Läckö castle in Västergötland
Photo: Floyd Bush

Hej!
Spring is finally here - with sun, warmer temperatures and spring flowers. Soon midsummer flowers, daisies and bachelors buttons will crowd the meadows, like in the photo above. The ancient and beautiful castle in the background is called Läckö, located on the shore of Vänern, Sweden's largest lake.

Soon some of you will join us  here in Sweden and together we'll discover the places where your ancestors once lived. We'll visit Värmland, Öland, Medelpad, and Småland as well. Not to talk about the most southerly province, Skåne. As you might already know, we have changed the format of our trips. Instead of two full weeks traveling with several others,  our trips are now shorter, only 4 to 5 days. This permits us to go only to the region or regions where your ancestors lived and, of course, to where your Swedish relatives live today.  

If you would like to join us in 2008, consider traveling with others in your family, perhaps your brothers, sisters, parents or children, making it a real family reunion. No, you don't have to worry about not understanding each other! We'll be available to interpret during your stay. My American husband, Lonny, is learning the Swedish language, and I grew up in Sweden - even though I lived in the US for many years.  

If you would like to spend time in Sweden, before or after our trip, I'd be happy to help with suggestions. Perhaps you would like to spend more time with your newly found relatives, or visit other parts of Sweden. Traveling by train is a great and comfortable way to see the country - and also environmentally excellent. If instead you would like to rent a little cottage close to where your grandparents lived to really get a feel for the area, the local tourist office can help. 

Richard's trip to Småland
I would like to share with you some excerpts from an article I received from one of our travellers, Richard Engstrom, from Oregon, who visited Småland, Västmanland and Skåne with us last summer. His observations are interesting and what happened during our trip together is rather typical, which is why it might be interesting for you to read it.

Richard and I started our work together several months before the beginning of our trip by me researching Richard's grandparents. It was not very long before he was able to make contacts with relatives in Sweden:

I received an email from Marie Louise ... stating that she had found and contacted family members on both my grandfather and grandmothers lines. She provided me with contact numbers and email addresses.  I was able to make immediate contact with them and found their excitement matched mine.  They had long ago lost contact with family members who had immigrated to the USA. Over the next few weeks, Marie was able to connect with additional family members.  We began to exchange information and photos.  One of the Swedish cousins had been working on the family genealogy on my grandmother’s line and was generous in sharing this information.

In June 2006 Richard arrived in Sweden. Among other places we visited Karlslunda in Småland, where Richard's grandmother had lived:

The first event was to be in the Kalmar area where my grandmother had lived.  I was told that a few of the family were to going to meet us for lunch at a restaurant in the Karlslunda area of Kalmar. I anticipated maybe five or six people and was amazed when we arrived to find almost 20 people waiting to greet us.  It was held at a wonderful resort overlooking the Baltic Sea.  The weather was perfect as was the day.  I came to find out that some of the cousins did not know each other and that this was the first time they had met.  I think they were as excited about meeting each other as they were in meeting me.

Then it was time to travel, with a big group of excited relatives, to the different places where his grandmother lived before emigrating to the USA:

After much delicious food, we were all off to visit the locations where my grandmother had lived. The parish church where my grandmother was baptized and confirmed held a brief presentation for the family.  The local historical society opened their facility and joined the family in hosting a time for meeting and coffee and dessert.  It was a long day, but one filled with lots of emotion and great companionship. If I had any doubts about the wisdom of this trip, this day certainly took care of that feeling.

The trip was quite an experience for Richard and for his relatives here in Sweden and I was glad to hear all the nice things he had to say about our time together:

Needless to say, the trip more than met my expectations.... I am continuing to keep in contact with family members that I met in Sweden.  I am hoping they will come and visit in the near future... I could not be more impressed with Marie Louise Bratt and the services she provided through Bridge to Sweden.  I encourage anyone who is searching for roots in Sweden to look at her website and contact her if you have additional questions.

Thank you, Richard, for allowing me to quote your letter here!

Richard told me that he would be happy to answer any questions you might have about our trips. Please send an email to Bridge to Sweden and I'll forward it to him. Perhaps you too will join us for an exciting trip to your ancestor's homes in Sweden.

Read more about our trips here.

2. Interesting indexes - you know, those lists of names of emigrants from Sweden

3. Genline - genealogical records on the Internet

Bergsmän 
Perhaps your grandfather, or his father, was a bergsman (miner), who emigrated to North America! Mining had been going on in Sweden since the 1400s, when bergsmän (plural of bergsman) were simply farmers who worked at breaking up iron ore and producing iron in hyttor (blast-furnaces). Bergslagen, located  in Västmanland, Dalarna, Gästrikland and Värmland, became  an important mining area early on.

Later on the nobility also started foundries, which grew into small towns. Iron was sent, on carriages and  barges, on narrow canals to the ports, where it was weighed on huge iron scales and exported to countries around the world, including North America and New Zealand.

During the late 1800s many of the smaller iron works were no longer competitive and were shut down. Maybe your great grandfather was then out of work and he and his family decided to emigrate to the US or Canada, where skilled mine workers were in demand, especially in Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Indexes of names of emigrants
The Swenson Center has made up some very useful lists of Swedes who settled in different parts of the US. The information is taken from various books - details are on their website. Here you might be able to find that all important parish name! so why not try these indexes:

Illinois and Iowa 
  California  
  Texas

This is what you might find: 

1. The name, which might be different from the one used in Sweden before emigration, see newsletter . 

2. The date of birth  

3. The parish of birth in Sweden, needed in order to continue your search in the Swedish records, organized by parish.

Note that a US parish is quite different from a Swedish one, which refers to a geographical area surrounding the church. The area can be quite large and include several towns and villages. In the cities, e.g. in Stockholm, there are many parishes and it's important to know which one a person came from to find the records. More about parishes here. Note that parish names, in these lists, are sometimes misspelled or old spelling is used.

4. Last you'll find columns telling you where in the US the person lived, town, county and state.

What types of records can you find at Genline? They usually cover most of the 1700s and the 1800s (the exact years vary with each parish). There are birth, marriage and death records - and naturally the very interesting husförhörslängder (household examination records), with names, dates and places of birth, moves, date of marriages of everybody in the household. Especially interesting are often the priest's notes about the person - information about a crime committed to banns (lysning) and notes about an escape to Nord-Amerika.

It's often difficult to read these old records, especially the very old ones. The priest's handwriting could be excellent, but often records were poorly written with ink spots and scribbles. I recently saw a couple of pages, in  one of those records, filled with mathematical formulas - apparently a priest who would have preferred a different occupation! 

I wish you a wonderful, interesting and restful summer - wherever you will be spending it! As for us, Lonny and me, we'll travel as you know, and do some resting too.

If you have found this newsletter interesting and useful, please share it with family and friends. If you no longer would like to receive it, please let me know and I'll immediately take your name off my list of subscribers.

Glad sommar!
(Happy summer)

Marie Louise Bratt
www.bridgetosweden.com

Vigelsjöhöjden 1B
76152 Norrtälje
Sweden

mlbratt@etanet.se

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