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Jerry Revelle in memoriam
 
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jerry revelle
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Joined: 24 Oct 2006
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Location: Elk Mound, Wisconsin USA (rural)

PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 3:23 pm    Post subject: A bit more Reply with quote

Had a nice telephone conversation and email with the Skifström relative in Northern Minnesota. Hopefully, we will hear a good bit more from her and her "cousins" in future. She will attend the Nisswastämma in June.

In her email she writes:

....the bagpiping ladies...I only know that in Sweden they played the pipes in the bars and the men would throw money at their feet. If they didn't pay well, the women would cuff their ears. I heard from my aunt that they kept sheep or cattle in Sweden and brought the pipes along and played while the animals grazed.

Well, to me they sound like vallkullor and genuine "Jarke" if that Järnamål word can apply to ladies (what about it Anders?).
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Baglady



Joined: 27 Jan 2011
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Location: North of Minneapolis

PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool! I found these pictures while indulging my interest in folk costumes and thought these ladies were interesting. I like the connection.

http://folklorefashion.durantextiles.com/the-pasture-women-vallkullorna-in-dalecarlia-beauty-and-strength/
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Olle
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PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's wonderful that you have found descendants, and not only that - descendants with a story about their ancestors! I'm hoping to hear more of this.

Olle
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jerry revelle
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Joined: 24 Oct 2006
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Location: Elk Mound, Wisconsin USA (rural)

PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:21 pm    Post subject: What's next? Reply with quote

Yes, Olle, we've made contact at last. This woman is beginning a campaign to contact as many other Skifström descendents as she can find and put out the word that many folks are interested in their relatives.

Keep your fingers crossed. Who knows what may be hidden away in an old trunk somewhere?
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Baglady



Joined: 27 Jan 2011
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Location: North of Minneapolis

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2012 12:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The connection of bagpipes, herders, and bars seems to be universal. I've played in a few bars and made a little money but I didn't know the trick of cuffing people to get paid better.
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Baglady



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know Jerry...I've been thinking how amazing it is that the Minnesota connection to sackpipa came from your family. That's so serendipitous! I tried to contact the family but I'm sure I sounded like a stalker or something but you connected right away.

I'm very excited to meet this woman. I've been doing research on Milkmaids (Budeie in Norway) and the music they played and I'm formulating a picture of a woman playing to the cattle to calm them and to please the small folk so they don't play any pranks. I find it charming. There are many stories from around the world of bagpipes about cattle being attracted to the sound of them. The Scandinavian milkmaids are very adept at training a behavior to connect to a song or tune. It's beginning to look like the Scandinavian bagpipes may have been female dominated by virtue of the fact that the summer farm industry is dominated by females. (by decree and tradition)

IMHO
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Olle
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I can confirm that cows are attracted to Swedish bagpipes. Horses too. Personal experience.

The two Skifstrom ladies are the only female Swedish pipers we know of today. This may seem to contradict the female domination you speak of. There are some stories of other female pipers - it's just that we don't know them by name today - but, still, almost all pipers we know of, by name or not, are male.

Come to think of it, this is something of a contradiction. Bagpiping is historically quite often associated to herding, not only in Sweden but in most countries I think. And herding was, in many places and times, a chore dominated by women (even by decree, as you say, in many places in Sweden), so therefore you would expect to find more female bagpipers. But guess who wrote the history books? Smile

The only country i know where women dominate the bagpiping scene today is Estonia.
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Baglady



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was able to spend a few minutes with Jerry's Skifstrom contact. She was on her way out when we finally connected so we didn't have long but I think it was fruitful. She confirmed that they would play while with the cattle and at the bars but as often happened the family has no knowledge of the family or it's situation in Dalarna since Annie and Lars immigrated. While speaking with her I realized that they probably didn't bring any pipes over. Playing pipes were part of their work as herders and a bit of youthful folly that they put aside when they married and had children. The best place to find their pipes is probably on the farm they worked and/or lived on. The tradition that had been handed from mother to daughter in this instance may have been given to another herd girl from that farm or family before they came over. I think the chance that we may find pipes here in Minnesota is very small but it's opened a whole new avenue of discovery for me. I like knowing the history and context of the music I play and the life of the herd women of Scandinavia really interests me.
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Baglady



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh...and I have to amend my theory of female domination in sackpipa a little. The music of the herd women was very hereditary in nature and kept to specific families and farms because the animals were trained to react to the music in specific ways. And when the cattle were out roaming and foraging for food they would sometimes intermingle so it was a big help to be able to call in your own cattle and not anyone else's when you gathered them in. So sackpipa may have been specific to this family of herd women but it still follows that there could have been more families with the tradition.
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Olle
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Annie" (her name was Anna in Sweden) and Lars, were actually the second wave. They did not emigrate until 1880. Anna would have been 61 then - she was born in 1819. Their daughter, Brita, and her husband, Anders, emigrated already 1868 and in her case there is a witness confirming that she did bring her pipes. Her husband said so during a visit back to Sweden in 1885.

It is also known that the mother, Anna, played the pipes at least as late as 1875, 5 years before she followed her daughter, on a wedding (where, by the way, the bride was a second cousin to piper Erik Persson who had also emigrated in 1868).

Given that, and since the parents moved to their daughter, I think it is fair to assume that Anna brought hers as well. Besides, Anders was well known as a good craftsman so even if neither of the women brought their pipes I don't think he would have had any trouble making new ones.

But I agree with you that we probably won't find the pipes.

(All facts above taken from Per Ulfs book "Säckpipan i Norden", p.99)
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Baglady



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good info from the Swedish side. It all lines up with the public records I'm finding here.

In the US census of 1895 Andrew and Breta Skifstrom are listed in Cokato with their 4 living children Andrew, Lewis, Charlie, John, Edward and Annie Johnson 77 born in 1818 in Sweden. Also Lewis's wife Greta. In 1910 Andrew and Bertha are listed in Lindford, Kochiching CO, MN and he filed a land claim there in 1911.

Jerry's friend says Lewis continued the family musical tradition as a fiddler. I wonder if the other children took up anything?

Did Andrew make pipes then? Did he play at all?

It's good to hear that Anna was still playing in her 'later' years.
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