no 6 2008-12 ROOTED IN SWEDEN New Internet database! Mormor’s notebook Touring Medelpad Washington workshop | Your local history bookshelf contents 4 1 EmiWeb - Migration archives under one roof 3 Washington workshop 4 Touring Medelpad 6 14 The digital race 7 Mormor’s notebook 8 Building you local his- tory bookshelf 12 6 Postscript 14 firstly... …I would like to introduce myself. When the opportunity was given I 8 jumped at the chance of relieving Olof Cronberg of one of his countless duties at the DIS Society, and become the editor of Rooted in Sweden. 3 My family background is the oppo- temporarily on hold, but I know that to offer a forum and a voice to those site to the backgrounds of the target it will flare again. Americans who want to give a hint of group of Rooted in Sweden. I am very what happened to our ancestors bey- much rooted in the province of Skåne Having studied English at university ond the last trace in the port of Goth- in the south of Sweden. My research level, and having spent a year of stu- enburg or Karlskrona. And in the op- on the paternal as well as on the ma- dies in New Zealand, I feel comforta- posite direction there is every chance ternal side hasn’t strayed more than ble expressing myself in English. My of using us Swedes to give a glimpse some 50 kilometres from where I live training is in the Queen’s English, into the vast source material only av- now. I often wonder what marks this and this has coloured my spelling and ailable to those who speak Swedish. homogeneity has made on my perso- way of writing. I’m sure I can make nality, and I will probably ask myself myself understood though. Besides, So, do you have a story to tell? Contact this question as long as I live. the foundation of Rooted in Sweden us at [email protected]. Is there anything is built by the contributions of our in particular you would like to know I’ve been a genealogist for some fif- readers. more about? Just give us a hint and teen years, with varying intensity in soon there will appear a section in my research. At times I’ve struggled The purpose of this e-zine, as I see it, Rooted in Sweden called “Request not to let my research interfere with is to strengthen the bond and encou- Topic”. And that’s a promise! work or my social life. Being a father rage interaction between genealogists of two small children, my research is on both sides of the Atlantic. We want Joachim Schönström • rooted in Sweden no 6 • december 008 EmiWeb -Migration archives under one roof At the annual national genealogist from diaries, newspaper clippings, received your registration, they will gathering ”Släktforskardagarna” a literature and interviews. The sour- send you an e-mail with a bill. You new web database was launched. ces can be nationwide, regional or will get your login details when Emi- EmiWeb aims to gather all source local; they can be Swedish or foreign web has received your payment. So if material on emigration and immigra- and aimed at genealogists as well as you plan on spending the night with tion in one database. biographers and local historians. The Emiweb, you need to plan at least a idea is to gather all source material couple of days ahead, or you will be EmiWeb is a non-profit association on migration in one place and one da- disappointed. consisting of participants from a tabase. number of associations that focus on migration research. Its purpose is to At the web site, which is translated develop and maintain a database on into English, there is substantial in- emigration from and immigration to formation on the different archives, 8 Sweden, and to make this database with current status on the information available to the public by subscription gathered. At the moment there are web site: www.emiweb.se to a web site, called emiweb.se. four archives to explore: emigrants and immigrants in Swedish church The database EmiWeb features ma- records, obituaries from Swedish- launch date: August 008 terial that is gathered and maintai- American newspapers and Värmland ned by the migration research asso- newspaper articles. The database ciations mentioned above as well as is growing however, and in the au- home base: Karlstad, Sweden state and regional institutions and tumn of 2008 collections of emigrant individual volunteers. The material photographs, passenger lists and im- consists of information on 1,2 million migration records from a number of emigrants and soon also the 500.000 provinces will be added. search languages: swedish and immigrants between 1800 and 1950. english EmiWeb still has an opening offer with The main content is the same as on a 12 month subscription for 300 SEK. the CD ”Emibas”, that is church book Regular price is 500 SEK. A three information. Other than that, the na- month subscription costs 175 SEK. It ture of the information varies greatly; is to be noted that you as of now can- it can be indexes on persons, tax re- not access the database immediately cords, letters, photographs, excerpts after registering. Once Emiweb has december 008 • rooted in Sweden no 6 • 3 text: Olof Cronberg Washington workshop images: Kelly Keegan House of Sweden Towards the end of May, the Swed- and I traveled to Washington for a dish. Half an hour was an appropriate Gen Group spent a weekend in weekend in the end of May to hold period of time. In most cases, we Washington, DC, holding a work- a SwedGen Workshop with lectu- were able to solve the research pro- shop with lectures and one-on–one res and one-on-one sessions. Ka- blems and figure out where in Swe- research sessions. thy Meade, the US representative for den the person’s immigrant ancestor Genline, presented one of the lectu- had come from. On the other hand, Early this year, the Swedish Embassy res, and Kelly Keegan, a DIS member it would have been possible to look contacted me and asked if I could who lives in Washington, helped out. much further into each research pro- help them with a genealogy event at Reservations were not required for blem. With the resources available the House of Sweden in Washington, the lectures, so today on CD:s DC. For the spring, they were deve- immediately be- ”...we were a little ner- and the Internet, loping an event schedule around the fore sessions star- vous because only two there is almost no theme, “Discover Sweden”, and they ted on Saturday, limit to research thought a workshop “Find Your Swe- we were a little visitors had shown up.” possibilities, even dish Roots” would fit in. nervous because for people on the only two visitors had shown up. Ho- other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The House of Sweden, which also wever, it turned out that the House of houses the Swedish Embassy, is si- Sweden did not open its doors until Some examples of solved cases: tuated by the Potomac River in Ge- noon; a few minutes later some fifty Yvette Kolstrom’s husband’s great orgetown, one of the oldest parts of visitors filed down the stairs to the grandfather had emigrated from Fin- Washington. Watergate and the Ken- lecture room. The topics of the lec- land. Before that, in the 1870s, the fa- nedy Center for the Performing Arts tures were: Finding Your Swedish mily had moved from Sweden to Pori are in sight. The building, which ope- Roots, Church Records On-Line, Re- in Finland, but she did not know from ned in 2006, was designed by Gert sources on CD:s and the Internet and where in Sweden the family had come. Wingårdh and Tomas Hansen, with Facts about Emigration. The case was easily solved, since Karl the Nordic themes of openness, trans- Gustaf Wilhelm Kohlström appeared parency and light. If you ever go to The one-on-one sessions were fully on the Emibas CD. He was born in Washington, the House of Sweden is booked in advance, half an hour for Rättvik parish in Dalarna, where the worth visiting. each. In many cases they came in father was a blacksmith at Dådrans couples: man and wife, mother and bruk (iron works). The family was Together, Anneli Andersson, Anna- daughter or researcher and the old then found in the Disbyt database Lena Hultman, Charlotte Börjesson uncle who knew a few words of Swe- and on the Smed-skivan (the CD of 4 • rooted in Sweden no 6 • december 008 blacksmith families). We also found a query concerning the family at the on-line discussion forum, Anbytarfo- rum, from a genealogist in Finland. In that way it was possible to create contact with a Finnish relative, who was researching the same family. Another interesting story came from Nancy Thompson. Her ancestor Mag- nus Oring was supposed to have been born in Kalmar, Småland 1781. He became a sailor and ended up mar- rying Catherine Louisa Brown in One-on-one sessions Charleston, SC in 1806. He died in approximately 1819. This time I used parish outside Kalmar in 1797. My year. We are thinking of going to the CDs of indexes of births, mar- guess was that Ingemund was a brot- New York and then following the riages and deaths for Kalmar län, pu- her to Magnus. However, according East coast north. If schedule and fi- blished by Person- och Lokalhistorisk to the household examination roll, he nancing work out, we plan to go in förening (PLF) in was born in 1762, September 2009.