Cousin Ingemar Majholm writes about his search for our great great grandfather Edvard Julius Abrahamsson's home in Stockholm, in the years before our family came to Stommen
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What an old yellowish picture can reveal
and the implications of the choice of one man for the very existence of many
by Ingemar Majholm
"Vita bergen" (the white mountains)
Stockholm Sweden @1950
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| family photo in possession of Erik Majholm |
As has been told us from several sources, "Vita bergen" was the part of Stockholm in which Edvard Julius Abrahamsson, the adoptive father of Robert Albin, owned property. Wanting his son to become a farmer, somehow he found a suitable farm in Östra Frölunda, south of Borås in the southwestern part of Sweden. The Danish owner of this estate had come into insolvency, but they managed to make a deal where the Vita bergen property was traded equal with the Östra Frölunda property. Thus it came that the site for the Abrahamsson family story moved from Södermalm, Stockholm to Stommen.
When researching the family history, it has of course been of great interest to know more about this Stockholm property. Where exactly was the house? What did it look like and is it still there? This knowledge had been lost for our generation as far as I know.
When my brother Erik recently found this picture in the home of our deceased parents, it became rather interesting. On the back side someone had written "Vita bergen". In view is a building which has long ago seen its best days. In front of it an elderly couple, in the backround a house with a mansard roof and beyond that the Stockholm Town Hall. The latter famous for, among other things, being the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet and one of Stockholm's major tourist attractions.This picture of the site of the Abrahamsson family's move from Södermalm in Stockholm to Stommen in Östra Frölunda by chance popping up now is very peculiar and merits further investigation.
The first thing to catch my interest is the elderly couple. They remind me of Gustaf with his second wife Hulda. Enlarging them, I compare them with a picture of Gustaf and Hulda from 1952 and it sure is tempting to believe the couple of both pictures are the same.
But wait a moment. On the "Vita bergen" photo, the lady holds the cane in her right hand, while in the family photo it's in her left. We grandchildren of Gustaf remember her as limping while walking, but wouldn't she always have used the stick on the same side? Or did the crippled hip trade sides from time to time? and Gustaf as being her extra support, trade sides as well?
What about the Townhall? How does it appear in other pictures? Wikipedia has a good one. Compare it with the "Vita bergen" picture.
Wikipedia contributors, "Stockholm City Hall," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
Hmmm...it looks really like the "Vita bergen" picture had been mirrored when it was made. Let's see what happens with the couple if we turn them around.
Now the pieces are falling in place, aren't they? So, lets flip the yellowish picture around.
Now we can go to Stockholm and search for a place with an identical viewing angle to the Townhall as this picture reveals.
