The GenealogyDays in Skövde 20-21 Aug 2022

 

This year's Genealogy Days 2022 where held  in Skövde 20-21 August 2022 at Arena Skövde/.The genealogy days were organized by The Skövde Genealogy Society . The Genealogy days are the yearly conference of the Swedish Federation of Genealogical  societies .It have been held since 1988 with an exception in 2020 due to Covid 19.In 2021 it was held digitally online. 

Genealogical Societies, Genealogy vendors  and   genealogists from all over Sweden and neighboring countries met.to listen to lectures, meet and buy genealogy related products. among the international vendors represented where Ancestry.com,My Heritage,FamilyTreeDNA

Niklas Hertzman from Arkivdigital.com helped keen genealogists with the art of

find their ancestors in church records and other old documents. Arkivdigital is a company that 
digitizes and indexes  swedish archival record in color.

Two happy ladies from the Ancestry..com Swedish team gave away bags of sweets

                    for Genealogists in and sold genealogy subscriptions and DNA tests.

Ted Rosvall spoke about Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (Karl XIV Johan) 1764-1844 and his descendants both legitimate and illigitimate . Among the Bernadotte descendants are members of today's royal families in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and several former royal and princely houses in Greece and Germany as well as several noble and non-noble families across Europe and other parts of the world.

Mr. DNA. Peter Sjölund gave a well-attended lecture on Genealogy and DNA.

Peter Sjölund became famous throughout Sweden in 2020 when he used genetic genealogy

to help the Linköping police solve  a double murder in Linköpng in 2004.

Peter shared his knowledge of complicated DNA technology in a simple and understandable  way.

                                       

Christina Sagersten from Finding Family Together shared her knowledge about DNA genealogy.

in her latest book "Daddy where are  you" she gives valuable tips on how to use DNA tests in

  combination with traditional genealogy to find an unknown father, grandfather, grandfather etc.

The DNA coach Linda Kvist guided visitors into  the world of DNA genealogy. Linda's

journey into  DNA genealogy began when she took a DNA test and found that she had another

paternal grandfather than she thought.

New Episodes of Anna-Karins Genealogical Podcast

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

Genealogy Days in Falköping Aug 21-23 2009

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 ;)

Emigration History Conference in Mellerud Aug15-16

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

Genealogy Days in Malmö Day 2 part 2

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

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.