John and Elsa Windh, Rolf and Maria, visited Norra Rorum, Sweden, on August 15 and 16, 1976. This is the village where John’s father had grown up. John wrote the following:

Norra Rörum is the Swedish village near which the Windhs farmed before my father and four of his brothers came to North America. It lies perhaps 25 US miles northeast of Lund and 35 miles northeast of Malmö in extreme southwestern Sweden, just across from Copenhagen. The rolling Sköne countryside resembles southern Wisconsin except for occasional thick woods and an old windmill just out of Lund. One passes between two sizable lakes ten miles before reaching Norra Rörum, a well-kept village of perhaps 50 houses strung out along several intersecting asphalt roads. The frame or brick houses are rather "Midwest" looking except for the many tile roofs. We saw young people on motorcycles by a drive-up snack bar, but otherwise noticed no stores or even a school. All was very simple but neat, with no signs of poverty.

The one church of white stucco is flanked by a rust-colored wooden bell tower. It sits in trees on a hill near the north edge of the village. A limestone plaque over the door is dated 1782. The small church is utterly charming, looking surprisingly like the rural pioneer churches our Scandinavian forebears built in the New World. As you face the front, a carved and colorfully painted wooden pulpit with a canopy overhead is to the right of the simple altar, in front of which is a semi-circular kneeling rail. An baptismal font created from a large stone block (where my dad and his family were likely christened) is at the left. All the pews and woodwork are painted a delicate blue-green. Three golden chandeliers (with candles, not electric lights) and the traditional sailing ship model hang in the center aisle. A new-looking pipe organ stands in the small rear balcony. On the wall of a tiny sacristy to the right, one can read the names of all the pastors who have served this church back to 1546.

In the flower-filled cemetery alongside the church one finds the Windh family plot in the far left corner coming out the door, away from the street, quite near the wooden fences and fields. On the lone Windh tombstone is carved a small cross and some very worn lettering, which can best be seen in late morning. It reads "Olander Windh" "Hesthun (Hustrun/"housewife"?) Cecilia" and "Sonen Bror". It lacks any dates or any mention of Aunt Maria. (This tombstone does not appear in a photo taken at Cecilia's burial in 1937 and may not yet have been erected then. But it can be seen, with very readible letters, in another picture taken in 1957 at Maria's burial. These same photos suggest that Cecilia was laid to rest slightly left of the present stone and Maria to the left of that. Olander and Bror, the son who lived from 1895 to 1907, also lie here somewhere.) The family plot is clearly defined by cement curbs. All the plots are covered with fine gravel, perfectly raked. There are a few plants, neatly trimmed but without blossoms. Apparently because she died without survivors or money, Maria's name had not been carved on the family tombstone in 1976.

In the cemetery we met an older lady tending her husband's grave. In halting Norwegian, my mother was able to tell the woman who we were, and she graciously offered to lead us to what had once been the Windh farm. Before leaving, we spoke with an older couple living beside the church who remembered Olander and Cecilia, Maria and even Sven. We never found a Jenny Carlson (Karlsson) (her married name may be Johansson), described as a cousin, although we believe we knocked at the door of her home.

(In 2014, a Google map view of Norra Rorüm clearly shows the church on a short street named Hammars Väg. Its cemetery is now twice as large as in 1976.)

The Windh farm lies perhaps three US miles southwest of Norra Rörum. Drive 2.5 km west on an asphalt road, then turn south and west on a gravel road which brings you into a farm yard surrounded by two houses and two barns. This is the "Agerup" farm, which once owned the Windh farm and eventually bought it back. Some of these farm buildings are roofed with straw. A family named Anderson has lived in one of these houses since 1934; both Mrs. Anderson and her son, about 40, remembered Maria well and affectionately described her as "kindly." Mrs. Anderson also remembered Sven, who had left by 1921. They shared with us a photo album and a picture of a 3-4 year old child they said was Maria sitting in front of the Windh house. The man who bought the Windh farm lives in the other house, but we never found him at home. Apparently he purchased it well before Maria died, then allowed her to live there as long as she wished.

From this farmyard, a narrow lane leads perhaps 200 yards past a rocky pasture and between stone fences and spooky gnarled trees to the small farm yard where the Windh farmhouse stood until it burned some time after Maria's death in 1957. Especially if you have seen photos of this farm, you can locate the flat stones which comprised the barn floor, but there is no trace of the house which once joined the barn in an L-shape. Now planted with wheat, the yard is surrounded on three sides by a low stone fence. A rusty, broken hand pump stands on a cement well casing in the yard. Untended flowers bloom nearby. There are several apple trees. At the open, unfenced side of this yard, perhaps 40 feet from the barn-house site, is a small red, wooden, newer-looking house, apparently furnished. It was probably built in the 1920s. Mr. Anderson said this house was built for Olander and Cecilia in the event that Maria married and, with her husband, took over the farm; however, no Windhs ever lived in it, he says. A neat pile of red roof tiles stands nearby, perhaps salvaged from the burned house. (The connected barn “el” was roofed with straw.) When Olander died in 1934, the deed to the farm was signed over to Maria by her brothers, who formally gave their part of the estate to her for having taken care of their parents so long. To the north of the buildings is a wheat field of perhaps 6-8 acres surrounded by trees. Across the road to the south is a smaller pasture also carved out of the woods. It isn’t clear how much of this Olander owned or farmed. Today the farm is quiet, isolated, peaceful and apparently fertile, though seemingly far too small to have provided more than the barest living to Olander and Cecilia and their eight children a century ago.

Back at the churchy, the young pastor was most willing, even eager, to help us look for family information in the church records stored in his parsonage-office. When he opened Sven Windh’s page, out fell the sand which had been used to blot the ink in 1921! He also offered to look into older archives now stored in Lund. Through him Gladys Windh arranged for a stone cutter to make the names on the Windh tombstone legible again and to add the name "Selma Maria." [At another visit in 1984, John saw that had been done.] When Maria died in 1957, there were no survivors and no money to carve her name on that tombstone.

What a delight to have been there.
John Windh, September 1976
with Gladys Windh, Elsa Windh,
and Rolf (then 11) and Maria (then 9) Windh

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An additional comment . .
Again in 1984 I visited Norra Rörum. In the churchyard, I identified myself as "Windh from America" to an elderly gentleman who was digging a fresh grave. He thought a moment, then asked, "Gladys Windh?" and pointed toward the Windh gravesite. Indeed, he was the very gentleman whom my mother had hired in 1976 to plant additional shrubs on the Windh graves and to get someone to clarify and complete the carving on the tombstone.

John shared photos he took in 1976 with some of the Tacoma Windhs and is willing to share them again in 2014 by email.


Here are notes that John wrote in August 1976 while examine the church records with the pastor at the parish church in Norra Rörum.

FROM A LOOK AT THE CHURCH RECORD BOOKS IN NORRA RÖRUM
AUGUST 16, 1976
John Windh

MY GRANDPARENTS:
Olander Wind b. April 25, 1852, in N. Rörum, d. April 17, 1934
Cecilia Svensdotter b. April 15, 1855, in N. Rörum, d. August 2, 1937

The church record books show that Olander and Cecilia married on December 29, 1877. Notice that Windh is spelled on the main entry page without a final "h" but elsewhere in the books it is spelled Windh. "Wind is an old soldier name,” the pastor said. Olander's address is listed as "Barkehus" in the Agerupshus" area."Barkehus" may mean the house of one who removed bark from trees. Another address in the Agerup area was "Snickarhus" or "carpenter house," according to the pastor.

Olander's occupation is listed as "husar" which means not just a soldier but a soldier in an old and respected unit of the Swedish army.

THEIR CHILDREN: Born Remarks2
(Nils)1
Carl Gottfried April 8, 1881 to N. America April 2, 1901
Oscar Valfrid Sept. 23, 1883 to N. America May 21, 1902
Otto Alfrid Feb. 14, 1886 to N. America March 14, 1903
Selma Maria3 June 21, 1888 moved to Malmö Oct. 30, 1906
Per Lyringfird4 Oct. 15, 1890 to N. America Nov. 12, 1906
Bror Helfrid5 Aug. 22, 1895 died July 8, 1907
Sven Erhnfrid6 July 29, 1898
Ture Valfrid Karlsson7 May, 7, 1916

1) Uncle Nils is not mentioned; his birth might have been recorded in older books which had already been moved to the regional archive in Lund.
2) There is no record when any of those who came to North America died. Once someone moved out of the parish, apparently their passing was not recorded.
3) Maria apparently moved from the parish in 1906; the main book doesn’t mention when she returned, but elsewhere her date of death is listed as August 7, 1957.
4) The spelling of Uncle Pete's middle name is problematic. Even the pastor found it hard to read. Pete probably used "Lingfrid.”
5) The son who died before he was 12 was apparently named Bror (which literally means "brother"). The pastor says that was not an uncommon first name. I have never heard anyone mention that this son ever existed.
6) Sven spelled his middle name "Ernfrid" and celebrated his birthday on August 31. His leaving for a job (probably in Malmo) and coming to North America in 1923 are not recorded in this book. His immigration papers show he entered the US from Canada on Dec. 19, 1924. He passed away of a heart attack in Groton, South Dakota, on Sept. 30, 1961, at the age of 63.
7) Ture Karlsson is listed separately at the bottom of the page and called a "foster son." He moved to nearby Höör, perhaps to a home, in July 1, 1968; a call by the pastor revealed that he died there on May 8, 1970.

Notice that all the boys' middle names end in "-frid".

The young pastor, who speaks and writes English well, in 1976 offered his help. He is: Hans Grimhammar, Prästgarden, Norra Rörum, 243 00 Höör, Sweden.

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Elsa suffered a stillbirth on March 19, 1962, in Ithaca, New York. That child, a girl, is buried in Lake View Cemetery, plot F, in Ithaca, NY.