(here, my grandfather, Svante Dahlström) So, I promised to tell an interesting story about a friend of my grandfather's. As I said in the previous entry, until 1921 there was no Civil Register in Finland, the only option was to marry in the church and baptize your children. That counted as official and still does; either you marry in church or before a judge. And the children are either baptized or registered in the Civil Register.
The story happens in 1914, before they established the Civil Register. The friend's name was Rolf Lagerborg and they belonged to a freethinker organization, the Student Association Prometheus (http://www.dlc.fi/~etkirja/AtheismInFinland.htm), which was founded in 1905-1906 and fought for the right to religious freedom. He had a fiancée, but wouldn't yield to marrying in church. So they both arranged a scheme that was considered a big scandal at the time, but it worked.
His fiancée sued him for having "cohabitated" with her, but then refusing to "take her before the pastor". He told the judge that in fact he refused to do that, but that if the judge so decided and "condemned" him to be married to her, that he could accept. And it really happened that way.
This event really took place in 1903, when my grandmother and grandfather were condemned in marriage by the judge. My grandmother lawyer put a ring on my grandfathers finger after the verdict, cheered hurray and opened a bottle of champagne. As I am doing a little research partly going through around 3,500 pages of letters, mostly from Elna to Rolf Lagerborg aiming to result in a little booklet about my grandmother, I am pleased that the story has spread even to the new world.
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Anders Lagrelius