Comments on: He drank himself to death

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:52:07 +0000

Thank you for your help – with the translation and the history! Some of these old parish records are very difficult to read for a non-native speaker. How sad that this was quite common.

By: Fridahovemy@hotmail.com

Fridahovemy@hotmail.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:59:11 +0000

I think it says ” omåttligt förtärande af starka drycker”

“excessive consumption of stong drinks” look at the second word, it has an umlaut over one of the letters…:)

By: frida

frida — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:54:11 +0000

Drinking was quite an epidemic in Sweden way back when your ancestors lived here. Life was tough and drinking was simply much more common. They didn’t know the physical damage that it causes and so forth. It was socially acceptable to drink much and all the time.
the first word looks a bit like omåttligt… maybe with old spelling.. which translates to excessive.. which would make more since conscidering the content of the text.

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 06:18:30 +0000

I’ll have to watch that!!

By: Shasta

Shasta — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:43:38 +0000

I just watched Ken Burns documentary on the Prohibition. He said that people drank weak beer all the time, but when the distilleries were made, alcohol became much stronger – whiskey and rum, and alcoholism was much more prevalent.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:33:37 +0000

Thanks so much Debi (and thank your friend for me too!) I hadn’t thought of the possibility of that situation. That’s why I love getting other people’s thoughts. Perhaps he became paralyzed after his wife became pregnant. That would have been very depressing to know that he couldn’t support them or even take care of himself. I could see him drinking himself to death because of that.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:27:22 +0000

Thanks Charles – I hadn’t even considered that possibility. I will definitely keep that in mind.

By: Debi Austen

Debi Austen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:22:28 +0000

Here’s what my friend and her husband say:

Mikael and I figure that he was paralyzed and so depressed that he drank until he died. It was a horrible time in Swedish history because of the potato famine. Many people during that time frame (2.5 million Swedes) left Sweden to make a better life for themselves and their families. I think this man became paralyzed before he drank himself to death and drank himself to death because he could not take care of his family. It was a horrible burden on a man during those days to not be able to take care of your family. Plus even today, alcohol is a huge problem in Sweden as is the 4.3 billion kronor they spend on depression. I am very sad about this story, but there are so many that are the same. I would be interested in how paralyzed he was, I guess not to much if he could make a child, but even so, it must have been horrible for him and even worse for this Wife and six kids he left behind.

I hope this helps. The direct translation is as she says but most likely he drank because of depression until he died.

By: Charles Hansen

Charles Hansen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:58:52 +0000

Maybe he drank wood alcohol. While it looks and smells like regular alcohol it usually is fatal to drink it.

By: Debi Austen

Debi Austen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:31:35 +0000

I just sent a link to this page to my friend in Sweden – maybe she can help