HOLMS MARIA & MATS NYGARD from DEBBIE SANTELLI

Maria & Matts Nygard Holms

Nygard Family History

From Debbie Santelli

I emailed a page from one of those PDF files that we were looking for (genealogical research by Hagberg).  I could tell that it was about my grandmother Maria Holm and her sister, Johanna.  Below is my friend's translation of the page.  You will recall that their home was moved elsewhere to be someone's summer cottage, but Gunnar and Peter showed us the location     

***Maria daughter of Johan and Maria (Härtus) of Höijar married crofter's son Matts of Nygård's home RN°10 in the home village.  (This is also found in Nygård's family history page 37, Tab. C: l3l332).  Matts' father was born at Bagg in Rökiö, but came as a son-in-law to Nygårds.  No doubt, Matts and Maria had a strenuous life.  They lived at Matts' home farm called "Isakus"

at Nygård's hill, but the crofter's land was located at the dean's residence Klunten in Brändkärr.  There he bought and cultivated ca 6 hectares of mossy ground for adequate use, which can be seen as a lifetime of work.  When one realizes that the land was ca 3-4 kilometers from the village and the road near his place was almost non-existent, one can understand that a crofter's life was drudgery.

Daughter Johanna, who was not married, continued to use the crofter's land after her father.  She kept it in good condition until old age took over. Johanna was an unusually hard-working crofter.  After Johanna's death, the crofter's land was abandoned and returned to the residence.  They planted woods all over the land with labor and hard work by the Nygård family.

The family had not honored the land according to the crofter's law because the house was found on another mantal which was thought to be abandoned and the law could not apply in any event, as I remember.  Today not much is left of this torp because the building and outbuildings are level with the ground.

Sisters Maria and Johanna Nygård were happy storytellers.  Their many stories were not recorded, unfortunately.  There have been village historical researchers who were misguided about countless valuable legends that, in one way or another, touched the history of the village and Nygård's hill.

 I remember how the sisters, who were my mother's cousins, with their story telling humor related history, "spiced" with proverbs, that matched what had actually happened in the village.  Unfortunately it has all  fallen into forgetfulness and that is to be deplored.

***This is my great-grandmother, Maria, who came to Bingham, married Johan Holm and gave birth to my grandfather, Johan Erik Holm (later changed to John Erik Erickson) and two other children, Aina and Victor Albert.