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Re: Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Yep, my Mom was Swedish. Her families (Oman or Ohman on father's side, Sponberg on mother's, so far as surnames have relevance to earlier generations) both came over from Sweden (Dalsland, I think) to Minnesota and North Dakota in the late 1800s. Swedish was spoken around her house, and Mom retained a bit of it, but my sister and I had exactly none when we grew up in the New Jersey suburbs. The second languages we heard in the neighborhood were Yiddish and Italian. Well, I just remember how "Tack sa Mycket" is roughly pronounced. Then I consulted Google and still got it wrong. Shows how little I know. By the way, my mother was the tallest in her family, at 5'6": http://www.searls.com/doc/mom/pix/1913-1946/source/1943_permit.htm . She also had dark hair, dark eyes and tanned easily. There has been some idle speculation that at least some of her ancestors we Mediterranean types captured and brought back by Vikings. Might be fun to do a DNA study.
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