‘Just Call My Name…and I’ll be There…’

My heart races as I push the search button for the Ellis Island Passenger list. Would this really unravel the mystery of our Swedish Family name? Would I see my grandfather’s name on the ship manifest…a grandfather I never knew. We were told our grandfather, Oskar Hjalmar, changed his name to ‘Hard’… once he immigrated from Sweden… easier to pronounce…..but I still recall the innocent playground tauntings…”Monica Soft…Monica Soft”…and the night fifteen years ago…when my mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary announcement from the local newspaper turned up on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno…. you know that thing he does with newspaper clippings….well…the headline read… ‘Hard 50 years’…and yes…mom and dad happened to be watching! And so was I…

Anyway…our dad said he thought our last name was originally, ‘Hoard’….I ran it every which way in the vast Ellis Island memory banks….nothing! Dead end.

But a chance visit to a favorite furnishing store…breathed new life into my search. A Swedish woman who works at the store part time…told me that the name ‘Hard’ …with a circle accent over the ‘a’ …is pronounced ‘Hoard’ in her Swedish homeland….the pieces of the puzzle were coming together.

I raced home to run the ‘Hard’ name again…still no Oskar….so I ran ‘O Hard’….and there it was…‘Otto W. Hard‘…that was my grandfather’s brother’s name….We were told ‘Uncle Otto’ was a strapping Swede….6′ 6′ or so…could this really be him?  I clicked on the manifest….the print too small…I hit magnify…and pulled out my own magnifying glass…sure enough…there was…a little circle accent above the name…I glanced over to find…that 17 year old Swede…Otto W. Hard…came to America in 1901 to stay with his brother ….’H Hard…’  (H for Hjalmar?) in Kewanee, Illinois….We were told the brothers went to Minnesota…The journey wouldn’t have been far….from Kewanee.A slam dunk….no…but a good probablity…yes…But…the manifest said Otto was from Rising…not the city of Stockholm…which we were told…. I googled ‘Rising’ a dozen ways…and no such, town province or city turned up.  Then I remembered my ‘Swedish Angel’ from the furnishing store…she asked what Parish the Hard’s were from….so I ran another search for Swedish Parishes…and there it was…’Risinge’…with an ‘e’…in the county of Ostergottland…more research needs to be done.

But again…I think we’re on the right track here. There have been ‘signs’…(Remember…my family believes in signs.) The male and female (‘Swedish’) Yellow Finches that paid me a visit (see earlier post)… And then coming back from the furnishing store…two blocks off  the busy main drag in the heart of Kirkland…a male and female deer…cross in front of my car…and pause for a picture….we don’t get deer in downtown Kirkland!  Oh…and do I dare tell you about the lone fox...my son and I spotted in Kirkland late at night coming home from a movie? We called my dad…’the silver fox.’  My niece Christy…is now referring to me as ‘Monica Dolittle,’….if only I could...talk to the animals!  But before you strike up the ‘Twilight’ theme song…(and I’m not talking vampires)…or summon the guys in the white coats…I will concede…all of this is probably just an amusing coincidence…but it has added intrigue to this already interesting journey…to connect with the past.  Ahead…’The big day’…the family reunion!  The journey continues….