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

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.

Karl Oskar Days and Minnesota Day

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.