30 octobre 2009 (Day 60)
Today was the day of the family hunt! We woke up, packed lunches and headed off to Utterback county. The country-side drive was really pretty (2-3 hours) and reminded me of some of the states. It was a pretty quiet ride since the girls fell asleep while “Dad” drove. He really was such a sweetheart to take us. We drove all around Orebro county looking for different villages. We saw a lot of Karlskoga, a big city (where Mr. Nobel was born). Karlskoga (skog meaning woods) is near the beautiful lake Mockeln. We were able to visit Utterback and Strabergsmyren in the car. These are both small villages where my ancestors lived. It was really humbling and really neat to see where my ancestors lived, worked, walked, and did everything. The villages are still tiny, maybe around a dozen or so homes in each. It was too bad I didn’t find any relatives, but it was still fantastic to see where many of them grew up.
We went to the cemetery in Karlskoga and ate leftover meatballs there. It was really chilly, but I still looked in the cemetery to see if I could find any relatives. I didn’t notice any names I recognized, but I think I might have seen some relatives. Gabby’s dad went and asked in the church about other cemeteries. We then drove up to this GIANT cemetery. It was huge, I think it might have been bigger than Arlington Cemetery. Needless to say, we didn’t have a chance finding my relatives there, especially since it was getting dark. It was cool to see all of the wreaths and lights laid out for November 1st (All Saints Day) to remember the dead.
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to see where my family lived and worked. It is still very much uninhabited and woody. You can imagine my great great someone or other walking through those same woods to their friends.
