Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Linköping, Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden. Auckland, New Zealand
Surnames/tags: Nestor Haglund Hanlon
Old Letters Lead to a Family Re-connection after 130 years: In 1974 one of John Hanlon’s adult children Henry William (Harry) met a Swedish gentleman in an Auckland, New Zealand bookshop, and mentioned that his own father John, was from Sweden, and that he had several letters that had been sent to his father.
Harry lent the letters to the gentleman who turned out to be Ivo Holmqvist - then at the university of Auckland. Ivo Holmqvist translated the letters in part, summarising the content. Most of the letters to John had been written by his aunt, Christina Nestor (1838-1914) discussing family matters back in Linköping in the 1870s. Some of the letters were from sailor friends, several refer to John’s initial time in Boston, United States, and sailing to and from South America.
In the late 1970’s several of the letters – and Ivo’s notes, were copied by Harry Hanlon around the interested Hanlon family. With Harry Hanlon’s permission, Ivo took copies back to Sweden. At the time there was no follow-up from New Zealand, apart from a 1990 query by Beverley Thompson to Sweden, to establish John’s original name. In the late 1970’s Ivo Holmqvist attempted to find descendants of Christina, but without success.
In 1983, the letters were published in an article "Linköpingsbrev på Nya Zeeland" (Linköping letters in New Zealand) in a book, "Östergötland 1982", the yearly publication by the county museum of Östergötland (Linköping is the seat of Östergötland county). This was brought to the attention of Nils Baumgardt (1907-1992), the grandson of Christina Nestor. He was able to prove that the sender of the letters was his grandmother. The letters mention family members with details that were possible to verify in church records and such. He wrote a report about his findings which was shared with Joakim Hardell.
By that time, Ivo Holmquist had lost touch with Henry William Hanlon and the search effort was reversed. Nils' younger brother Gösta tried to find relatives of Johan Haglund in New Zealand, but without success.
In recent years Denis Williams in New Zealand and Joakim Hardell in Sweden had separately maintained their family histories.
In 2008, referencing one of the letters that he had been given by his mother, Denis made a Google search on the death of Albrecht Haglund and was astonished at retrieving details from Joakim’s website, together with a note on the letters. Denis and Joakim - as fourth cousins - then enabled a re-connection between the Hanlon Family in New Zealand and Nestor/Haglund cousins in Sweden – a connection made after 130 years.
A transcript of the letters and a translation can be found here: http://hardell.net/slhist/brev/nestorbrev-en.htm
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