Kleinow, Dee

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Swedish American GenealogistVolume 28 | Number 3 Article 49-1-2008A trip of a lifetimeDee KleinowFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsagPart of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, pleasecontact digitalcommons@augustana.edu.Recommended CitationKleinow, Dee (2008) "A trip of a lifetime," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 28 : No. 3 , Article 4.Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol28/iss3/47Swedish American Genealogist 2008:3My husband Ray and I have done afair amount of traveling to differentplaces, but our trip to Sweden thissummer tops my list of travels.A number of years ago, I was giv-en many old family photos withoutnames. After sorting, arranging, andresearching them and putting theinformation into a genealogy pro-gram, my interest in genealogy andresearching all my family lines backinto Sweden became an addiction.This led to attending many classes,many hours of research in recordsboth here and in Sweden, and manyhours of research volunteer work.With this knowledge and connectingwith my special Swedish relativesand friends, a wonderful month-longtrip to Sweden was planned. Now amonth sounds long, but with such anexciting, full schedule, it seemed asif time flew by. We have been askedto report on this trip, but we quicklyfound we must give just the high-lights or write a book, so.… The travel planWe first decided on an overall planof starting in Skåne; then Kronoberg;Kalmar; Stockholm; Leksand in Da-larna; back to Stockholm; over toVärmland; relatives in Norway; andleave through Oslo. To do this, wechose Icelandic Air to break up ourjourney.Off we go!We left Minneapolis on May 13th2008, arrived in Iceland on the 14th,toured a little, stayed overnight, thenflew on to Copenhagen on the 15th.We were met at the airport by mycousins, Gert-Ove and Anny Nilsson,who drove us over the Öresundsbridge to Sweden, and their home inHöllviken, which is located in the farsouthwest corner, about a block in-land from the sea.In SkåneOver the next several days, we wentsailing on the Öresund and wereinvited to numerous family reunionsand relatives’ homes in the Malmö,Lund, Höör, and Löberöd area, whereSwedish coffee, desserts, and deli-cious meals were served. We weretaken to the family churches, gravesites, and family farms around Väs-terstad, Östraby, Östra Kärrstorp,and Fränninge; visited the old LundCathedral and watched the medievalcalendar clock announce 12 noon;walked the streets of many of the oldhistoric sea captain towns like Trel-leborg, Ystad, and Simrishamn;toured many of the medieval castlesand Viking villages along the Skånewestern, southern, and easterncoasts. There is so much history inSweden and this area to talk about,but it was time to move on.Växjö next!Wednesday, May 21st, we packed ourbags, said our tearful goodbyes to mycousins in Skåne, and picked up ourrental car in Malmö and worked ourway to Växjö, where we were invitedto stay with Helmer and Maine Olofs-son, friends who grew up in the samearea of Slätthög, Moheda, Berg, Asa,and Tjureda, as my mother’s fatherand relatives did and have ties tosouthern Minnesota. With Helmer’sknowledge, we drove the back roads,through the village farms, and visitedan old, out-of-the-way local museum,found farm history books, and visitedwith the local historians.There are no words to really ex-plain your feelings while touring thefamily farm sites, visiting the churchwhere your emigrant family leftfrom, and touching the baptism fontwhere your grandparents or great-grandparents were baptized. Whilein Växjö, we strolled through the oldsection of town, visited the 11thcentury cathedral, and the House ofEmigrants where we had coffee witha delightful elderly gentleman, IvanA trip of a lifetimeBY DEE KLEINOWDee ponders the ancestors and theirbaptisms.Tracking the ancestral trails throughoutSweden makes many memories forever8 Swedish American Genealogist 2008:3Nilsson, one of the first volunteersat the Emigrant Center. We also tooka tour of the Emigrant Museumwhich shows a very interesting dis-play of the emigrants leaving forAmerica and Minnesota. We did notdo any research here as we hadalready done it at home. With somuch genealogy research resourcesavailable on microfilm or on theInternet, it is much easier, faster, andcheaper. So, do your family researchbefore you plan to travel overseas.To Orrefors and LäckebyIt was now May 23rd and time to driveeast, through the region of VilhelmMoberg and a tour of the Orreforsglass factory which started produc-tion in 1742. (Yes, we spent a few kro-nor here!).Then on to Läckeby where longtime genealogy friends, SusanneÅkerfeldt, Rune Eriksson, and child-ren, who have family ties to Minne-sota, were waiting for us. After a nice,relaxed evening meal, we had a sur-prise visit from their neighbor, whowas a board member of the Kalmarlän Genealogiska Förening. We ex-changed genealogy related items,while listening to the beautiful night-ingale’s evening song.Highlights of this area took us tothe medieval city center of Kalmar,which still has part of the city wall;Västerport, the main entrance to thecity, located close to the 12th centuryKalmar slott (castle). It has a terrificview of the city, ocean, and coastalarea. Then over the bridge to theisland of Öland, with its historicalsites, windmills, and farmland mead-ows, which was larger in size thanwe had expected.Going northMonday, May 26th, we started ourjourney north along the east coast,through beautiful rocky green rollinghills and large farm fields of rapeseedand potatoes in full bloom. Westopped for a quick shopping tripthrough IKEA on the northwest sideof Stockholm, which was larger thanour Minneapolis store.We met Bengt & Elisabeth Thor-sell, editor of the Swedish AmericanGenealogist and a past guest speak-er at our Swedish Genealogical So-ciety of Minnesota meeting. She hadinvited us to their home where gene-alogy was, of course, the main topic.After we dropped off our rental car,we were off to tour the 17th centuryroyal palace, Drottningholm, KingCarl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’scountry home on the island of Lovönnear Stockholm. While here we sawthe changing of the guard and en-joyed our walk through the beauti-ful landscaped grounds. Then wewere off to tour the countryside andto visit the Lovö parish church, whichis a very old kyrka with many rune-stones around the building and ceme-tery. The next day, we toured the Sko-kloster kyrka and slott where Elisa-beth has family ties. This is a pearlamong churches in this area, and isstill in use today. Skokloster Castle,which is right beside the church, isthe largest private palace ever built(1645) in Sweden. It is a museum ofartifacts with many of the originalsstill intact, including three rooms ofa fantastic armory collection, datingto the 1670s era. With so much his-tory, our camera was working over-time.Dalarna next!Then it was off to cousin Annika andPeter Wallenskog’s beautiful historichome for an evening of visiting andrelaxation. May 29th found us upearly taking the train from Stock-holm to Leksand, Dalarna, wheregenealogy friend, Stenåke Petersson,met us with a surprise handshakefrom Leksand Mayor Lars Nygårds.We were off to another wonderful An Öland windmill. Runestone U47 at Lovö. See note.Skokloster, northwest of Stockholm.9Swedish American Genealogist 2008:3three days of visiting, and travelingthrough the beautiful country a-round Lake Siljan, visiting the oldhistorical village farms, and local mu-seums. We also took a tour down intothe Falun copper mines, which is oneof Sweden’s most important indust-rial monuments with history thatgoes back almost a thousand years.We toured Nils Olsson’s Dala WoodenHorse workshop by Nusnäs.We can’t forget our visit to theHouse of Genealogy (SläktforskarnasHus) in Leksand, where we hadcoffee and treats with the directorand staff, toured their facility, andheard more about their workingconnections with Genline. After an-other delicious meal with Stenåkeand Britt-Marie Petersson at theirbeautiful summer home, we said ourgoodbyes and took the train back toStockholm and the Wallenskog home.Exploring StockholmBetween June 1st and June 5th PeterWallenskog, a member of the boardof directors for Genline, invited us fora tour of the Genline facility, locatedin Stockholm. We met with the newCEO Mikko Ollinen and staff, andheard about their exciting futureplans. We also were invited to visitVäsby Hembygdsförening, an oldfarm village which was used by theirlocal historical society, and enjoyeda tour ending with coffee and treats.Next was the Steninge Palace culturecenter, on the shore of Lake Mäla-ren, whose history stretches back tothe 13th century, and past the statelyhomes in that area.We also tried out the subway sys-tem into downtown Stockholm,where we bought tickets for a twohour boat ride under the bridges andaround many islands of Stockholm.We walked past many governmentbuildings and where the Nobel Prizeawards are held; toured the RoyalPalace (built and completed in 1754)where the royal official entertain-ment functions take place; watchedthe changing of the Royal Guards;and toured the Stockholm Storkyr-kan (cathedral). Jan Eurenius, a staffmember of Genline and a researchfriend, gave us an interesting drivingtour of the islands north of Stock-holm. We visited more of Gamla Stan(Old Town, Stockholm). At the VasaMuseum, the warship Vasa is dis-played. She capsized on her maidenvoyage in 1628 and was raised in1956. The Vasa is the world’s onlysurviving 17th century warship withover 95 percent of its original partspreserved.To the VärmlandcousinsThursday, June 5th, we said goodbyeto our wonderful hosts in Stockholm,and picked up our rental car atBromma Airport. We started ourdrive west across Sweden to Karl-stad, Värmland, where Dr. FredrikHaeffner of SweGGate fame waswaiting for us. He had planned to giveus a tour of the research center(Emigrantregistret [The KinshipCenter]), but it had closed early inpreparation for Sweden’s nationalcelebration on the 6th. After a nicewalking and driving tour of the area,he escorted us to Töcksfors and cous-in Ingrid Andersson’s home, wherewe had been invited to stay for thenext few days.When we visited this area in 1995,I only met two distant cousins. Be-cause my mormor’s lines go back tothe very beginning in the Töcksmark,Östervallskog, and Holmedal churchrecords, I knew there would be more.I was told that I had many relativeswaiting to meet us. After being giventhe history and a driving tour of themany family farms, and visiting acouple of my new-found relatives, thebig reunion day came on Saturday.About 155 relatives replied that theywere coming. I was told that over 500relatives lived close by in the area.The big reunion!The Töcksmark community centerwas full! Dr. Haefner and cousin Ing-rid Andersson had planned a veryexciting reunion with lots of printedfamily information being shared. Thewood carvings behind the Töcksmarkchurch altar and around the churchwere done by a relative. A family his-tory program followed, mainly inThe House of Genealogy in Leksand.Those filefolders in the back are full ofmicrofiche from the whole of Sweden!The Family Reunion in Töcksmark.10 Swedish American Genealogist 2008:3Swedish, so I hope my personal his-tory was okay. A delicious meal down-stairs followed the program. After-wards, it was back upstairs for ques-tion and answer time in the after-noon. Naturally, this followed withcoffee and a nice selection of desserts.Next stop: Norway!By June 9th it was time to pack oursuitcases full of gifts and books andvisit the last items of interest aroundTöcksfors. We said our goodbyes andheaded over the border to my cousinFrode Myhrvang’s home in Askim,Norway. We were given a tour of theAskim church and cemetery, and hadmore delicious meals with relatives.The next day we drove south toHalden and the large FredrikstenFortress, construction started in1661, which covers approximately150 acres. It was a major point ofdefense before Sweden had takenDee Kleinow’s address is 3204Barbara Ln, Burnsville, MN55337-1819.E-mail: deeswede@comcast.netover the former Norwegian territoryin 1814. Your general fitness will de-cide whether you walk around thisfortress, which takes a good twohours with many steps. While visit-ing with cousin Frode, I was given afamily picture of my mormor with herparents and siblings. This picture isspecial, because I only had a pencildrawing of my great-grandparents,and never knew that this pictureeven existed.June 11th we headed to Oslo,checked into a hotel and went for atour of the Viking Ship Museum andthe Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum, Nor-wegian maritime museum. It hadmany exhibits and artifacts of theVikings, and other ships from the 19thcentury polar expeditions. We took arelaxed walk along the bay area andthe public park surrounding thesebuildings. We had sunny weather,with low 70s to high 80s (aboveSandwich cake (smörgåstårta) is a very common dish at big gatherings.average) temperatures for most ofthe trip. It had become very dry. Weheard TV reports of forest fires insome areas of Sweden and Norwayburning out of control.Going homeThursday, June 12th, we had a relaxedbreakfast at the hotel, collected ourbelongings, and left for the Oslo/Gardermoen Airport, where we re-turned our car. We flew back to Rey-kjavik, Iceland, another deliciousmeal, and a little more touring, beforereturning home to Minneapolis in theevening of June 13th.Thanks to genealogy and all thespecial relatives and wonderfulfriends that we’ve met along the way,this was “A Trip of a Lifetime,” and Iwill remember it forever!Note:The text on the Lovö runestone #U47says “Torgils och Sihnjut de reste ste-nen efter Vig, sin fader” (Torgils andSihnjut erected the stone [in mem-ory] of Vig, their father).Editor’s note:  This travelogue was firstpublished in Tidningen 2008/3, journalof the Swedish Genealogical Society ofMinnesota.Swedish(?) names in the 1870 U.S. CensusRecently I looked for a “lost” Swedein the 1870 Census, and tried to findhim by listing all the Swedes in hiscounty. In the resulting list I found anumber of names, where the name-bearer was supposed to have beenborn in Sweden, but the name lookeda bit odd.When looking closer at some of thenames, I think I could make out whatmany of them would have been, ifindexed by a Swede.Comments welcome!Here are the names I read:DolberBenzstonBumqustLindagrinGusto NelsonLofgrinEwicksoChinburgElenquistBerystromCarsa UndersonSouthergrustAnd here are the names in Swedish:DahlbergBengtssonBlomquistLindegrenGustaf Nelson/NilssonLöfgrenErickson/ErikssonKindbergElmquistBergströmCaisa AnderssonSöderquistElisabeth Thorsell

A trip of a lifetime

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A trip of a lifetime

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