Anna-Karin in Chicago 2 Mount Olive cemetery

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

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