Me, my mother and her bible  

When my beloved mother died and I came in possession of our old family Bible, a bible being past through generations since 1890 - I became aware of that - I "me Anthony" - now were the oldest family member living.

In that sense, I feel that I had an obligation to ensure that our roots were not forgotten. I also realised, that our generations - since the forties - had been less keen on our family history and relations. 

No doubt, we were children of the new world, after the war and busy with our problems.

Television, college education, computers, cars etc. played a large part of our life - in our world. We got marriage, parked our children in institutions and travelled the world - we were on the move.

The world moved tremendously in the sixties, seventies and eighties and our traditions got lost, the old people was a matter of the state. We build homes for them, parked them there with their knowledge, experience and memories. We visit them once a year on their birthdays - if we remembered it and had the time.

My generation - the young one - lived in an aura of change. It seems that there were a shift in perception in the fifties, where the importance of families ties faded away. It was the years where everybody were social democrat, where family was of less importance, and where the state took over the responsibilities of the children.

Neither our parents, nor their parents and certainly not “the children” became aware of that, before in the middle of the nineties and then it was to late - my grandmother was dead and my mother just died.

All though I remember some of my childhoods family get-together, I did not pay much attentions to what the adults were talking about - I had other things on my mind. But "we the children" were there with my parents and the rest of the family and I guess suppose to listen to the wisdom. I remember they talked about the family in Jutland, USA, Australia etc., - so what! - nothing was written - except for some few notes in the old bible my mother and her grandmother had don - it was assumed we all knew and that it was remembered passed on in good time.

And in a sense it was ok, because all the adults of the family – as per tradition - have been told through centuries about the family, when and who is who. I still vivid remember, when I sat in my grand grandfathers lab on a cold winter day in the 19-forties and listen to his description of the old days and where the family came from. He was very old with a very big white beard and it was me, there had to sit in his lab, as my sister watch in horror.

But then he past away then another of them past a way and then another, and now with my mother passed away - she was the last of that generation. ...............Am I really that old?  

And here I am – me Anthony - previous the youngest, now the oldest, the patriarch of the family I suppose - somehow I feel it is a bit odd - sitting here thinking about family and its history, which may be forgotten, because we "the children" did not care to write it down.

So here we are, in a new century with our roots in the old centuries, beginning to dry up.

Working a bit with the past - down the memory lane - I realized that there were lot of places and names embedded in my memory banks. How they got there is for me a puzzle, but it must have something to do with that exasperating repetitive language my mother used, that has forced its way in there.

So it came to me, maybe I should start writing something down and see how far I could get. Actual I am a bricklayer by trade and as I am used to build houses - which by definition is a project. So making a project - about the family present and past - was not in it self strange to me as this is what my whole life has been about - building houses - now building a house of my heritage. And that was reason enough for me to start the building my CyberHome, and for me to learn how to make homepages.

My CyberHome grew and so did this part of my home on the internet - The SVANE Family. 

The purpose of this part of my CyberHome is to rediscover our roots by display what I got and come in contact with other family member outside this tiny world and place called Denmark.

Equally important is it to come in contact with people interested in the history of one of the oldest Danish families and the genealogy  of the "Svane family", in order to get a picture of our history as a family, our ancestors and our roots for the generations to come.

HELP me!

When you conduct a personal search in history of your family, you come into personal contact with the sources. In this sense you come face to face with your family in a historic perspective.

Few experiences can compare to the excitement of holding in your hand, for the first time, for example an original document from the era of enclosures around 1790, on which your great-great-grandfather has laboriously printed his initials - they may be H NS for Hans Nielsen - because he was unable to write his name in full.

I shall be gratefull for any assistance you may contribute to my family history. 

Kindly regards