| i DON'T KNOW THeSe PeOPLe. |
| Ok, I do know these people, and I love them all very much because, well, they're family and you gotta love them, right? |
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| Here is the wedding photo of my great-grandparents on my father's side of the family. It is all too unfortunate that I know so little about this side of my family because it is the side I want to know about most! I know this much, however: the man's name is Swan Tage Olson... but even his name is uncertain because it is a known fact that when he immigrated to the United States, his name was "Americanized" to be "Olson" when it once was Olafssen (unsure about the spelling, there, though). It is fairly certain that he immigrated to the United States from Sweden in the early 1900s. He became a member of the United States Coast Guard Corps of Engineers as he had an extensive education and was, in fact, an engineer. We know for certain that my great-grandfather contributed his talents in the design and construction of both the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges - the only bridges linking Cape Cod to mainland Massachusetts - which were considered incredible feats of technology in their heyday. He also designed dozens of lighthouses that are found all along the New England coastal states. |
| Even less is known about his wife. Family lore tells us that she may have been French or French Canadian, but I have also been told by some family members that she was British in origin. I suppose I'll have to do some reseach of my own to know for sure. All I know about her is that her maiden name was Copeland. She has a very sweet face, no? |
| click on the photo for full-sized view. |
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| I never met either of these people, as they were both deceased long before I was born. I am unsure of how great-grandmother Olson died, but I know that great-grandfather was killed as a result of an accident on the job. Oddly enough, as little as I know about him, I know so MANY strange peculiarities about great-grandfather Olson. I was told by my grandmother that his personal hero was Abraham Lincoln, whom he held in high admiration for his belief in all men as equals. Great-grandfather also appearantly belived strongly in physical fitness, as my grandmother told me once about remembering her father making she and her sisters and borthers excercise every morning by doing jumping jacks in the kitchen before going to school. He was also somewhat hot-tempered and often swore while playing cards (in Swedish, of course). I am struck by how strikingly handsome my great-grandfather was. Look at how light his eyes were! My grandmother told me that they were a pale, clean blue. I've only seen eyes like THAT before, and guess what? That person happens to hail from a neighboring country of Swan's homeland. How stately and continental his features are. And he spoke with a thick accent, and had a lot of trouple saying words with "th" in them. Hm, sounds familiar. Yes, VERY Scandinavian... |
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| The Olsons: Great-Grandparents on Father's Side |