Onnestad!

Here Hillary and I are, ready to drive with Jack into the village of Onnestad. It was such fun to see the sign. We are lucky, too, because of the three villages we visited, Onnestad is the one which remains a true village. That may be because it holds the location of the church which was attended by all the residents of the villages we tried to visit. Of interesting note, one of the three villages we happily found on Google Earth is now a corn field and the other has more cows than people. On a high note, Onnestad has a school and a library.

This was the type of home we saw in Onnestad. Red brick with lots of gingerbread. Very charming. And as we drove we tried to glimpse the church tower that we had seen in pictures Amy sent. Much like the Swedes who lived in this house tried to get a glimpse of the Americans trying to take a picture of their home.

And here it is! My great grandparents grew up in this village and attended this church. They were married here in 1878 before they emigrated to Nebraska. My great-great-grandmother was buried here in 1868. We couldn't find her headstone. Her name was Anna Anderson. Unfortunately most of the stones were dated after her death. But as you expect in these villages, there are only about 4 family names in total, i.e. Anderson, Nilson, Andersson and Nilsson. As such, we found 45 Anna Andersons, 75 Nils Nilsons...Can't imagine what a family reunion is like! As with the other church we visited, a graveyard surrounds it. Local residents still attend services here. The building dates from around 1200.

And here are Jack and Hillary. Jack was busy for much of our visit trying to talk to an elderly man. We first saw him watering the flowers on the graves. Jack approached him to ask his help in locating Anna Anderson's gravestone. We quickly realized he talked in 98% Swedish and 2% English. "Svironmenson Gut Merson Ver cut Detroit Vas de man Chicago."

But he was so kind. He even went to his home and brought back the 2010 Church Magazine that listed emigration records dating back to the early 1800's. All written in Swedish. And when he realized that edition was of no help, he went back to his home and got us the 2009 edition. Because it was obvious the edition was the problem in our not finding Anna's gravestone, not the fact that it was written in Swedish. He also directed all of his conversation to Hillary, the true looking Swede and continually tried dialing someone on a cell phone. We don't know who or why. The ironies of communication. True story. (This is a post by both Lori and Jack-can you tell?)