"The New Country" New Exibition about Swedish Emigration opens in Eksjö

On June 5th The Swedish Emigrant Institute opened a new Exhibition called "Det nya landet (The New Country) in its new temporary branch in the city of Eksjö.
The new exhibitions theme is the Swedes life in USA .Their life in the cities and their social situation both in comparison to the majority culture and in comparison to other immigrant groups. The exibition is to bee seen as a complement to the Exibitions in The Swedish Emigrant Institutes main exibitions in Växjö wich focuses on the Emigrants life in Sweden and on their experiences in rural USA.




The Mayor of Eksjö Lennart Bogren declared the
exhibition open and also held a short speech about
the Exhibition and the fact that many immigrants
had left the Eksjö area and settled in different
places in USA.














Willy Läth checks the exhibition a last time before the ribbon is cut !

A brass band wearing the old uniforms of the old
Småland Hussar regiment.entertained by playing old military music.











Several people came to take a first view of the exibition. The exhibitions main theme is the swedish emigrants experiences in the new country. Both with the majority American society as well as with and in comparison to other immigrant groups.










The United States sometimes saw its immigrants and and diverse ethnic make up as a strength.
And Sometimes as a weakness.
Swedes were sometimes looked
down up on. But in general they
had the advantage of being "White" and "Protestant"and so ended up on the upper part of the pecking order.
The Swedes were often pitted against the Irish which they also looked down on (and vice versa).









Many Swedes home in USA came to be in the expanding cities such as Chicago,Denver and Jamestown(on the left). sometimes the part of town they ended up in were among the simple neighborhoods as in "Swede Hollow" in St. Paul (to the right).


































Carl Werner Pettersson and Yngve Turesson and Bertil Fransson seem
very happy with the exhibition.











Tore Sandh gives Lars Hansson and the Swedish Emigrant Institute a picture ofJohan (John) Vifvat (a civil war veteran) and his son Sam Vifvat( a soldier in WW1). Johan Vifvat came from the area of Eksjö and immigrated to USA in the 1850thies.

Swedish National Day celebrated on June 6th in Växjö

The Swedish National Day is celebrated June 6th. The National Day has only been a Holiday since 1983.
Before that it was called "Svenska Flaggans Dag"(The Day of the Swedish Flag).
This year here in Växjö it was celebrated in the Park outside "Smålands Museum"(The county Museum). The celebrations contained both ceremonial and more relaxed elements.

Firstly members of the folkdance group Värendsgillet danced tradtional swedish Folkdances.

The Lord Mayor of Växjö Nils Posse gave stipends and rewards to people and organisations who have done beneficial work for the local community. Among the persons who recieved awards were.Ingemar Nordström wellknown saxophone player for his work with his dance orchestra and his his other support for local culture.














And Dalala Abdel Gani for helping young women and girls integrating in swedish society and for her work against honour related violence.















Coffe and cake were also served at the Swedish Emigrant Institute. I sat down there to eat a typical Swedish dessert (or perhaps typical for the province of Småland) "Ostkaka med hallonsylt (Swedish cheesecake with Raspberry jam).















As a closing of the National Day celebrations. The Swedish National Anthem "Du Gamla du Fria" (You old you free) and some other patriotic songs were sung by the Växjö Male choir.

Swedes participating in US Wars

Some days ago USA celebrated Memorial Day when men (and women) who died in war are remembered.
Sweden has not been in war since 1814 (even if we offcause have been affected by both WW1 and WW2 since the other Scandinavian countries were drawn into the war).
Howewer Swedes (and their descendants) have participated in all US ( and Canadian) wars since the Civil war upto the Vietnam war (and maybe later ?).

In the blog I will write a bit about swedes and swedish-americans (or swedish-canadians) fighting in US (and Canadian) wars between the Civil war upto WW2 (and possibly the Korean war).
So I put the question to you blog readers ?Have you had ancestors or relatives born in sweden (or in another Scndinavian country) or born by swedish(or Scandinavian )parents that have participated or died in any of these wars (or have you participated yourself)?
You are all welcome to comment on the blog or mail me at annakarinsgenealogicalpodcast (at) gmail.com .

I have crated a Group on Facebook for followers of the blog and Podcast

I have created a Group on Facebook for followrs of the blog and the Podcast on Facebook everybody is welcome to join

Visit to The Norwegian Emigrant Museum

On April 18 I had the pleasure to attend a Seminar at The Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Hamar in Norway.
The Emigrant Museum is situated beautifully in the outskirts of Hamar. it consists of both the Main museum building wich houses an exibition area with exibitions about the Norwegian immigration to USA as well as an archive and library with some research facilities.Outside is the Open Air museum with a coule of old buildings from Norwegian-America.



The Seminar I was attending was called "Introduction to Swedish and Norwegian Family research" was hold by a new network called Grensevandring (Boarder crossing) wich aims among other things to research the migration between Sweden and Norway. It is partly funded by the European Union.
The participants were mostly from local genealogical Societies from the county of Hedmark in Norway and the province of Värmland in Sweden.



Among the lecturers were Karin Fuglesang and Kristin Mikalsen
Who told us about how to do genealogy in Norway as well as how to do research about Norwgian immigrants and about the sources available at the Norwegian Emigrant Museum









The Emigration from Norway to USA started in
the 1820-ties and 1830thies
(a few decades earlier than in Sweden).
At the Norwegian Emigrant Museum have some intresting material about the Norwegians in USA.
Here Finn Einar Graff gets help looking for relatives in the microfilmed Norwegian-American
churchrecords.









Here is an old Emigrant chest in the Exibition area used by Emigrants on their way from Norway to USA.

At last new Episode of Anna-Karins Genealogical podcast !

At last I have a new episode of Anna-Karins Genealogical podcast.
In this episode I have 2 interviews I made at the Genealogy Days in Malmö last year. The First is with Lorna Nelson from the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg Kansas.She speaks about the museum and about the first Swedes in the Lindsborg area.The second interview is with Peter Wallenskog of Genline. He speaks about two of Genlines new features Familjeband (Family ties) and Bygdeband (Ties to places).

First Episode of "Who Do you think you are" on Swedish TV

The first episode of The swedish version of "Who do you think you are"(Vem tror du att du är) on the Swedish Television channel TV1 was broadcasted on March 24th. The first episode featured actress Helena Bergströms ancestors.
The program consentrated on some of Helena Bergström female ancestors her paternal grandmother who was a ballet dancer before her marriage as well as a paternal great aunt who was a modell to a famous sculptor in the late 19th century.
The program also contained information about the common practise of taking fosterchildren wich was a common way for married women in the working class to contribute economically to their familys upkeep.
Unmarried mothers had few possibilities to take care of their children on their own and to place them in fostercare was their only alternative.
Since Helena Bergströms paternal grandmothers family lived in the Stockholm area since the late 19th century the sources used were Stockholm sources often kept by the Stockholm city archive. To be able to se the program on webb TV please click here

The next episode of the program will feature former minister of justice Thomas Bodströms ancestors.