This is the big reunion day. Warning: there are lots of photos. The day started off with going to the local open air museum. I was fascinated by all the antique fiber equipment, farming strategies and veterinary devices. Our hosts were well informed as well.

This spinning wheel looks a lot like the one I had inherited from Sweden from my great great grandmother.

These are naturally dyed mini skeins with tags in Swedish as to what was used. I can tell indigo was used for blue and onion for yellow but not sure yet what made the red shades.

You can appreciate how well worn this loom was.

Baby equipment including Sami/Lapp.

handmade furniture

Our guide did describe how hard times could be in these northern Swedish farms. In years of famine, the lakes could remain frozen through the summer and many people would starve to death.

More fiber equipment

Below is the home where my great great great grandfather Jakob Jakobson was born. His father also grew up there, and his grandfather built it. It was moved to the museum from Kamsjön.

The left side of this building was used just a few times per year for baking flat bread.

This is a flax break.

This was an inventive cattle watering system.

This is veterinary equipment.

This is where the cattle spent their entire winters.

This is the trap door behind the stalls where the manure was deposited. In the spring it was manually spread on the fields.

More veterinary equipment.

This is where the water came into the barn. I suspect the fireplace was just to keep the water for freezing.

A variety of wagons and a hay mower. The second one was for moving hay.

This building houses a horse drawn barley grinder.

This was another smaller animal barn where their small cows would spend the winters. You can see where they chewed on the wood of their hay feeder.

Below is the hurdle that was used to dry barley.

A small cabin with a wooden chimney.

A food storage building.

We returned to our hotel. I find the cars’ hitches here interesting.

We had a nice lunch.

Then it was time for photographs. There were 13 siblings born near here in Northern Sweden that we all descended from. These are the descendants of Johan Oscar.

The descendants of Anders Alexius (Andrew).

these are the descendants of Petrus Nicolaus.

These are the descendants of Karl Ragnar.

These are the descendants of Jacob Halvar.

I did not get a photo of our group, the descendants of Emil Gottfrid.

The remaining siblings either died before reproduction or did not have attendees here.

These are the remaining members of the children of these 13 siblings that were able to attend.

We then had a demonstration of ancient Swedish basket weaving using only birch root, a knife and a bone.

Then we had a discussion of our previous ancestors and their locations. Below are photos from some of Cecilia’s research that I need to review.

There were also letters between the siblings in Sweden and in North America that had been translated by another family member that I need to read more carefully.

There were quite a few young children at this reunion. This is a rare quiet moment for some of them.

Here is a photo of Daniel, one of the main reunion organisers, and Gunnel, the basket weaver.

We had a nice dinner,

Completed an auction supporting the reunion ( this is Rob who won a clock that the oldest sibling Oscar had owned),

And the listened to Swedish folk music.

For the remainder of the night some of us went to the second floor lounge, drank and talked until the wee hours of the morning.

This was a truly memorable day that I will never forget.