Chihuahuas Soak up the Sun

Pinki Martini and Twinkle catch some rays this week on the deck ...one pound of bacon biscuits later and we have a photo!

Geneology Research for the Walstroms

Many of you know I have been doing geneology research for the past few years. At the moment I am looking at records in 1750 Norra Kedum and Tadene, Skaraborg, Sweden, where my father's family is from. I was truly amazed to find that the father of Anders Lööf or Anders Löf, my ggg-grandfather, was Anders Svensson Vannerlöf. Anders dropped Svensson and went by Vannerlöf in his later years. Vanner löf means friends of leaves, something like that. Really odd, but this was the name that he chose as a last name. NOW HERE'S THE KICKER: Anders Vennerlöf Svensson was a Klockare - this means he was the parish clerk/teacher who wrote all of these parish church records! How amazing to look at these old Swedish records, and realize that my own gggg-grandfather in the 1750's laboriously wrote them! I hope to be able to visit this parish in Sweden before too long and actually see these original records. Here is a photo of the beautiful church in Husaby, Sweden, which was the center for Christian pilgrimages from about 1000 AD. The church is also known as the church where Olof Skötkonung is said to have been baptized (in a holy spring just east of the church) - making him the first Christian king in Sweden. The Barglofs, also relatives on my father's side, probably worshipped at this church.