ANITA DAWSON PASSPORT 1918

This Passport belonging to Anita Dawson, the 60 year old mother of Olga Jonsson is interesting for several reasons.

Before the First World War people who travelled did not need passports, so when the war ended in 1918, countries started issuing passport and this must be one of those first passports.

The reason for travelling to Sweden is stated: "Conference with daughter with reference to husband's estate". When Anita Dawson last visited Sweden, she was accompanied by her husband in 1913. At that time they invited Olga and her children plus nanny to visit them in Florida.
Those of you who remember, Olga visited her parents in Florida in 1913 when she, a very young woman of 23, and a mother of three (Billy, Anita and newly born Mary) brought a nanny and two of her children, Anita and Billy on a long train and ocean voyage via Hamburg  on the German ship "Imperator"trip to see her parents. This was fortuitous indeed since a year later, the First World War erupted in 1914 and in 1916, Olga's father died. For obvious reasons, Olga could not go back during the war.

So when widowed, mother Anita Dawson in 1918, after the war is over, applies for a passport and sets out on the journey to see her daughter Olga, her husband Folke, she will see many new children: Mary, Sigrid, Sonja and Bo-Erling (who was born that same year)
Not only are there many children she has not seen but there is the new house Lysholmen at Särö which will be completed that same year, 1918, so there was a lot for mother Anita Dawson to look forward to.

There is another piece of information in the passport which says that Anita Dawson lived in Paris 1907 - 1908. This is when her three children received their education until Olga met and married got married in 1909. So the family was away from Jacksonville for many years when they lived in Brussels and Paris and in many other places during their summer travels - and for Olga that meant being away from her friends for all that time. She wrote to Folke that she had been away from Jacksonville for four years and was not going to invite anyone from Jacksonville for her wedding. It was a very small affair anyway and Olga almost did not buy a wedding dress but the one she had looked quite splendid.