10 Year Blogoversary – Happy New Year!

It’s the last day of 2024 and it just struck me that I started this blog 10 years ago – in 2014. Back then I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with this space. That is also quite obvious when I look back at the posts I wrote over the years. I really got to writing from 2017 and onwards. At first it was about things I thought about in my line of work as a tv-producer, and then, it started to be about reclaiming one’s own history to slowly grow into this family research blog about my ties to missionary history and China.

I started working on a family tree in 2018-2019, and as work progresssed, I started to make contact with “lost” relatives. The need to find out more and put together bits and pieces of information that I already had, grew stronger.

I wrote the first real post about the Bergling family history in april 2019: Read it here. After that I realized, this was going to be the purpose of this blog. I needed a space to share the research, to connect with like-minded and to document the process.

Over the past years I have sometimes revisited old blog posts and corrected faults, when I have discovered new information that contradicts what I thought I knew before. I notice that my overall knowledge has greatly improved and I connect the dots faster today.

I have also had great help from all of you readers and fellow bloggers!  Your thoughts on the subjects at hand, have helped me think and do more research. Your tips on where to find information have been invaluable – thanks to all of you who have been with me along the way!

Through this blog I have even had the possibility to meet with relatives from the Netherlands! What a treat to have been able to meet not only once, but twice since this first meeting back in 2022: Read it here.

We met again this year in spring – and another “new” relative (Kurt) joined in and got to see his cousins for the first time since they were young.

Afterwards, Kurt said it had been the best time he’d had in a long while, being part of this small family reunion. And to think – if I hadn’t started writing about this, none of it would have happened!

Lately, I have also had the good fortune to connect with other interested missionary history buffs in China. One of them, Haifeng, helped me solve a family mystery and I am for ever grateful for this: Read it here.

He has himself written about the missionaries working in his region – and one of them was my grandfather’s sister Dagny-Edla: Read it here.

This blog is – as advertised – a slow blog. That is, I don’t post more than once a month per usual. In total, I try to post 12 times a year, which I reach this year by posting this celebratory piece.

Research takes time, and time is scarce, why I don’t sweat it if I have less time one month. Then, I might write two articles the next month, or like this year – three articles in December… For me, it is not about the number of posts – it’s about inspiration and life happening – a book that was interesting, a photo that told me something new, or a relative or friend who inspired a post in some way. And somehow, this seems to add up to twelve posts per year for me 🙂

A growing puzzle
For every story that is getting added to this history, I find there are so many more that one could tell. I am truly grateful that I am not alone with this interest. Together, we have a much better chance of doing justice to the lives and bravery of these remarkable people. This journey has been enriched by so many contributions. From the Swedish Mission in China, depositing their entire archive for research at the Swedish National Archives, to fellow researchers, families sharing letters and photographs, and strangers who approach me with vital information – many of whom become research friends. I am also indebted to antique bookstores, holding priceless time-worn documents, and, of course, my own grandmother Edna. Her bedtime stories about life and adventure in China ignited my curiosity and continue to inspire me today.

Let’s celebrate!
Of course, this is cause for celebration! Those of you who have found this small blog, have done it out of interest and are such an important part of the joy of writing it. Many of you are bloggers yourselves and I love reading your posts, learning new things about history, writing, reading, family research, travelling, postcards, photography and much more. Who knew this little adventure would become all this!

Thank you, and please keep coming back to inspire me and share your insights ❤️

Happy New Year!