This month we would like to introduce you to Ralph Sultan, who has been a person who has shown a great deal of interest in Swedish Heritage in BC. Ralph Sultan was born in Vancouver in 1933 to Swedish immigrants. His father, born in 1899, came from Gräshult near Jönköping in Småland and emigrated to…
Bo Fred Olsson was born in Hede, Härjedalen, Sweden. The Olsson family of 6 left Sweden by ocean liner from Gothenburg to New York in 1946 when he was 4 years old. They travelled across America by rail and entered Canada through the border customs in White Rock, British Columbia. Bo’s father was already a…
Lund, B.C. is the small picturesque seaside village on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast on the northern terminus of Highway 101, 22 km north of Powell River. It was founded in 1889 by two brothers from the Valdemarsvik area, Charles and Fred Thulin. Charles Thulin (1863-1932), born Carl August Andersson and Fred Thulin, Fredrik Gottfrid Andersson…
My father, Harold Swanson, was born in the family home in Spånga, Hanaskog, Sweden on September 16, 1899. His father had a sawmill business. Eventually the family moved to Agnesberg, also in Hanaskog. His father set up an oak flooring business and raised show horses there. My dad graduated from Malmö Tekniska Läroverk which helped…
Before provincial healthcare, Workers’ Compensation, and Employment Insurance provided relief from illness or accidents, which was especially prevalent among BC’s dangerous manual labour occupations — there was Svea. Svea operated as a sick benefit organization (including accidents and illness), which also helped with funeral costs, and donations to needy Swedes. Active during the years 1908-1968,…
Ernst Harald Larsson was born in Flädie, located between Malmö and Lund, on October 15,1881. His parents bought a house and a general store in Lunnarp, and that is where he grew up and went to school. Lunnarp is a village just north of Ystad on the south coast of Sweden. Ernst was strongheaded and…
Johann Karlsson and Emma Nilsdotter led modest country lives in Sweden before they immigrated toCanada in 1887 and 1893 respectively. As with many Swedish immigrants at this time they anglicizedtheir names to John Carlson and Emma Nelson endeavouring to fit into the predominantly Britishestablishment.Emma found work as a housemaid/cook for a medical doctor on Robson…
Irene Howard was born in Prince Rupert,B.C. on November 19, 1922 to a Swedish father and a Norwegian mother, Nils Alfred Nilsson and Ingeborg Aarvik. Her father later changed his name to Alfred Nels Nelson. Irene had a childhood of tremendous upheaval due to her father’s work in different mines in BC. They moved from…
Sigge (Alf Sigvald) Björklund was born in Lappfjärd, Finland on February 15, 1926. He immigrated to Vancouver in 1956. Upon arriving in Vancouver he lived with his sister Linnea and worked as an electrician. Being an avid cross country skier from Finland, he loved the mountains of the west coast but couldn’t find any suitable…
Edwin Albert Alm was born in Bjärme, Jämtland February 9, 1888. His father was a professional soldier, and the family was quite poor. Edwin learned to work hard early in his life. He did well at school and after confirmation, his father and the minister of the local church decided that Edwin should study to…