Rosalie Emelie Augusta Söderholm, our great-great-grandmother whose writings were our inspiration for Augusta’s Journey, was ranked 10 out of the 92 girls who were confirmed in St Jacob’s parish in May of 1844. If you have followed Augusta’s Journey, you probably already know Augusta. But if you are new to our project, here are a few lines about Augusta Söderholm. Augusta was born in Slaka […]
Happy Birthday, Kerstin! Kerstin and I are often told how lucky we are to have an old family diary as a source and a guide for our travels and research. What I think is more important in life is to have a bosom friend, a kindred spirit, and someone who inspires you and make you laugh. So my answer should be that – how fortunate […]
On October 16 this year, my Facebook feed started to fill up with #MeToo – friends acknowledging that they had at some time been sexually harassed or assaulted. A simple hashtag and suddenly the whole world was talking about how men mistreat women. It made me think of Augusta and her time period. I can’t imagine that she and her friends, who all belonged to […]
Of course, today we usually don’t get letters – we get emails and text messages. But this could have been a letter – and it was so significant. Kerstin and I received an email from a 5th degree cousin who had stumbled upon our blog. That is, our respective grandparents’ grandparents’ fathers were brothers – Augusta’s father (Johan Peter Söderholm) and Carl Adam Söderholm. Our […]
From a distance, through the trees, you can discern the yellow mansion that is Loddby. Loddby was owned by Gustaf Leijedenfrost who was twice Augusta’s brother in law. After both her sisters and her father had died, Leijdenfrost became Augusta’s wealthy benefactor and Augusta and her mother made Loddby their home. Kerstin and I are finally going to visit the home of Augusta, or at […]
“The country side is so wonderful at this time of the year.” Augusta described her country surroundings in the spring – the blue sky, the song of the larch, the warmth of the sun – and Kerstin and I decided that after a winter of research, we should do an outing to Augusta’s home. Augusta lived at Loddby, an estate located just outside Norrköping. Her brother-in-law, […]
There is only one wedding described in Augusta’s diary, the wedding of her cousin Carolina Schubert’s daughter Johanna (Hanna). Hanna was 2 years younger than Augusta and they were best friends. On August 7, 1851, Hanna married Count Lars Eric Georg Sparre. There are no descriptions of what the women wore and especially nothing about how the bride looked. Given that Queen Victoria in 1840 […]
In the summer of 1849, I was mostly at home except for a few weeks spent at Fullerstad and a few days at Krusenhof. August was very ill throughout the summer and the joy and well-being during that time were rare guests at Loddby. The last days of the year, I had a violent rush of blood to my lungs, and was sick for 3 […]
When discovering a diary, it is like stepping into someone’s home without knowing anything about the family. There are names mentioned, but it is not like a novel where the author will provide you with character descriptions. And at the time of Augusta’s diary, there were no photographs. Fortunately, there is a lot of recorded genealogy; dates and places of birth, marriage, and death. And of […]