About Me

My photo
Author, film researcher and member of the Swedish Military History Commission.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Maggie Gyllenhaal and the Beetles

Maggie Gyllenhaal and a whole lot of these will be on TV tonight. PHOTO: J.M. Garg.

Tonight my famous distant cousin Maggie will be in the PBS TV show "Finding Your Roots". I am curious about the end result.

What I did was to provide the connection with the curator of the Leonard Gyllenhaal insect collection. This collection is well-known among Swedish Gyllenhaals but our American relatives seem to have mixed up beetles with butterflies. No big deal, but now this TV show will surely set the record straight once and for all. Leonard Gyllenhaal was a cavalry officer but his true passion was not battles, nor butterflies, but beetles.

I know from the net that the beetle story will be in the actual show. What I am curious about is if they will also mention our common forefather Nils, who probably saw more battles than beetles. I also hope they will include Maggie's grandfather Hugh, who was a US cavalry officer under Patton from France to Germany. I sure would have liked to have met him but was too late in that ambition. What I have learnt about him from correspondence is in Swedes at War.

Well, I reckon several US relatives will see this blog post so let me say how much I look forward to returning to the United States some day. It has been twelve years since my dad and I came over on our little tour. We then had the good fortune to be able to meet relatives both in Pennsylvania and California, including Maggie (on stage too, a strong performance). Take care and hope to see many of you in a not too distant future. Also, remember that you are most welcome over here!


No comments:

Post a Comment