Investigation into my grandfather’s past in Shanghai
It all began when I was looking through my parents’
photo albums a few years ago, where I found a picture saying; "mother’s
grave 1944", which referred to my grandmother.
My grandmother’s gravestone was
hidden behind a man in uniform, so I could
not see her entire name. Curious, as I am,
I therefore started my search for my past by trying to find out where the grave
was. I travelled to Borås, a town in
south of Sweden and after many visits in different offices I finally found the
grave.The text upon it had ben changed through
the years so I
cleaned it.
Through my visit I found out that grandmother was born in Gefle in 1881,Left
for Stockholm 1899.Went to London 1904.
and was working as a nurse in different hospitals all around Sweden; in 1909
she worked at the hospital of Sabbatsberg
and at the sanatorium of Romanäs.
In 1910 she worked at the hospital of Alingsås and in 1911 at the hospital
of Borås.
When I continued to look through the photo albums I suddenly came across pictures taken in Shanghai.
I wrote to the Swedish legation in Shanghai and to companies that might have
documentation from that time - but nothing
came out of it, except that I learned that Erik had been selling lamp-posts,
so called Lux lamps. Though, at the time there
had been hundereds of salesmen selling those around the world.
By searching through archives in Sweden I have found out that my grandfather
was born in Oskarshamn in Sweden and
that he had moved to Stockholm in 1897 and later – in 1903 – married
Johanna Palmqvist. Together with Johanna he
had a son in 1905 named Erik Olof Lars Andrén.!905 granfather also made
a jearney to Africa with a steamer. The family
lived together in Stockholm. They divorced in 1909 and in January 1910 he travelled
to China.
I have been trying to figure out how the pictures from Eriks journeys in Africa
and China ended up in my grandmothers
albums. He was married 1905 .Did they meet in Sweden before he devorced and
moved to China? In that case; where and
when? There are still many questions yet to be answered. I would be glad if
you could help me bring answers to my questions,
since no one, as far as I know , is I alive today who can tell me.
On the first page there are some links to pictures from the albums. I hope you like them and if you recognise someone or places somewhere, please let me know.I allmost give up now,about finding more about my grants.I saw some photos a friend had taken this year 2007 and I do now understand that there probebly is nothing left but my old photos from old Shanghai hundreds years ago.