Anna-Karin's Genealogical Blog

The most Dangerous animal in Sweden ! The Gloso (the glowing Sow) ;);)

2011-12-03T12:27:00.009+01:00

Swedish folklore has many strange beings. one of them is the feared Gloso.
A Terrible sow with burning red eyes and a razorsharp back. She is believed to reside near cemeteries or cross roads.
She usually tries to run between peoples legs thus dividing or scratching them up completely. Nowadays she is not seen that often but since there seem to be so many people with split personalities she must still be around.

At the yearly Christmas Fair at the Smalands Museum in Växjö this year a little Gloso piglet was shown.

Historian Håkan Nordmark acted as its keeper
apparently the little beast has taken a liking to him.
The little animal seemed calm when I saw it but who knows
what will become of it when it becomes bigger !

The little gloso was feed by giving it decorated swedish ginger breads eagerly decorated by the visitors to the
Christmas Fair. In the future the inhabitants of Växjö
obviously have to keep their legs crossed ! ;)

Genealogy Days in Norrköping 26-28 August 2011

2011-08-27T00:59:00.002+02:00

This years Genealogy Days the yearly conference of the Swedish Federation of Genealogy societies took place in Norrköping in the province of Östergötland.

Minnesota Day 14 August 2011

2011-08-26T10:51:00.006+02:00

This years Minnesota Day was held not i Växjö as usual but in The Parish of Ljuder. It was held in
the beatiful church is build in thew begiining of the 1840-thies . Soon after that the mig emigation to USA started .the writer Vilhelm Moberg chosed the area as home area for the main characters of his Emigrant -epos.

Some of the emigrants from the area returned to Sweden
and was buried in there home soil as can be seen on this grave stone from the cemetery by the church in Ljuder

Among the activities during the Minnesota Day was welcoming the Swedish-American of the Year Kerstin Lane from Chicago.she told about her work as the director of the Swedish-American museum in Chicago .

Who do You think you are live in London feb 25-27th part 2k

2011-03-12T18:37:00.032+01:00

Among the exibitors where My HertitageHere is Mario Ruckh showing the site .

A popular event was "Ask the expert"where the visitors could book a 20 minute talk with a genealogist and get advice about their family research and similar subjects

Several genealogical Magazines was represented among them
Who Do you think you are Magazine all trying to get as many new readers as possible !I would gladly have subscribed but it is a bit expensive to pay postage forMagazines from England to Sweden. I bought a couple of back issues instead.
(Do anyone know the name of the lady holding up the Magazine ?)

Another popular event was interviews with persons featured in the TV series Who do you think you are . I listened to Ainsley Harriott talking about finding out about his black and white ancestors in the West Indies.the program
about his ancestors were first shown in England in 2008.

Lisa Louise Cook from Sand Francsisco host of the
Genealogygems podcast
gave a lecture about how to use Google in genealogical
research. She has even written a book on the subject.

Deceased Online is the largest UK online index off burial and cremation records .
Searching the database is free. seing the orginal record cost a small fee.

Who do You think you are live in London feb 25-27th part 1

2011-03-11T09:57:00.035+01:00

A Few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Who do you think you live conference in London .It has taken place since 2007 in The Olympia National Hal. It is organised by and sponsored by among others BBC Magazines Ancestry.co.uk .Society of Genealogists.

Many different genealogical and Historical Societies and genealogical service providers exibited and there were also many workshops and lectures given on a variety of different subjects

Ancestry.co.uk
had one of the biggest booth in the exibition with a lot of visitors
According to the England 1901 Census around 5000 Swedish born lived in England.

They even had a special lounge at the second floor were Ancestry.com subscribers could meet and relax and discuss their research.

Find My Past also has a lot of english records(Census,Military and parish records online. at the Exibitions there was time for a lot of inetrested visitors to take a look in their records or buy a subscribtion .

There were also demostrations and small workshops held by the staff for people interested in how to do Family research and how the site works and the content of its collections

This nice lady in old fashined clothing helped
me to get my subscription to to work
(Do anyone know her name ?)

Scotlandspeople is a website with similar content as Find My Past but for Scotland even here the visitors were shown the content by helpful members of the staff like this lady (who is she ?).

First post in Anna-Karins Genealogical podcast YouTube channel

2010-12-10T10:10:00.004+01:00

I have uploaded the first little film in Anna-Karins Genealogical Podcasts YouTube channel.
it is a little film about the Swedish actress Emilie Högqvist 1812-1846. she was a popular actress in the 1830thies and 1840thies .One can almost say that she was a 19th century swedish eqvivalen of Marilyn Monroe. since she was for time mistress to king Oscar I (before he became king).
She was a contemporary of the famous swedish singer Jenny Lind.

Genealogy Days in Örebro Aug 27-29 1

2010-08-27T22:45:00.006+02:00

At last I have arrived in Örebro for this years Genealogy Days.
Örebro is an old town founded in medialval times.
One of its main attractions is the old castle in the center of the city

The Genealogy Days (the yearly conference for the Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies) was held inthe new
Conference center Conventum.
Already around 9.30 A lot of people were queing
to by their admission ticket only aon Aug 28 around 3000-4000 tickets were sold.

Around 200 different exibitors had their booths
there were different genealogical Societies.Archives, and companies selling or providing services to genealogists and local historiians as well as authors selling their books
In the background to the left is the booth of Stor Stockholms Genealogiska Förening (The Genealogical socoety of the greater Stockholm area)

New Episodes of Anna-Karins Genealogical Podcast

2010-08-27T08:24:00.002+02:00

I have at last published two episodes of my podcast Anna-Karins Genealogical Podcast
with interviews I made at last years Genealogy Days in Falköping.
Among the Interviews are with Ted Rosvall,representatives from DIS-Norge, Genline, Arkivdigital
Sweden-American Center and more.
Today I am of to this years Genealogy Days in Örebro

Anna-Karin in Chicago 2 Mount Olive cemetery

2010-07-16T03:35:00.015+02:00

Today I visited some Chicago cemeteries among them
Mount Olive cemetery in Chicago .
It is a non denominational cemetery and it was founded 1886 .

Several Swedish emigrants are buried at the cemetery among them my distant relative on my maternal grandfathers side Lotta Gustafsdotter 1850-1929
married to Per Gustaf Svensson Sundquist In the USA the family called themself Swanson They emigrated in the 1890thies from Sandhult in the province of Västergötland to Chicago.
Lotta is buried in the same grave as her children
Jenny Swanson Jacobsen 1879-1901 and Arvid O Swanson 1886-1963.
Here in Chicago I am staying with some of Lottas descdendants the Bredemann family.

On the cemetery are many graves of swedish emigrants and their descendants. Among famillies I have researched I found the graves of relatives to My uncle Eric (Larsson) Lago (my maternal aunt Karins husband) .Several of his relatives emigrated in 1879thies from Getinge in the province of Halland to Chicago.Among this relatives were Julius Swenson (or Swanson) 1843- and his wife Josephine Nelson (Nilson?)1859-1929. they met in Chicago and had several children.Julius and Josephine are buried in a plot at the cemetery according to cemetery records but no stone are preserved.
However two of their daughters are buried there as well as one grandaughter.Their oldest daughter Hulda J( Swenson) Farrell 1883-1923 and her husband Edward J Farrell 1884-1941 is buried in the same lot as well as the younger daughter Alice S (Swenson) Weslar 1885-1957 and her daughter Gladys (Weslar) Cooksey 1906-1954

Ancestry buying Genline

2010-07-14T16:11:00.002+02:00

Ancestry.com is buying the swedish family history website Genline

I hope this will be a good development for both Ancestry and genline customers

Ancestry customers will get more access to swedish materials and Genline gustomers hopefully will get access to Ancestrys was holding of USA andCanadian and other records.

Dick Eastman is writing about the merger here

Anna-Karin in Chicago 1

2010-07-14T15:57:00.002+02:00

I have arrived in Chicago. I hope to be able to post something about my experiences here later.

The first Swedes came to Chicago in the 1840-thies and 1850thies

Swedish Royal Weddings: Crown princess Victoria to Daniel Westling June 19th 2010 part 1

2010-06-19T08:50:00.010+02:00

At last the wedding of Crown princess Victoria and Daniel Westling took place in Storkyrkan just beside the Royal Palace in Stockholm.. The wedding day was the culmination of 3-4 days of festivities. I have tried to find some You Tube clips to show you everything what went on

The day before the wedding(June 18th) there was a big gala consert at the Concert Hall in Stockholm were a lot of Swedish singers and artists celebrated the princess and her fiance among the artists were the group Roxette (Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson who performed their song The Look

In the beautiful Ending of the consert a lot of singing children came up to salute the crown princess (about 3 min. into the video)

Crown princess Victoria Marries on Saturday june 19

2010-06-17T08:20:00.036+02:00

On Saturday June 19 th Crown princess Victoria daugthter of King Carl XVI and queen Silvia will marry Mr. Daniel Westling from Ockelbo.
Crownprincess Victoria is the royal couples eldest child (and heir to the throne) she is born in 1977. Daniel Westling is born 1973 in Örebro but grew up in Ockelbo.

Around 2001 he met crownprincess Victoria when he worked as her personal trainer the became a couple soon after. The couple became engaged in 2009 feb 24

The wedding will be held in Storkyrkan close to the royal palace in Stockholm. The wedding date has historical significance. In 1976 June 19 king Carl Gustaf and queen Silvia was married . There were also royal wedding on the same dates in 1823 and 1850. I will try to post a bit more on the wedding later.

Parts of the royal wedding can be seen Live and on the we at Swedish Televisions Royal Wedding site at

http://svt.se/detkungligabrollopet; (in Swedish)

The official wedding site (english version)

http://www.royalcourt.se/royal…..60315.html

Swedish Emigrant Institute ist empoyees are given notice

2010-04-16T09:31:00.005+02:00

All staff at the Emigrant Institute in Växjö, which has been on notice and the property is being sold, writes Smålandsposten. (the local newspaper)

The Institute's financial crisis is a result of loss of funds and disagreements with the former co-financiers the Municipality of Växjö and Kronoberg County Council.

The Board is opposed to their proposal that the Institute will be part of the same organization as the Småland Museum and Archives Kronoberg. It is feared that it would damage the institution's status to be included in such a local context.

Here is a rough translation fo the article in Smålandsposten
---------------------------------------

The staff at the Emigrant Institute has its notification of termination and the whole property in The Museum Park is being offered for sale .The reason is that the board of the Emigrant Institute and the board of the The Culture Park has failed to reach an agrement about a merger.

- I never thought it would go so far. We all agree that this is regrettable and serious, "said Lars Hansson, director of The Emigrant Institute.
Altogether, it is about a dozen employees. The decision to give notice of termination to those is taken by the Emigrant Institutes Board. None of the staff Smålandsposten was in contact with yesterday wanted to make any comments.
- We do not know what this will mean, says one of them.

Although the property, with the House of Emigrants,the exhibition hall and office space and land in The Museum Park will be up for sale,according to the Board of the Emigrant Institutes's decision.
The property was recently valued at around 14 million Swedish kronor by the Valuation Office in Växjö.

- We have to take responsibility for the economic situation. Here is a mortage on the property also. It must be resolved in any way, "said Lars Hansson.

The background to the notices and the possible sale of the real estate is the Emigrant Institute's board of directors and the The Culture Park, which is owned by the municipality of Växjö and Kronoberg County Council, has been unable to agree on a solution for a merger.
The reason is that the Emigrant Institute did not buy the politicians' approach to transfer the Emigrant Institute's staff and activities to The Culture Company with the Småland Museum (the county museum)and The Kronoberg Archives. It would risk Emigrant Institute's national and international status in the scientific community to the risk of such a local context, the Board (of the Emigrant Institute )believes.

- Our policy has been that the Emigrant Institute will maintain its core business, archives and research, and that we share the public areas with the Culture Park. But it has not been possible to reach an agreement on this, "said Lars Hansson.
Chairman of the Board, history professor Harold Round Flowers says:
- The Culture Park will get a larger organization and momentum and we will guarantee what we will do that foundation. There is actually a collision of interests .

The Institute's economy has been strangled by withdraval of economic support from the local government of Växjö and the Kronoberg County Council this money is now given now to The Culture Park. Altogether, it is about a couple million a year. The money will not be at the Institute until there is a settlement.

The Culture Park s director , Erica Månsson, believes that the offer is generous and that includes opportunities for the Emigrant Institute s goals , such as in research.
- My opinion is that we have given a very good offer which we took into account the Foundation's various comments. We are appalled by the staff situation. It is unfortunate, "she says.
Today sit representatives of the Emigrant Institute and Cultural Park in the new negotiations. Both sides say they hope for a solution, even if the lengthy discussions have not led to the conclusion that they failed to agree.
- I have high hopes, "said Culture Park chairman Peter Norrman.

Lennart Ernstsson

-----------------------------------------------------
there were several comments on the article in the newspaper some taking the side of the Swedish emigrant Institute and some the side of The culture Park among the comments were this from Bo Frank (the mayor of Växjö)
"
All the politicans in the municipality and county council is behind The culture Park and the offer toThe Emigrant institute to be developed as part of The Culture Park. If theSwedish emigrant Institute would rather close down its operations it may do so !
------

-----------------------
My personal comment on this is that it will surely be a sad Day if the Swedish Emigrant Institute is forced out of its building and forced to leave Växjö. For years it has drawn tourists from USA, Canada and other countries to Växjö. People has been able to look at the exibitions and in the research department they also have been able to do research on their familiys origin in sweden and swedes has also been able to do research on their relatives fates in USA and Canada . The Emigrant Institutes archive and library conatins a unique collection of books ,swedish-american newspapers microfilmed swedish-american church records and also unique interwiews with old emigrants and a unique collection of pictures. This unity of library, research department ,archive and exibitions is now risking to be lost as well as the competence that goes with the employees.
I am aware that times have changed and that the Emigrant Institutes way of working has to change too.
as well as to the fact that The Institute has economical problems.

The bottom line is perhaps that the Swedish Emigrant Institute is a national institution anf that the Smålands Museum and the Kronoberg Archive are local Institutions and that their Interest may collide.
As a national Institution the Institute should have recevied some state support but that has never been given. Instead it has been dependent on economical support from the Municipality of Växjö and The county Council. The Municipality of Växjö and especially Bo Frank have pressed hard for a merger with the Smålands Museum and the Kronoberg Arhive to cut costs and to put pressure on The Emigrant Institute they have more or less slowly strangled them by cutting the economic support and forcing them to more or less close the research deparment to visitors (they are still answering research questions by e-mail).
it is sad that there have been no agrement.
I have spend much of my time at the Swedish emigrant institute since the late eighties that time may soon be gone.

The Archival Day November 14th.

2009-11-25T09:05:00.013+01:00

On november 14th the Archival Day was held all over Sweden giving the public the opportunity to look behind the scene in different Archives and similar Institutions.
Here in Växjö the event was held at the Swedish Emigrant Institute.were the public could get help finding their emigrant relatives or listening to intresting lectures.

Here to the left Archivist Kristina Persson helps a visitor finding his relatives.

Gunilla Lundh-Tobiasson sang songs on record
at Smålands Musikarkiv( Musical Archive of Småland).

Lastly Titanic historian Claes-Göran Wetterholm spoke about the people especially the Swedes that sailed on the Titanic and the myths surrounding the ship. The Swedish Emigrant Institute also houses a small exibition about Titanic.

Genealogy Days in Falköping Aug 21-23 2009

2009-08-31T11:15:00.031+02:00

This years Genealogy Days were held in Falköping a small town in the province of Västergötland.
The Genealogy Days consist of the yearly confernce of The Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies as well as exibiotions and seminars about genealogy open to all intrested in Genealogy.

Day 1 Aug 21

This the first Day of the Genealogy Days consisted among other thing of bus tours for all intrested to the historical surroundings of Falköping an area rich in historical landmarks.
I took a tour to the mediaval historic sites .
Here the "Genealogy Day's General" Ted Rosvall (former chair man of the Swedih Federation of Genealogical societies)
is counting all the participants in the bus tour.
In the background our mediavally dressed guide.

there are many mediaval landmarks of intrest in Västergötland the area along with the province of Östergötland were in the center of what was the mediaval kingdom of Sweden.

Among the intresting stops we made on our tour was at the mediaval church in Varhem. Wich was the site of an important monastery as wich church houses the graves of some mediaval kings and other important people.

To the lesf is the mediaval church of the monastery of Varnhem.the church is still in use but the monasterys buildings only ruins are left.
In the 12th and 13th century two Dynasties were fighting over the kingship the Sverker Families (or clans) (most of their kings were named Sverker) and the Erik Family (most of their kings were named Erik. The Varhem monastery was a stronghold for the Erik Dynasty.and several of their kings are buried in Varnhem.

Day2-3 Aug 22-23rd

In the vendor hall of the conference there was a lot of discussions and sellings of books and other materials from the different Genealogical Societies. To the left is visitors taking a look at
the materials from the Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies.The local Genealogical Society, Falbygdens släktforskarförening(The Falköping area Genealogical society) hosted the event.

One of the sponsors of the Genealogy Days was ArkivDigital A relatively new company who puts digitalised images of swedish churchrecords online. Arkivdigitals speciality is that they photograph the records in color with makes them more easy to read.

Here my friend Ingrid Nilsson from Trelleborg gets help to find her relatives in ArkivDigitals digitalisedimages

.

Some of the vendors and lectures was also of interest for those intrested in Emigrant research.
Erik Gustafsson from The Swedish American Center in Karlstad came as a representative for EMIWEB. EmiWeb is a webbased archive with databases covering with migration to and from Scandinavia.

Anna Lena Hultman (tot the left) and Ted Rosvall launched their joint project "Emigrant Forskning" (Emigrant research"
It is a handbook in for swedes researching the fate of their relatives who immigrated to USA and other parts of the world.
The book is the first in a series of Handbooks published by the Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies.
The book is very welcome and I was sure to get my own copy
immideatly ;)

New episode of Anna-Karins Genealogical podcast

2009-08-18T22:56:00.005+02:00

I have posted a new episode of the podcast it features 4 interviews I made last year at the Genealogy Days in Malmö aug 30-sept 1th
At the yearly conference of Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies in Malmö.

1.Interview with Erik Gustafsson from Swedish American Center (former Kinship center) in
Karlstad. He speaks about EMIWEB The website with indexes of Swedish Emigrants .

2.Interview with genealogist Anna-LenaHultman about The DVD

The Swedish Death Index 1947-2006
and her own research center Konkordiahuset (The Konkordia house)

3.Interview with Claes Westling from the regional archive in Vadstena and the system of regional archives

4.Interview with Anders Nordström at SVAR .About their digitization of and putting archival records online.

This years Genealogy Days will be in Falköping in the province of Västergötland this weekend Aug 21-23rd I will be there too ;)

The Minnesota Day and the Karl Oskar Days 7-9 Aug

2009-08-13T02:40:00.024+02:00

This years Karl- Oskar Days were held 7-8 August. Not that the celebration to the original intent to celebrate the memory of the emigration of the many Swedes to USA 1850-1930 wich author Vilhelm Moberg captured in his Immigrant novels about the Fictional couple Karl-Oskar and Kristina.
Today the Karl -Oskar Days seems more to be an ordinary city-festival with street-vendors ,music and entertainment.

The churches in Växjö had their own activity together consisting of handing out small Bibles (over 1000)and serving waffles with cream and Rasberry jam .

The Friends of the Swedish Emigrant Institute
held their yearly meeting on Aug 8 th at the Swedish Emigrant Institute. Among the speakers were chairman Ulf Beijbom and a lecture about the Swedish Emigrant Institutes place in contemporary migration research wa held by the chairman of the Swedish Emigrant Institute Harald Runblom.

The Minnesota Day celebration was held as usual
the Second Sunday in August.This Year on Aug 9th. at the Swedish Emigrant Institute Among other entertainment, The Växjö Male choir sang traditional Swedish songs.

This Years Honorary Speaker was the former Speaker of the Swedish Parlament Tage G Petersson. The Award The Swedish-American of the Year was given as usual by The Vasa order of America's Swedish branch to Anne- Charlotte Harvey for her work documenting Swedish-American entainment history.

This Years Charlotta medal was given to Willy Läth for his work in helping the Swedish Emigrant institute to produce its exibitions.

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

2009-06-11T23:14:00.027+02:00

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

2009-06-07T00:14:00.028+02:00

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

2009-05-30T10:00:00.008+02:00

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

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

2009-05-22T23:41:00.001+02:00

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

2009-05-11T10:11:00.014+02:00

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 !

2009-04-14T16:53:00.004+02:00

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

2009-03-26T01:29:00.008+01:00

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.

"The Day of Family Research" held on March 21 th.

2009-03-22T22:04:00.007+01:00

On March 21 th "The Day of Family Research" was held in many places in Sweden.
In this yearly event Genealogical societies show people how to do genealogy.
It is usually held in public libraries and sometimes in archives.

Here in Växjö it was held in the county Library were representatives of the Genealogical Society of Kronoberg and the "Old soldiers database" showed people how to find their relatives.
Some lectures were also given, the theme for this years lectures seamed to be about how people dressed in the 19th and early and mid 20th century

Here my friend Carina Nilsson gets help finding
her relatives in one of the databases of the Genealogical Society of Kronoberg

A librarian is showing a visitor how to look at scanned microfilmed churchrecord available online.

Here lecturer Gunvor Dahlman shows a pair of old ladies underwear from the 19th century !

Computer Genealogy society in Sweden holds annual meeting

2009-03-14T10:24:00.008+01:00

On March 7th DIS the biggest Computer Genealogy Society in Sweden held its annual meeting in Linköping in the province of Östergötland.
First a lecture was held by representatives from Jordbrukarnas Ungdomsförbund (The Farmers youth organsiation)about their Family Farm inventory .After that the meeting present chairman Olof Cronberg thanked former boardmember Sture Bjelkåker .

Swedish version of '' Who do you think you are ?''

2009-03-07T11:53:00.009+01:00

Sweden will soon gets its own version of the popular Genealogy TV-show 'Who do you think you are ?''
In six episodes 6 famous Swedes will have their ancestors researched.The first episode will be broadcasted on march 24 .The show will be broadcasted by Swedens pubilc service TV company SVT

New Royal engagement in Sweden

2009-02-26T22:39:00.013+01:00

Feb 24 saw the announcement of the engagement between the crown princess of Sweden
Victoria 31 eldest daughter of king Carl Gustaf and queen Silvia and Daniel Westling 35.

The couple met 8 years ago at a Gym in Stockholm where Daniel Westling worked as a fitness instructor (today he owns a succesful Gym and Fitness center. They have been a couple for about 7 years.
Daniel Westling comes from an ordinary middle class family in the small town of Ockelbo in the province of Gästrikland. Ockelbo is a small town with just 3000 inhabitants. The fact that Daniel Westling comes from neither a royal a noble family or a traditional upper class enviroment may have contributed a bit to the fact that king Carl Gustaf may have been hesitant to approve of him.
Traditionally members of the royal family had to marry members of other royal families or lose the right to inherit the throne and their royal titles(and be more or less kicked out of the family). Traditionally royal marriages were also arranged and sometimes the couple met for the first time on the wedding day or shortly before.
Two of the kings uncles and 2 other princes lost their right to the throne and was kicked out of the family in the 1930thies and 1940thies by the kings grandfather king Gustaf II Adolf when they married non royal ladies. However king Carl Gustaf married our present queen Silvia Sommerlath in 1976. Queen Silvia comes from a upper middle class family in Germany.

The wedding of Crown princess Victoria and Daniel Westling is planned for early summer 2010.
After the wedding Danel Westling will be styled "Prince Daniel duke of Västergötland".
the royal family has also taken the somewhat unusual step of announcing the engagement on Youtube.

Do you think the princess made a good decision or should she have given up Daniel and married someone of higher birth and social standing or resigned her right to the throne or should Sweden become a republic !!

Swedish Media on US elections

2008-11-04T17:16:00.003+01:00

There is a lot of the USA presidental election in Swedish media these Days .The whole weekend has been full of programs and debates . Swedens public services channel TV 1.has their program "Godmorgon Sverige"(the swedish eqvivalent of "Godmorning America") producing and sending the program (with its presenters and staff) from Washington DC november 3-5th !TV4 the biggest private television channel does the same with their version of morning TV too !

The Local a webbased nespaper in english about Sweden also writes that "US election Fever hits sweden". With so mutch media coverage and the fact that US politics affects Sweden to maybe we swedes should be able to vote in the US Presidental election too? ;)

Swedish emigrant Institute gets a little money, but closes its research department until the end of the year and still faces a very uncertain future

2008-11-04T11:22:00.014+01:00

Hello again all friends of Swedish genealogy. I have to apologize for not writing for a while. but I did not think I had much to write about.

A small Happy not it sthat the Swedish Emigrant Institute has recieved 2 donations of money.
It recieved 1.6 miljon swedish kronor (around 205 000 dollar) from the The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation to be able to complete the Emigrant Database EMIBAS. The database contains 1 million Emigrants from sweden to other countries taken from church records. The present database is to old it is impossible to add new information and it is also impossible to complete the system. Attemps to do that before have been unsuccesful since when the money attatched to it has run out the job has been left halfdone. I really hope it will be better this time.

The Swedish-American of the Year Barbro Osher has decided to donate 100 000 dollar (around 798 000 swedish kronor) to the Institute "It will be used to try to reconstruct the Institutes activities" says Lars Hanson (the present head of the Institute)according to an interview in the local newspaper Smålandsposten.

As I have written on the blog before there have been a lot of turbulence around the Swedish Emigrant Institute this year. There is lack of money, the Local governement and the county governement wants to merge the Institute with the local museum and a local archive but the Swedish Emigrant Institute have refused and so the local governement and county has cut all their funding as well as resigned from the Swedish Emigrant Institutes board of directors.

There have also been discussions of renting or moving parts of the exibitions to other places.
For now the battle ax seems to be buried temporarely. But the new donations hardly helps the Institutes all economical problems .I think they will have to cooperate with someone to be able to function in the long run.
The Swedish Emigrant Istitute has also recently closed its research deparment for new enquieries for the rest of the year.
One reason is to be able to answer the back log of all questions that has been send in by e-mailor letter .another reason is the uncertain futute. hopefully the research department can open again next year but it is far from sure.

Swedish Emigrant Institute refuse merger !!

2008-09-22T20:39:00.006+02:00

On Friday sept 19 the Swedish Emigrant Institute's board in a board meeting refused the municipalitys of Växjös offer that the Institute should merge with the county museum Smålands Museum and The Kronobergs archive.

The Merger would have created a common board for all 3 institutions. The refusal of the merger will mean that the Swedish emigrant Institute will lose all money from the Municipaliy of växjö as well as from the county of Kronoberg wich in total stands for around 40 % of the yearly budget.

As I have written before The Swedish Emigrant Institute is an archive and museum over the swedish Imigration to other parts of the world it has extensive collections of letters microfilms and interviews.
However its economy is in bad shape and that and the turbulence in its leadership in later years is one of the reasons the politicans in Växjö wants to merge it with the county museum
Smålands museum but the Emigrant Institute is afraid of loosing its independence.

With an economy already in bad shape this will certainly not make the economic situation better.
There is a risc that the exibitions and the research service to visitors and family researchers may have to close down in Växjö (or the exibitons rented out or moved) several alternatives are discussed. Cooperation with The University of Växjö or some other university or istitution , seaking money from american foundations or for example renting out the exibitions ,moving the exibitions and material to some other place in Sweden (Kalmar and Gothenburg has been mentioned as possible alternatives ) but nothing is clear yet.

Emigration History Conference in Mellerud Aug15-16

2008-09-17T14:08:00.009+02:00

On Aug 15-16 a Emigration History Conference took place in Mellerud in the provinc e of Dalsland. I did not have the possiblility to attend .but here comes a report from one of the participants genealogist and editor of the Swedish American Genealogist
Elisabeth Thorsell.

"
The Mellerud Conference 2008

In the middle of August a group of dedicated emigration researchers assembled in Mellerud in Dalsland, Sweden, for a couple of conference days. Among the group members a number of Americans were also seen.
Some thirty participants spent all day Friday on a bus tour, which took us to the fragrant herb garden i Dals Rostock, where we could also listen to a key fiddle player and enjoy the museum.

From there we went to Lästvik manor in Steneby parish, where the painted tapestries from the 1800s, showing various castles, in the dining hall were a most interesting sight. Here Elisabeth Thorsell spoke about Salt Lake City and
The Swenson Center, places that then seemed like they were on another planet. Next the bus went to a nice inn, where we after lunch listened to Ted Rosvall and Anna-Lena Hultman explaining all about the Swedish CD databases.

Dalsland is not famous for its wide highways, so on the way back to Mellerud, we travelled small back¬roads over the Kroppefjäll, but did not encounter any moose.
Afterwards Lilly Setterdahl from Moline, IL, lectured on Dalsland people that she and her late husband Lennart had researched in the U.S.

Saturday was open to the public and held in the Kulturbruket på Dal, a local cultural institution, with a full day of lectures, mostly in Swedish. We could listen to lectures on the Swedish American Line, on the soldiers and the allottment system, on Genline, on hidden sources for emigrant research, on female emigrants, on the coming EmiWeb, and on the Vasa Order of America. A popular session was presented by Owe Clapson on “Olle i Skratthult” with old songs and gags in the bondkomik tradition.

The lectures attracted a large crowd and the organizers could be very pleased at the end of the day, as the conference seemed to be a big success.
The day was ended with a smörgåsbord dinner at the “Värdshuset på Dal”, where we all enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the sight of the sun, sinking into Lake Ånimmen.
There was already some talk about having another conference in a year or two, and it may be well worth the travel to Dalsland.

Elisabeth Thorsell"

Thanks to Elisabeth we have this intresting report and beatiful pictures from the conference. Elisabeth has her own website Etgenealogy.se

Swedish Family Research Fair in Aurora, Colorado oct 4th

2008-09-11T10:17:00.003+02:00

On Oct 4th the Swedish Genealogy Society of Colorado will hold A Swedish Family research Fair at the community college of Aurora near Denver Colorado. the fair will provide private research assistance Sessions among the exibitors will be Genline. The Old Mill Museum of Lindsborg Kansas
As well as lectures about How to find ones swedish roots and about Swedish Military research. More information can be found on the Fairs webpage.
the cost for attending will be 25 dollars if you register before sept 19 and after that 30 dollar.

Genealogy Days in Malmö Day 2 part 2

2008-09-04T21:45:00.009+02:00

Peter Wallenskog former C E O of Genline
spoke of the companys goal to provide still more swedish churchrecords online. As well as the companys new websites familjeband.se and bygdeband.se. Familjeband (family ties) is a webased site were it should be possible to put up ones family tree online. it seems intresting hovever it is still in BETA face. they seam to have problems with importing gedcom files.
and I do nnot hink the site really will will take of until they have solved that problem.
Bygdeband (ties to places). Is a similar website but aimed at local historical societies so they will be able to but up their materials about different
locations for example photos and descriptions. It should then be possible to tie persons from Familjeband.se to places in Bygdeband.se I got an interview with Peter Wallenskog this year too wich I will use in a later podcast episode.

The most far away participants I could find was
Lorna Nelson and Lenora Lynam from the Mc Pherson County Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg
Kansas. Linsborg was founded by swedes in the late 1860-ties and still a great part of the population has their ancestors in Sweden.
it seems like the Old Mill museum has some cooperation with Genline since they were
standing in the Genline conference booth.
it was very nice speaking to them and I also
got an interview with Lorna.

A popular feature at the Genealogy Days was
"Släktsök"(Search your family) A place in the exibition hall with a lot of computers. there any visitor to the conference could search their ancestors or relatives in genealogy databases CD-Roms or sites with scnanned images online for free (and even get a little help fom experienced genealogists). All
to get a little taste if Family History was something for them ;)

As a whole thew Genealogy Days was very worth visiting. The entrance fee for visitors was relatively modest 40 swedish kronor for each Day
( a little over 6 american dollar).so you cold visit both conference day for about 12-13 dollar no preregistration was needed for visitors (only for exibitors). Around 3000 people attended and there were around 110 exibitors.
The Swedish Federation of Genealogical societies
also elected a new chairman Barbro Stålheim who succeded Ted Rosvall
Next years genealogy Days will be in the city of Falköping in the province of Västergötland

Genealogy Days in Malmö Day 2 part 1

2008-09-02T08:07:00.006+02:00

The second Day of the Genealogy Days provided many intresting lectures.
Since the theme of the conference was the
Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 when the provinces of Skåne Halland and Blekinge became swedish (they had belonged to Denmark before that) and how that and following events impacted the people of the provinces as well as Denmark and Sweden.

Many of the lectures of the conference was on this theme. I attended one about "The terrible Swedes" given by Charlotte S H Jensen (in the middle of the picture to the left).Despite this fact she and several other friendly Danes had come as representatives of Samenslutningen af Slaegthistoriske foreninger(Danish Genealogical Societies) to give help and answer questions from people with Danish roots.
For those intrested in Dansih geenalogy here is a link to a thew webpage of Arkivalieronline (Danish archives online).
I even got an interview with charlotte wich I will use in a later podcast episode.

The members Malmö Genealogical Society who organised the conference surely had a lot to do.
As seen on the picture beside. they had their hands full of showing people around. Unfortunately I could not get an interview with any of them.

Among the sponsors of the conference where
Genline and ArkivDigital. 2 swedish companies who provides swedish churchrecords online.
Ancestry.se the swedish branch of Ancestry.com
Where also among the sponsors as well as the City of Malmö

Genealogy Days in Malmö Day 1

2008-08-30T21:15:00.011+02:00

This years Swedish Genealogy Days the yearly conference of the Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies was held in the city of Malmö in the province of Skåne in southern Sweden .Over 100 exibitors crowded in the convention center at Europaporten in Malmö.Everything from genealogical societies, archives to companies offering original sources online.

Among the exibitors was the Swedish Emigrant Institute from Växjö. They were friendly to let me go with them in their car.
Here we can see archivist Kristina Persson and Bo Björklund study some of the Institutes databases containing swedish emigrants to USA and other places.

Erik Gustavson from the Kinship Center in Karlstad in the province of Värmland.

Spoke about EMIWEB a new project launched by the Kinship Center the Swedish Emigrant Institute. Göteborgs Emigranten and some others.EMIWEB is a webbplace aimed at housing some of the databases containing swedish emigrants to USA and other countries for example databases of swedish emigrants taken from swedish churchrecords and also members of swedish-american societies.In time the databases should be searchable over the web for a subscription fee. I was lucky to get an interwiev with Erik Gustavson wich I hope to use in a later podcast episode

2008-08-29T08:47:00.004+02:00

Aug 27 I posted a new episode of my podcast Anna-Karins Genealogical Podcast.
It this episode I speak about the Minnesota Day at the Swedish Emigrant Institute and has 2 interwievs with the chairman of the Swedish Fedration of genealogical societies Ted Roswall
and one with the swedish-american professor H Arnold Barton. I wrote about the Minnesota day in a blogpost on Aug 11 in this blog.

Family researchers at the Malmö Festival

2008-08-29T08:23:00.007+02:00

Each year around aug 15-aug 22 the yearly Malmö Festival takes place in the city of Malmö in the province of Skåne. The city fills with cultural and music evnts and food from the whole world is served on the Gustaf Adolf square as well as many shops and sellers sells their products in the streets. sometimes I go to Malmö to attend the Festival.

This Year in the both of the Malmö city municipality some genealogists where present.
The little tent had a sign "prata med en släktforskare" (Meet a family researcher)
It was the Malmö Genealogical society.
Wich was telling about family research and showing people a bit about how to find their ancestors. and andvertising
this years Genealogy Days wich is the yearly confernce of the Swedish Federation of Genealogical Societies.
wich takes place in Malmö Aug 30 to Aug 31.
I will attend and try to make some interview to use in a podcast episode.

Here Niclas Hertzman from the Malmö Genealogical Society shows my friend
Marie how to do family research.

Child on the Titanic reidentified

2008-08-18T09:24:00.010+02:00

Here is a tips from Collen Fitzpatrick the forensic genealogist.

A body of an unknown child who perished on the Titanic has been reidentified.
Among the around 1500 people who perished on the Titanic were several children.
Around 300 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered and some of them buried in Halifax at the
Fairview Lawn Cemetery
Many of the victims were unidentified. Especially one of a little boy captured peoples imagination and a memorial was erected over him. No one knew his name. But for many years it was thought by some that is was the body of Gösta Pålsson a 2 year old swedish boy who died with his mother and 3 siblings in the sinking.
In 2002 the childs body was dug up very little was left only a pair of small theeth. using DNA the body was identified as a little finnish boy Eino Panula who also died with his mother and siblings. However the DNA result and other circumstances made some researchers unsure about the identification and further research and testings have now reidentified the body
as that of Sidney Leslie Goodwin a 19 month old english boy.Who also died with his family on the Titanic. The first misidentification may partly have come from that the scientist were under some pressure from TV who was making a documentary about the case.

Karl Oskar Days and Minnesota Day

2008-08-11T22:07:00.018+02:00

This weekend In Växjö. saw the Karl-Oskar Days and the Yearly Minnesota Day.
The Karl-Oskar Days are named after one of the main characters in the author Wilhelm Mobergs Emigrant Novels.

Today it is a kind of city festival held around the second weekend of August every
year. Alot of acitivities are going on in the city with the shops moving out on Storgatan(Main street) as well as differend food sold outside. In the evening artists are performing in the city square.

The Swedish Emigrant Institute also took part and had a vendor both on Main Streat In the picture we see archivist Kristina Persson selling books and giving information. The Swedish Emigrant Institute is an archive and museum over the swedish Imigration to other parts of the world it has extensive collections of letters microfilms and interviews.
However its economy is in bad shape and its future is very uncertain since the politicans in Växjö wants to merge it with the county museum
Smålands museum but the Emigrant Institute is afraid of loosing its independence.

On Sunday the Minnesota Day took place. The Minnesota Day is a yearly celebration of the Swedish imigration to other parts of the world especially Minnesota it is usually held in the park outside the Swedish Emigrant Institute but this year it was rainy so we had to stay inside.

First we Were entertained by by two comedians performing songs once performed by
"Olle i Skratthult" a famous swedish-american comedian. his real name was Hjalmar Peterson 1886-1960.

Afterwards several speaches were made among others by the county governor and we were also entertained by the Växjö Male choir.

The Swedish -American of the Year this year was
Barbro Osher swedish consul general in San Francisco. The person chosen swedish-American of the Year is chosen by the Vasa Order of America.

Among the other speakers was Lars Hansson the present head of the Swedish Emigrant Institute
and H Arnold Barton
Arnold Barton is a swedish-american history professor of swedish-descent who has written
several books about swedish and scandinavian history. I managed to get a little interview
with him as well as with Ted Rosvall the chairman of the Swedish Federation of Genealogical societies I plan to use the interwievs
in a later episode of the Podcast.

2008-08-04T09:40:00.007+02:00

Today we have a terrible rain so it is a perfect weather for doing your family research by the computer or sorting paper at home ;)
Earlier this year I made a little video about "The Day of Family research" wich was held March 15 Here in Växjö it was held at the library and members of
The Kronobergs Genealogical Federation wich is our local Genealogical society
they showed people how to do their family research in the video I also have an interview with its former chairman Aron Axelsson

I have been interviewed

2008-08-04T00:26:00.010+02:00

This is my first posting so welcome to my blog. I am a swedish Family researcher intrested in genealogy and especially about swedish immigrants to USA and other countries.

Recently I made a trip to USA wich I hope to tell about in this blog.
during the trip i took part in the Southern Californian Genealogical jamboree in Burbank California.

At the Jamboree I was interviewed by representatives from Rootstelevision
Here is the interview