UN disposal forassignments and is highly respected inSweden as well as internationally.The fifty year old memory of the planecrash in Ndola has raised new demandson investigations of the still not fullyunderstood circumstances at the accident.Questions have been put forward fromfamily members and from authorities.There are so far secret documents thatcould be released after 50 years andrecently an English historian, SusanWilliams, published her book “Whokilled Hammarskjöld?”It is not satisfactory having such seriousquestions unanswered, but it willprobably take some time until any solutionwill be there.Submitted by: Stig S. Sälgeback,Karlstad, GLCD, SwedenMy SwedishConnectionsHow I Found My Swedish Relativesby Frances Fröberg WooleyShortly after beginning my search afew years ago to fill in some holes on myhusband’s pedigree chart, I decided Iwould try to obtain information concerningmy Swedish grandfather.At this point in time, the only thing Iactually knew was that Olof Fröberg, mygrandfather, had gone to sea as a youngman. The story I had been told was thatas he left Sweden, his mother stood onthe hill above him waving her apron infarewell. He was never able to return tohis home in Sweden. On one of his seavoyages, he had met my grandmotherwho was traveling from Norway to theUnited States. They were married inChicago (Cook) Illinois in 1880.With only the above information andthe year of his birth obtained from hismarriage license, 1856, I submitted aquery to Swedish-American Magazine. Aresponse was received from Dr. JanVegelius of the Department of Statisticsof Uppsala University in Sweden. Heprovided some information about thename Fröberg and gave me names andaddresses of nine individuals bearing thissurname. I wrote letters to all these peopleand only received one reply whichturned out not to be a relative.In the meantime, in a collection ofpostal cards which my GrandmotherFröberg had given me when I was a child,I found two which had been sent fromSweden and which were written inSwedish. I located someone who couldtranslate them and learned that they werefrom Härnösand, Sweden, and mentionedsome changes in a building there that hadbeen done since my grandfather had lastbeen there. They were signed HannaFröberg. I sent this information on to Dr.Vegelius and told him of the one reply Ihad received from the listing he had sentme.Dr. Vegelius wrote again. He had continuedto work on my query and with theadditional information I had given him,he made several inquiries on my behalf.Following is the text of his next letter:“First I looked in a book containingthe names of all Swedish villages, farmsand so on. There we could find fourplaces by the name of Utvik. Two ofthem were in Ångermanland, one in theparish of Nora and one in the parish ofUllånger.“I went to our city library and lookedat the telephone book of Ångermanland.In the Ullånger telephone area (whichalso contained Nora) I found a dozen personsby the name of Fröberg.“In the afternoon I called the church atNora and the person who answered(probably the clergyman) mentioned thatthe only Fröberg he found in Nora (with atelephone) was Per Fröberg in Frok.“I phoned Per Fröberg, who said thatthere had been Fröbergs in Utvik, but hedid not know where their descendantslived. He recommended me to call StureFrolen in Härnösand whose uncle hadmarried a daughter (of) Dora Fröbergfrom Utvik. After a long search in thetelephone book he found Sture’s number.“I called Sture Frolen and he couldgive me telephone numbers to severalchildren of Dora Fröberg Nilsson.“Finally I called Dora’s daughter,Aina Nilsson Lindström, who confirmedthat her grandparents had lived in Utvikin Nora. She became very interested ingetting a letter from you. She says she isnot so good at reading English but shehas a daughter who can help her.”I assure you that I will always bedeeply indebted to Dr. Vegelius as AinaLindström and I have now correspondedfor several years. From the pedigree chartwhich follows, you will be able to see ourrelationship.Then, on Christmas Day, 1991, anearly morning phone call announced thatAina’s daughter, Gun-Marie Sohlin, hadjust arrived in Ft. Meyers (where I live)and wanted to meet me. She was on leavefrom her duties as a member of theSwedish delegation on the UnitedNations interim forces stationed inLebanon. My husband and I immediatelywent to the motel where she was stayingand after introductions, invited her backto our home for the balance of her visit inFlorida.Then we had another surprise, Gun-Marie’s daughter, Charlotte, was attendinghigh school as an exchange student inSpokane, Washington. Her mother madea few phone calls and arrangements weremade for her to fly into Ft. Meyers.Within hours we had met two Swedishrelatives never known before. What awonderful Christmas present!Soon after these two relatives hadreturned to their respective homes, aphone call from Sweden informed us thatGun-Marie’s mother, Aina, was planningto fly to Florida on June 1. My Swedishfamily just kept growing and growing.It was a long time from the first part ofJanuary until June 1. Many overseas telephonecalls were made – many letters andmaps were sent and received. Explicitdirections had to be given as Aina andher party would fly into Ft. Lauderdaleon the east coast, rent a car and driveacross the state to Ft. Meyers. It would beafter dark before they would reach ourhome. None of the party had ever been tothis country before. The hours on June 1,1992, passed slowly.Finally, a car pulled up outside of ourhome. The doors opened and for the firsttime in my life I met my half-cousinfrom Sweden – a relative that until a coupleof years ago I did not know evenexisted. It was truly an exciting and awesomeexperience.Those who came were Aina and herhusband,Werner. Neither of them speakEnglish although they do understand abit. Aina’s sister Elsy Syren, sometimesacted as a translator but it was difficult.However, Aina’s granddaughter, PetraSohlin and her fiancé, Peter Westin,speak very good English as they hadlearned it in school and did most of thetranslating.Continued on next pagePage 24 www.vasaorder.com Vasa Star October-December 2011