Somewhere in Stockholm there is a man //😎He has made the whole Slussen to his port (Songs from Before Old)
The family with 20 members! The picture above is from cousin Johan Kragsterman. Small in format but surprisingly sharp in outline! Now the Sjöberg children have grown up, fled from the countryside, a home in Stockholm's southern archipelago, and stranded on a kobbe (granite slab) near All Saints' Church in Stockholm's Söder.
The time is the mid-1940s and it is summer. If you live in a small apartment, you have to troll when it's time for a party, and when taking pictures, you like to move outdoors. In the middle stands grandmother Anna surrounded by a number of her children with their respective ones, at the front are the grandchildren, all of whom became a whole bunch of cousins. The place is perhaps Rosenlundsparken or possibly below Tjurberget and Helgalunden, Kistalight thinks he sees a funky house on the edge of Rosenlundsparken looming in the background.
Anyway, we've been scouting the neighborhoods! Like a little with the help of our older relatives looking over the shoulder from the photograph!
Here comes another carver serru, genealogist as well, Kistalight has through Katarina church archives, baptist certificate, discovered his birth address, Helgagatan 17, parents Kurt Adolf Sjöberg b 1922 electrician, should be Knut Adolf, and Ulla Gunvor Jansson b 1924. It is also noted if when the parents have married. In my case just over four months before birth, should actually have been born five months before as I was born three weeks early on February 4, 1948, for others it could be closer than that, someone manages to get married a month before the birth and for those who are unmarried it becomes a sharp note. The occupation of the men is noted; Knut was an electrician and it is a splendid working class that prevails in Katarina parish, pipe, factory, fabric worker, mechanic, chaffis or postilion, the women's jobs are not noted.
I approach Helgalunden via Tjurbergsparken. The first thing that appears is the old Katarina Realskola. One of Stockholm's first buildings in the funkis style, it was inaugurated in March 1932 and was designed by architects David Dahl and Paul Hedqvist. The latter an architect who liked to sketch freehand and furnished the Folkhem (a wellfare idea) with schools designed with inspiration from functionalism. The building is in an austere funkis style, three stories high with the main building and schoolyard facing south with the auditorium at an angle supported by columns. In the hall's portic is a famous drinking fountain created by Eric Grate. The school building is now culturally (blue) classified by the Stockholm City Museum. For a period the Theater School operated here and today the English high school is housed in the buildings. Stig Claesson, Slas a swedish writer, has told about the concerns with wearing a real school cap during his years as a student at the school. The father's pride in the hat and how Slas had to hide it when he left home on Klippgatan in eastern Södermalm in order not to be bullied like a kitty dog and even get snubbed by the boys on the way to school. Not easy being a working class guy from Sofia in the stylish funkis of a secondary school in Söder!
To the west of the school is the quarter Metern. Here we go, we enter through a portal and come to a large courtyardfor the HSB condominium association Metern, which was built in 1926 with smaller apartments for well-mannered workers with a lower income. The fcourtyard breathes idyll with ingrown greenery a la garden and care for buildings. The old numbering for Helgagatan is still there, the first gate is number 15 and the heart starts beating at Kistalight, here it is close to 17, was I possibly born within the HSB community? When I was young I lived in old Östberga, Greetings from Östberga, and today I have been living in Kista in HSB for more than 40 years, see Heja Sweden!
Just walking around the farm I can probably find my address, going counter-clockwise one, three, five and so on, but the court gates stop at 15!
Are you looking for someone and can I help you says elderly friendly uncle at the picturesque gate at the entrance. I have been chairman here for a number of years and know a lot about the neighborhood.
Kistalight tells us that he was born here in the neighborhood around Helgalunden and is looking for gate number 17, is a little curious like this in the old days about my Roots.
With all right, our friendly chairman says, but today the entire Metern block has the address Helgagatan 36, but in the gate over there lived one of the creators of the culturally marked building today.
Number seventeen, I have no idea.
Today, however, the meter is considered to be of cultural and historical value and has been gifted with a blue sign by the St. Erik Society, says our friendly chairman.
Kistalight, who is starting to run out of battery (gunpowder) in his cell phone, hurries on along Helgagatan. The Google search on nr, 17 stubbornly points away towards the charming portal between Helgagatan and Hallandsgatan. Nice young lady asks if I'm looking for a dentist!
No, I'm looking for a number says Kistalight! Just to be safe, I add that I'm looking for where I was born, should be Helgagatan nr 17.
Have you googled says our young lady?
Sure, but my phone is dead.
Here is number 17 says our young lady who belongs to the young generation and is good with the digital stuff and the arrow on Google Street View stubbornly points to the portal.
Sure ... sure I say but that's not true! Are you sure you are not looking for a dentist then says our nice young lady?
Kistalight slips into the yard by Helgalund where the arrow from Google Street View stubbornly points, the gate is open, counting numbers along the length; one, three, five ... eleven, not seventeen though, but now the gate is closed.
Should one climb over a fence?
Not a good idea for an old one, guy, elderly-elderly, risky-risky in covid times, who is looking for his roots!
I get help from a construction worker from the Baltics who helps me with the gate code.
Do you have the code for the entrance!
I´m looking for my roots here in the neighborhood and now looking for the way out!
Yes ... yes no problem here is the code!
Looks like a blue melancoly day!
What to do?
Seek out some culture and visit Garbo's house on the corner of Blekingegatan and Tjurbergsgatan where there is a bronze sculpture by the artist Julia Eble of the Divine. The house where Greta Garbo lived is today demolished, but the new houses at the intersection are popularly called the Garbo houses. While we ponder the fate of Greta, one of Söder's most famous Dandelion children, famous in the wider world, but enigmatic and shy after her film career, she has fascinated people and attracted interpretations in literature and art.
With the support of Greta, I take new steps and branches up Blekingegatan towards Helgalunden again and All Saints Church, this idyllic national romantic wooden church inaugurated in April 1918 and today a popular church for baptisms, weddings, concerts and the All Saints Mass. At the park I turn left and voila, hocus pocus, I have found Helgagatan 15 - 17, eminent Google Maps has shown an error and indicates Helgagatan as Helgalunden.
The heart certainly beats a little extra in front of gate number 17!
My grandmother lived here for many years!
-Thought, tra la la, Kistalight!
Wrong, wrong ... wrong!
During my search in December 2019, the address on the street sign on the corner of Allhelgonagatan was Helgagatan 17 in the Kvadraten quarter, in the star Greta Garbo's quarter, but it was completely wrong, historically the address belongs to a different place!
Here around Helgalunden, an informal charming neighborhood where city architect Hallman's city plan adapted to natural conditions.
Organic (natural) growth after Tjurberget and the stretch of Ringvägen below the mountain!
Today a soft ice hipster idyll, it is symbolized by Funkis, the large court quartier Metern under the direction of HSB, the popular national romantic wooden building All Saints' Church and the dandelion child Greta Garbo's quarter, the southern bean that became a world star in the film.
We embed Old (young generation) singing songs from before and further scouting for our grandmother's address.
Siargatan Seventeen that used to be Helgagatan 17
It's not like Helgalunden, Our Grandmother doesn't live here anymore - Helgagat..., but it is a funkis house from 1931 on Siargatan 17 in the Pennan quarter on Södermalm and next door to Rosenlundsparken. For many years rental properties for the residents of the municipal company Stockholmshem, but in 2001 transformed into a condominium association.
The house is diagonally opposite the entrance to Linjalen quarter, Söder's own million program and Tensta with a lot of concrete and lots of rental properties compare to Kistalight's Light million program from brick to hut. Nevertheless, it gives a slightly charming feeling to walk on Siargatan, trees and greenery in the middle lane that form an avenue, a bit of bohemianism with a restaurant in the corner of the block where some southerners are sitting with the first pilsner of the day. Our grandmother lived here since the beginning of the 1940s on the lower floor. The street was then called Helgagatan and continued on the other side of the park, then Skåneparken or Skånegläntan up against the mountain with Helgalunden and All Saints' Church. In the early 1950s, the part of the street north of the park changed its name to Siargatan. Previously, our grandmother had lived at Blekingegatan 14 (5 tr ög) almost down by the Ringvägen but with the All Saints' Church in the fund if you walk the street east. She lived there with parts of her large family and then she was interviewed in DN on her 60th birthday 11 March 1938, To be the mother of 23 children, but then moved, probably in the early 1940s, to Helgagatan 17 on ground floor.
Map of Helgagatan with surronding in the guartier of Skåne and Helgagatan in the 1940s
Kistalight has been at a family reunion in Rosenlundsparken due to an old photograph from cousin Johan Kraxterman shown on the Sjöberg cousins' FB page, which will be revived in honor of the day. Johan was also a good initiator of the meeting. There were new photographs taken by cousins, siblings and nephews posted on our Facebook group page. A pleasant afternoon with a picnic, happy conversations, memories and fun meeting new generations of Sjöberg. There is a certain magic and there is room for stories to have a set of parents who were 23 siblings.
In addition, you can meet cousins who know our city and the Södermalm, downright experts, Bosse Andersson's cousin who has driven Taxi for many years and is older than Kistalight.
- You Thommy, you are probably wrong about that (the blog) where our grandmother lived, look over here on the north side of the park and you have Siargatan which used to be called Helgagatan and that is where our grandmother lived. From another cousin, Christel Sjöberg, I receive an envelope with cards, letters and other facts about our grandmother Anna Sjöberg, which tells about her life as an elderly lady and widow in Söder.
Nice, almost like a bonus for the summer holidays but I have to redraw my story about the search for my address of birth. See Roots II!
Kistalight has via Stockholmskällan, search page https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/ compared old city maps of Söder, from 1940, 1944 and 1954. From the latter map, our street is called Siargatan and already in 1951, grandmother Anna saved cards with that address.
The city lives its own life and can take many guises, layer upon layer; houses are built and demolished, restored, facades are plastered, neighborhoods get new residents and people with socio-economic muscle move in and condominiums are formed, so-called gentrification. City planners and name preparers rewrite the city's history with name changes, street changes and the alignment of trams, buses and subways.
Södermalm has its own aura of bohemian charm and has a certain attraction to creators and intellectuals, it seems also here around the Pennan quarter with small galleries, studios and something with ceramics, but it certainly rubs somewhere between remodeled condominiums, around the property Pennan Siargatan 17 and neighborhood Linjalen.
Fun to discover new neighborhoods!
I lived here for my first months before my parents Knutte and Ulla got their own place, eventually on Slipgatan near Hornstull. See Bitar och Skärvor Kistalight at Hornstullsstrand or the School Bench at Liljevalchs!
Anyway, my grandmother Anna Sjöberg lived in Söder for many years, on her 60th birthday, March 11, 1938 when she lived at Blekingegatan 14, she was interviewed by DN in an article with the title:
Being the mother of 23 children!
Then she has six children left at home. It was the end of the 1930s and Sweden is beginning to recover from the 1930s depression.
The children have work and one of the sons is training to be an engineer at night school, which makes the whole family very happy and proud.
All her children, my uncles and aunts, 20 of them were registered in the church register at birth, , some died young, a twin at birth, but many grew older and several became really old, data that our cousin Thomas Arvidsson showed with his genealogy. They were energetic, talented, happy, and musical and they were part of those who shaped the burgeoning Folkhemmet.
The talk and hitting skills were sharpened in the group of siblings, several had sprains in the legs, ants in the bral, perhaps today you would call it traits of ADHD. It was needed when times were tough and jobs were scarce. If there was no work, you had to start your own. Talents as an entrepreneur sprouted here, from laundry, mengeling and ironing, handicraft carpentry and electricity, studying engineering in the evenings or the art of running Café and Byggfutt.
Around so many children, siblings, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, there are of course lots of stories, enough to tell a part of Sweden's modern history.
The center, the heart of the story of the Sjöberg family and grandmother (grandmother) Anna Sjöberg, is their archipelago home on Årstanäs in Stockholm's southern archipelago with proximity to fine fishing waters and the fjords Blisinge, Hårsfjärden and Mysingen where most of the siblings grew up (see Rötter Kistalight 26 May 2006! ) but here on Helgagatan the younger part of the group of siblings was formed and our grandmother probably lived here for about ten years and her youngest children Knut and Hans Sjöberg later also with their girlfriends and this is where Kistalight got his birth address
The funkishouse at Siargatan 17, Pennan 11, was built in 1931–1932 and designed by Ture Sellman, and the property was renovated and replaced in 1988, and only in 2012 were the balconies built. In connection with the renovation, two new apartments were built on the attic floor so that the property today contains 26 apartments. Most of the apartments have two rooms and a kitchen, and in 2001 they were converted into a condominium association. The prices are on the Södermal level between 4 - 6 thousand for a deal with a two or three-room apartment.
Our grandmother, was a kind person and had the fine quality that often distinguishes good leaders, good teachers or decent managers. The talent that she could see and confirm everyone around her; children, grandchildren, other relatives, friends, neighbors and customers who bought fish. Of course it could take a little time sometimes, but then she counted the names until it was right. Plus, she was a good storyteller! Here we refer to uncle Hasse who told the story. Hans was the only one, the last one in the group of siblings, who was born at BB (hospital). Lying on the BB was perhaps the first opportunity in many years for Grandma Anna to have some rest and consequently she looked very happy and happy with her newborn boy, which delighted the midwives and nurses and made them wonder if it was her first child ?
No, said mother Anna; it's my twenty-first ... child!
Having so many uncles, aunts and cousins has always been a bit of a pinch in the arm!
Is it true, is it real? You don't mean that, oh I think I'm dying then! A bit like how young people express themselves today!
PS Attached article from DN about grandmother Anna turns 60 on March 11, 1938
Feel free to click on the picture, the article, to enlarge!
In the end, we find the location of the Sjöberg family photo from the mid-1940s, a beautiful stone outcrop with grooves already polished by the ice sheet that the city architect saved in Skånegläntan. Today near some preschool center and the award-winning sunbeds, Stranden, very close to Siargatan which was once Helgagatan. In the background, the stairs up to Hallandsgatan and the portal to Helgalunden can be seen. Perhaps the Sjöberg family gathered one day in the mid-1940s when peace came to Europe and there was reason to celebrate.
© Thommy Sjöberg
