Hello from Lindsborg, Kansas where I am attending a workshop about advanced research of Swedish church records. I am having an AWESOME time.
I’m staying at a Swedish-themed inn located in downtown Lindsborg. They serve a traditional Swedish breakfast here, and I’m getting my fill of Swedish rye bread, just like Grandma used to make! Tonight there was a wonderful Swedish dinner provided to all the workshop attendees and it concluded with a performance of traditional Swedish folk dances by local high school kids and it was just the cutest thing ever.
But best of all is the progress I’ve made on my genealogy research.
One bit of progress was made on the way here. I drove a slight bit out of the way to visit a cemetery in Weskan, Kansas where Gust Rudeen’s sister Anna Bjorklund is buried alongside her husband Gust Bjorklund, known to the family as simply “Uncle”.
I solved two mysteries on the Brodd side of the family. I had been unable to track J.W. Johnson’s movements through Sweden up until the time of his emigration but I finally cracked the case today. I found him living with a brother, Anders Peter Johansson. And then I was able to track the brother forward and found out that HE was the other sibling who came to America. AND he brought several children with him and there are apparently whole bunches of them living in Minnesota. So these are two big discoveries for that branch of the family, so exciting!
Tomorrow I hope to fill in some gaps for Christian Pearson’s final years in Sweden before he emigrated. And I might see what I can learn about how Augusta Rudeen’s parents were able to buy land from the Stjerngranat family. I am also intrigued by the possibility of another Rudeen family somehow associated with Uncle Carl, but I think that mystery will need to be solved with American and not Swedish records.
On Monday morning, I’ll be off to nearby Riley County to see a cemetery and a courthouse, hoping to track down information about the Hanson/Hultman clan.
This is the second year that the local museum has hosted this workshop. They intend to offer them twice a year, and I suspect I’ll be back for more…
How I envy you and Swedish Rye Bread! You certainly take some great vacations! Dad and I spent a few days in Lindsborg a few years back. We stayed in the college dorms there.