Introduction

This trip to Sweden has been a long time in preparation. I had put off making the trek until I had located all of my ancestors in Sweden that had immigrated to the US and their ancestral lands and families. 

Genealogy had become a passion while attending a Master's program in 2006 at St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. One of the many papers I wrote during the program was titled 'Genealogy - Mining For Dignity' for a seminar titled 'Crossing Boundaries.' During the first class we were all asked about our heritage. I realized in the moment that I knew very little about my ancestry.

Eighteen years later I have a genealogy chart that contains close to 1000 direct ancestors. Most of them are Swedish. And soon I will be visiting the land of 68.5% of them.

I purchased my airline tickets! I will be flying Scandinavian Airlines, leaving on the 22nd of May and returning on the 13th of June. I fly into Stockholm and return out of Copenhagen. 

Over the years I have worked with an outstanding genealogist specializing in Scandanavian countries, Sonia Holz, who lives in a suburb of Stockholm. She has put together a list of places for me to visit, homes and lands of my ancestors. 

Sonia and I have worked closely together for the last 14 years. Me locating the right documents and information necessary to identify my ancestors in the US. Sonia using that information to identify those same ancestors having immigrated from Sweden. Sonia just this past month located my last remaining ancestor in Sweden. After 17 years of dead ends, it was a sweet victory. 

When asked several years ago about renewing our efforts on this one ancestor, Sonia's reply was 'I will never forget her.' 

I will make another post prior to leaving. I will post a general outline of my itinerary while in Sweden and Denmark