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The Old Country Newsletter – Fertility, Gold Rush & Legacy
Your Weekly Newsletter From Sweden
Philip Hannes
December 06, 2024
Good morning!
It’s Friday, December 6.
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Have a wonderful weekend!
Philip & Hannes
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Your Weekly Swede-ish
John Bryntesson, seated in the middle.
Attribution: Rötter.se
The Swedish Gold Rush King of Nome
Did you know one of the wealthiest figures in the Alaskan Gold Rush had Swedish roots? John Bryntesson, born in Ärtemark, Sweden, emigrated to America in 1879 with dreams of striking it big. He became one of the "Three Lucky Swedes" who discovered gold in Nome, Alaska, in 1898, transforming the remote area into a bustling mining district. Their find sparked a major gold rush, drawing thousands of fortune seekers. Bryntesson's success allowed him to invest in mining operations and contribute to Swedish-American communities back home. Proof that a bit of Swedish grit can lead to glittering success!
Statistics you didn’t ask for
In Sweden, there are approximately 2 million children and youth under the age of 18, accounting for around 20% of the population. The majority of children live in families with two parents, although about 25% live in single-parent households. Fertility rates in Sweden hover at around 1.5 children per woman, below the replacement rate. Sweden’s family-friendly policies, including generous parental leave and subsidized childcare, support families and encourage child-rearing. However, challenges remain, such as income inequality among families with children and housing shortages in urban areas.
Students and Seniors Eat Lunch Together to Combat Loneliness
Attribution: Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
At Emiliaskolan in Landskrona, school lunch has turned into an intergenerational gathering, with students and seniors bonding over meals in a heartwarming pilot project.
Pensioners like Conni Brandt are now welcome to join students for lunch at Emiliaskolan, making it the first school in Landskrona Municipality to launch this initiative. “The kids are much chattier than they used to be in my day,” Conni shared with a smile, enjoying the lively atmosphere.
The students are equally curious. “It’d be fun to hear what life was like back in the day, before I was born,” said Lily Prahl, a student eager to learn from her lunch companions.
The project aims to foster connections between generations while addressing the issue of loneliness among the elderly. “We’ve noticed that many of our older residents feel isolated, and this is a wonderful way to combat that,” explained Mattias Adolfsson, chairman of the local technical and leisure committee.
The initiative has already sparked curiosity and joy on both sides of the table. “It’s heartening to see the students engaging with the visitors, and to see seniors joining in,” said Adolfsson, hopeful about the project’s potential to build bridges across generations.
In other news
💹 The annual CAN report highlights increasing snus use among Swedish youth, particularly among girls, where usage has reached record levels, rising from 4% to 26% over the past decade. While alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking continue to decline, gambling among boys has risen steadily since 2019, with 43% now engaging in gambling activities.
🌹 Opposition Leader Magdalena Andersson's annual Christmas speech in Västerås was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters chanting against the ongoing conflict and calling for the liberation of Palestine. Separately, she proposed measures to address "shrinkflation," advocating for warning labels on reduced-content packaging to prevent companies from covertly raising prices amid Sweden's severe cost-of-living crisis.
🕯 A fatal car accident on the E22 near Kristianstad resulted in the deaths of a woman and two children, while a man remains hospitalized. The rescue team initially missed the presence of the children due to the car being engulfed in flames and incorrect information about the number of passengers; the deceased children were tragically discovered later by towing personnel.
Would you like to feel closer to Sweden? A perfect way to do that would be to have a look at Swedish broadcasts, either current or past. SVT Play is an online streaming service provided by Sveriges Television (SVT), the Swedish national public television broadcaster.
To watch it, one has to be in Sweden – or have access to a VPN provider that can connect to a remote server located in Sweden. Like NordVPN, which sponsors this segment of the newsletter.
By using NordVPN, you can access what SVT Play has to offer – including current news, documentaries about emigrants, live broadcasts from nature events, and much more – by simply connecting to a server in Sweden. Follow the link here to get 74 % off for your first two years and three months (!) of usage. By doing so, you also help support the distribution of this newsletter.
Decades-Old Gruesome Case May See Legal Reassessment
Attribution: Frankie Fouganthin, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The infamous case of Catrine da Costa, a Swedish murder mystery that has gripped the nation for nearly four decades, could be heading for a new legal review. Prominent attorney Thomas Olsson believes flaws in the original handling of the case could open the door for renewed judicial scrutiny.
Catrine da Costa, a sex worker, was found murdered and dismembered in Stockholm in 1984. Two medical professionals, forensic pathologist Teet Härm and general practitioner Thomas Allgén, were charged with her murder. However, they were acquitted in 1988 due to insufficient evidence. Despite the acquittal, the court controversially stated it was "likely" that the men had dismembered her body—a finding that couldn’t be appealed since the verdict was technically in their favor. This conclusion resulted in both men losing their medical licenses, a decision upheld by the Administrative Court of Appeal.
Now, Olsson suggests that the weak rationale behind the license revocations could be grounds for reopening the case. Speaking on Sweden’s Aktuellt, he noted that the prior judgments lack a solid evidentiary foundation, which lowers the threshold for presenting new circumstances in a motion to reopen the case.
“There’s a balance in the appeals process,” Olsson explained. “If the original judgment is poorly substantiated, the bar for introducing new evidence or circumstances is set lower. In this instance, the flaws in the Court of Appeal’s reasoning are significant enough that a reconsideration is warranted—and perhaps the time is finally right for it.”
Over the years, multiple attempts to seek a retrial have been denied. But Olsson remains optimistic, emphasizing that repeated applications aren’t uncommon in cases of this nature. The da Costa case continues to haunt Sweden’s legal and cultural landscape, emblematic of judicial missteps, media sensationalism, and unresolved questions about justice.
Word of the week
GEMENSKAP [yuh-MAIN-skahp]
Legacy Lanterns – shedding light on the stories of the past
The Bronx
Swedish Place Names in America
Stockholm, Malmo, Swedlanda, and Elgarose. In the United States, hundreds of place names hint at Swedish immigration. Most of these names are found in the Upper Midwest, particularly in Minnesota. Some Swedish place names in America date back as far as the 1600s, originating from the short-lived Swedish colony New Sweden, which we learned about in last week's newsletter.
Swedish Place Names Live On
While spoken American Swedish may be disappearing in the old Swedish settlements, their names remain resilient. Across the U.S., there are hundreds of towns and places that reveal a Swedish background. Some names are easy to identify, such as Stockholm and Jenny Lind, while others hide their Swedish connection, like Murderkill Creek and Lawson.
Place Names in New Sweden
Some Swedish place names in America go back as far as the 1600s. Between 1638 and 1655, there was a Swedish colony on the Delaware River in North America. On maps from the Swedish colony of New Sweden, many Swedish names can be found for locations and settlements.
Peter Minuit, who led the first Swedish expedition to America, was given specific instructions regarding place names in the colony: Queen Christina and the Swedish capital, Stockholm, should be considered, and major harbors should be named after prominent Swedes. While the first fort was named after the queen (Fort Christina), most of the other names were based on Swedish locations, often with the prefix "New," like New Elfsborg, New Gothenburg, and New Vasa. Some places were named based on features of the surrounding nature, such as Wijndrufwe Udd and Myggen-Borgh.
New Sweden only lasted for 17 years, and most of the Swedish place names were replaced by later settlers. The only name still known to have survived from the Swedish colony is the Christina River.
Some Swedish Place Names in the U.S.
Bishop Hill, Illinois: A Swedish-American colony founded in 1846 by Swedish emigrants under preacher Erik Jansson, named after Erik Jansson's hometown Biskopskulla in Uppland. The population peaked at around 1,000, and today only a few hundred live there.
Boxholm, Iowa: Named in 1887 when the town received a post office. The first postmaster, John B. Anderson, suggested the name after his birthplace in Boxholm, Östergötland.
Bremer County, Iowa: Formed in 1851 and named after Swedish author Fredrika Bremer, whom the governor admired. Frederika, Iowa, also exists as a town named after her.
Bronx, New York: Likely named after early Swedish settler Jonas Bronck, who established a farm in the area in 1639.
Calmar, Iowa: Named in 1854 by Swedish immigrant Alfred Clark after his hometown in Sweden, with other places named Kalmar in Minnesota and Canada.
Christina River, Delaware: One of the few names that have remained from the Swedish colony, named after Queen Christina.
Jenny Lind, Arkansas: Named in 1851 after the famous Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured North America in 1850–1851.
Mariadahl, Kansas: A former Swedish colony named after Maria Nilsson from Östergötland who immigrated in 1859.
Murderkill Creek, Delaware: Possibly derived from the Swedish mordare-kijl, meaning "murderer's creek" in Swedish, reflecting the area's early Swedish colonial presence.
Stockholm, Wisconsin: A town founded by Swedish settlers in the 1850s, named after the Swedish capital.