#ingmar bryggare

[300yearschallenge]

The illness continued to ravage Åland and its surroundings.

Helga Rosdal née Olafsson, daughter to Jonas, and her husband David were struck by the disease.

Helga's life was taken by the illness, leaving her husband David as the sole caretaker of their young sons Beau and Per.

And not too long thereafter two of the Park children fell ill.

Eugene Anifas and Charles Elias became sick at more or less the same time, and Théo fretted endlessly over her young sons.

Thankfully, in the end the illness was merciful, and both boys recovered just fine.

While they now bore scars they hadn't before, neither seemed particularly bothered by it, and were soon back to their cheerful old ways.

But that didn't mean the sickness was done taking lives...

Rosalida Bryggare née Olafsson, 42 years old, was the last family member of the Olafssons to lose her life to the illness.

Her heir, Ingmar, was 17 years old.

She was buried near the rest of her family, and her funeral was attended by all of her living children, siblings, nieces and nephews.

That autumn struck many as one of endless funerals for all those whose lives were claimed by the illness.

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Rest in Peace Rosalida Bryggare née Olafsson

1731 - 1773

Mother to Ida, Ingmar, Samuel, Erik & Edvard.

Rest in Peace Helga Rosdal née Olafsson

1751 - 1773

Mother to Beau & Per

Rest in Peace Sara Olafsson

1767 - 1773

Rest in Peace Adam Otalbo

Rest in Peace Noah Davidsson

[300yearschallenge]

As fall came to the islands, the day of Rosalie's wedding arrived.

The wedding celebrations were to be held at her future home - a house that Lukas Arnold had recently been granted in a neighbouring village.

While smaller and less luxurious than Rosalie's old home, the house was sturdy and well-built and held great promise for the future.

Lukas even made sure to build a rocking chair to put on the porch of the house facing the sea, with the thought that Rosalie could rest her legs there whenever she needed.

That day Rosalie Olafsson, 22, married Lukas Arnold, 24.

The celebrations were attended by the majority of Rosalie's relatives.

Aunts and uncles all were in attendance, as well as nieces and nephews (except for Émile) and several cousins.

Even Anna Olafsson (now Anna Davidsson) was able to attend, after having moved to the same village a few years back with her new husband, thus distancing her from part of the social exclusion that her children had caused.

Ulf and Inés attended as well, of course.

While they were sad to say goodbye to their youngest, it seemed that the wedding stirred up some romantic memories for the two since they spent most of the evening flirting with each other.

At the end of evening several drunk, full and happy revellers travelled their separate ways back to their homes after hours of fun.

Sadly, many of them went home unaware that they saw some of the attendants for the last time that day.

[300yearschallenge]

During Théodora's pregnancy a happy occassion came when it was time for Rosalie's 18th birthday.

Inés made sure to throw a huge celebration, and family from far and wide were invited.

Another wave of Uppsala Fever had been going around the island that same year, but thankfully the family had suffered no losses and none of the attendees were ill.

Such as cousins Ingmar Bryggare and Karolina Otalbo née Karlsson.

Both of whom had married someone that same year.

Although in Ingmar's case it was the case of a rushed wedding following a scandal, which the family politely chose not to mention.

Or cousins Helga and Karl Olafsson, who had travelled all the way from the farm in the south and who both remained unmarried.

As well as cousins the birthday celebration was of course attended by as many aunts and uncles of Rosalie as possible.

Even Vilhelm managed to get time off work so that he could come and congratulate his dear niece.

Josef was also in attendance, although he had not been able to bring his oldest daughter Anna to the occassion.

She had been involved in a scandal after having two illegitimate children, and societal standards demanded she be forced to stay away.

Still, aside from topics such as Anna or Ingmar's early marriage, the occassion was a happy one and everyone mingled enthusiastically among themselves.

Rosalie had grown into a very beautiful young woman, who bore a strong resemblence to both of her parents in differing ways.

She was, as always, a very polite and proper young woman. Although the sadder events of the past decade had definitely left her with a more gloomy disposition compared to that of her other siblings.

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Historical Info

This is essentially the same info from the previous Historical Info post that focused on Uppsala Fever. If you've read that one then there's no new info here, sorry ^w^''

Uppsala Fever (named after the city Uppsala in Sweden (where my step-grandma lives! :D)) was the name of a fever disease that from time to time swept through Sweden and Åland.

It usually struck during autumns from August until October.

The primary symptoms were fever and exhaustion.

It is believed that Uppsala Fever was actually usually typhoid fever or malaria, although we can't ever really be sure.

There were many different diseases that affected the populace that would come and go intermittently and who all had somewhat similar symptoms and various infection and death rates.

Source: Det Åländska Folkets Historia Vol. III (The History of the Åland People Vol. III) by Stig Dreijer

[300yearschallenge]

In the fall, some time before Rosalie's wedding, it was time for Iliana Dorothea's fifth birthday to be celebrated.

Théo invited over the whole family (minus Émile Gustaf) and prepared a lot of nice foods for the occasion.

The party was attended by all of Théo's immediate and extended family who could come, and the day was made even merrier by Constantine announcing that his wife was with child.

Iliana Dorothea had grown into a sweet young girl, who bore a strong resemblance to her father Joseph.

In line with her birthday it was decided that Joseph and Théo would move into what had once been Joseph's parents' bedroom, and Joseph's mother Diana and little Iliana Dorothea would take over the bed in the other room.

Iliana Dorothea was, as always, her father's favourite, and she knew it too.

It wasn't uncommon for her to pull out all the stops to win her father's affection and get him to do whatever she wanted.

Perhaps she was a little spoiled, as she could get away with things none of her brothers could, such as eating the ingredients when she was supposed to be helping her mother in the kitchen.

Or sitting in on school when she technically wasn't supposed to.

She seemed to mostly find school somewhat boring, however, and only joined class at times when she felt like being close to her beloved father.

The rest of the time she was more than happy to follow her mother around and learn all the things a young girl of her age was expected to learn.

[300yearschallenge]

In the spring of 1763 the Olafsson family held a joint birthday party for three of their family members: Théodora, Constantine and Rosalie.

Rosalie was turning 12 and the twins 18.

The party was, as always, attended by a huge portion of friends and relatives, such as the siblings' cousin Ingmar from the brewer family.

Although he had lost his father earlier that same year he seemed to be a cheerful and kind child, who connected well with Rosalie.

Joseph and Théo were, of course, also there, although they felt little Émile was too young to join in on the festivities.

Soon enough it was time for everyone to blow out the candles.

Rosalie went first, and everyone who saw her thought she had grown up to look very similar to her mother, but with the distinct jaw of her father.

Next came Théodora and Constantine, who blew out their candles practically at the same time.

Constantine had grown into a very handsome and intelligent young man, with a passion for politics, philosophy and the arts.

Théodora, meanwhile, was a gorgeous young woman. Although she is currently finding her footing after becoming a mother Théodora is none the less as determined and headstrong as always.

Looking at her Ulf remarked that she looked strikingly similar to her late grandmother Alida.

[300yearschallenge]

In the autumn of 1755 Jonas & Karin had another baby, a daughter they named Karina.

And that winter Rosalida gave birth to twins: a boy named Ingmar and a girl named Ida.

That same year Vilhelm celebrated his 18th birthday.

He had grown into a tall young man who remained as gentle and hard-working as ever.

Signhild was immensely proud of him, although she was heartbroken that Ingmar never got to see Vilhelm turn 18.

The family held a large gathering to celebrate Vilhelm, and during the festivities it just so happened that Josef, Jonas and Ulf sat down to talk.

Josef had a proposition for the two.

He suggested that they all pitch in to buy a small boat that they could collectively use to ship wares over to Stockholm to sell.

Being a forester and woodcutter Josef sold a lot of wares to Stockholm, but the cost of ferrying everything over was high and he was growing sick of having to lose such a large share of the income every time.

This way the three brothers could all forego the cost to pay someone to ship wares over, and instead be able to make more money all together.

Seeing no downsides to the matter they all agreed to go through with it, and Jonas offered to be the one to keep and take care of the boat when the others weren't using it, seeing as how he lived closest to the shore.

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Historical Info

This is an interesting piece of information that I learned while reading a book on this time period.

Seeing as how Åland is a group of islands in the middle of the baltic sea the people living on it were very dependent on the sea and sea routes.

Aside from a postal sea route that went between Sweden, Åland and Finland the people on Åland had to make their own way around.

While there was some trade between Åland and the city of Turku in Finland, it was much more common for the Åland people to travel to Stockholm to trade.

Often they would travel over in their own boats (or have to pay someone to take their wares over) to Stockholm in order to sell firewood, fish, cheese, butter, livestock and other wares they had produced over the year. The most common export was firewood and fish above all.

Since boats are expensive to buy and maintain it was common practice for the ownership of one boat to be split between several people, commonly 2-3 people in total.

The boats themselves were a type of boat known as a "skuta" in Swedish, which often had two masts and, as time went on, a small cabin in which people could eat and sleep.

Alexander Wetterling (1796-1858). "En del af Södra Hamnen öst från Lutfiskggangen d . 16 apr. 1826."

Source: Det Åländska Folkets Historia Vol. III (The History of the Åland People Vol. III) by Stig Dreijer

Also an additional non-historical fun fact is that I once steered a more modern incarnation of a "skuta" for a brief time as a child (under heavy supervision, but still!) :) It was heavy work and really tiring, but also pretty fun.

[300yearschallenge]

Following the Midsummer celebrations Théodora got ill, though she recovered quickly.

Rosalie was not as lucky, and got the same illness Théo had.

She was unwell for almost a week, only able to sleep and eat the soup and herbal teas her family made for her.

Thankfully she recovered, and just in time too!

In 1758 Vilhelm Olafsson, 21, married Marie Bryggare, 18.

Vilhelm might not normally have been given permission to wed someone from the Bryggare family, and to be sure her father wasn't entirely happy about the match.

However, given the fact that Marie's older brother Tor was married to Rosalida, the match was eventually agreed to much to the couple's delight.

The wedding was attended by the entirety of the Olafsson family as everyone was happy to see Vilhelm wed.

But happiest of all was perhaps Signhild, who was so immensely proud and happy for her son.

She only wished that Ingmar could have been there to see their son married.

As everyone drank, ate and mingled, some of the men gathered to play cards with each other.

As they did Tor began to speak about the war and how it was going.

He had been given permission to borrow the priest's newspapers every time he was done with them, and began telling the men about the proceedings of the war.

In short, while newspapers were hesitant to describe just to how much, it was going poorly. There were almost no descriptions of major victories or advancements.

Listening to him talk, Ulf felt a bit uncertain.

He had tried to put the war out of his mind after the initial anxiety he had felt when it was announced, and he had never read any newspapers himself.

Part of him wanted to believe the government and the military knew what it was doing and was looking out for everyone's best.

But, he knew from firsthand experience that this wasn't always true, and he remembered the failures of the war he had been in all too well.

In the end, he wasn't sure what to think, and left the wedding celebrations worried for what the future might hold.

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Historical Info

There weren't all that many newspapers in Sweden during the 18th century, although a few did exist.

These papers were primarily controlled by or supported by the government and the readers were mainly the social elite. Freedom of the press wasn't established in Sweden until 1766, so we're not there just yet.

Still, even with a controlled press, it's still possible that people reading between the lines and using word of mouth would make criticism of the government and its failings (and let's be real, the Seven Years War wasn't exactly a great time for Sweden) possible to spread.

Now, while a merchant's son reading a newspaper is a little bit of a stretch, it's not impossible to imagine that the priests might have. From there I figured it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to imagine that the priest letting other literate members of their congregation read the newspaper.

Still, even with a limited readership, the Swedish press and the discontent the war caused would have longterm political ramifications for Sweden.