I was looking through some archives, as I use to do, and looked for some names that still are Scandinavian, but not so common, and I found the Swedish born soldier David Gerhard Lydell, born April 16th, 1892 in Norra Hestra Parish, Gislaved, Sweden. He was born in an old “Soldattorp” as his father, Josef Lydell, was a soldier in “Jönköpings regemente”, “Mo Härads Kompani 5”.
David left Sweden in 1910 with only $25 in his pocket. He went to France in August 1918, and Died of Decease not even a month after he arrived, age 26.
Riksarkivet 
Ancestry 
Riksarkivet 
Arkiv digital 
Ancestry 
Ancestry 
Ancestry 
National Archive US
I decided to try to find the location of this “soldattorp”, in the small village of Flahult, Norra Hestra, and I think I have located it through some old maps from the Swedish Map Service “Lantmäteriet”. This place is only about 50 km from where I live. Below you can see some snippets from the old maps that I have found, and some from map sites at Internet. The area “Cb” in the small map looks exactly like the area in the larger old map.
Arkiv Digital 
Lantmäteriet 
Eniro 
Lantmäteriet 
Eniro
Next step will be to try to visit these areas to collect information for my upcoming Battlefield Guide, that also will contain information about each individual, about their history connected to Sweden.
