A most amazing letter - so began a relationship with Sweden spanning 94 years

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 A 1928 Letter that solved many mysteries






My paternal great grandfather, Johan Magnus Brudus was born 28 February, 1852 in Borgholm, Kalmar, Sweden.  He emigrated from Lilla Horn, Kalmar at 19 years old and sailed to Sydney via London in 1872 on the "Barcoo".  It appears that he lost contact with his parents and siblings and made his life on the east coast of Australia. You can find stories of his life in New South Wales and Victoria here.  My cousin, Barbara wrote of "Our Mysterious Great Grandfathers" here.  


In the early 1920s, Sven Stromgren (my grandmother's cousin) in Sweden, had taken up the family challenge to find the whereabouts of  his uncle, Johan.  

In Sweden Sven had placed an advertisement in the world-wideSalvation Army magazine asking for information of Johan.  In Melbourne, Australia, my grandmother, Josephine Annie Romeril (nee Brudus) answered the ad and the above letter was sent to Sven.  

What followed was many years of air mail correspondence, with happy and sad family news being exchanged.  Nan was introduced (by mail) to many Swedish relatives and the Swedish family were introduced to our Australian family.  

Amongst the correspondence I have in my files was the below letter received from Sven in 1948.  I have edited parts of it, however he mentions that he has undertaken research, which he details:






In 1954 Nan sailed to Sweden to finally meet her Swedish relatives trip to Sweden.

I became a pen-pal to Sven's son, Peter when I was 10 years old and although this contact lapsed as life got in the way, we reconnected about 15 years ago when I emailed my story to every Peter Stromgren I could find on the internet.  Whilst most of the emails were ignored I struck gold!!  My Peter responded.  We swapped photos to ensure we had the right connection.  He remembered my Grandmother's visit when he was 9 years old. We swapped many emails and I now have made contact with many cousins in the United States.  We have become friends and DNA has confirmed our connections.  

In February 2016 Peter and his wife visited his Aussie family in Sydney and in August of that year I travelled to Sweden and Peter introduced me to Kalmar and Oland (Borgholm).  We featured in the local newspaper.  My trip is detailed here.

My sister and her husband has visited Peter and his wife at their home in Stockholm, and in 2017 both my son and my grandson met Peter in Sweden on separate trips.  I feel that the Swedish connection will not be broken in the future.  Peter had organised another trip to Australia in 2020, however Covid put a stop to that!!

I am very grateful to Sven Stromgren and his commitment to finding his Uncle Johan and to my Grandmother, Josephine for responding to the Red Cross letter.  What were the chances?

Josephine Annie Romeril (nee Brudus) and Sven Stromgren 1954




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