From: lhe@dash.udev.cdc.com (lh erickson 913-469-9264)
Newsgroups: soc.roots
Subject: Re: Immigration and settlement references
Date: 23 Aug 92 23:54:12 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

Swedish Emigrant References:

I promised to send my list of the 18 references I located on Melvyl to 
those interested.  Well, the response was immediate, and impressive.  In 
addition to many requests for the list, Ron Bettencourt,  M.M.C. Durfee 
High School Cataloger in Fall River, MA made some very helpful 
suggestions for gleaning additional information from Melvyl.  After 
following his suggestions, and eliminating duplicates, I ended up with a 
list of 179 good references.  Now realizing the Internet bandwidth 
logjam this long list would create as a general post, I decided to 
modify my strategy.  (Hold on, this sounds like "bait and switch", but
I think you get a better result.)

Herewith is my modified plan, which I trust will be acceptable.  I will 
make a short but more personal, and maybe more useful list of references 
for posting to Internet.  At the same time I will e-mail both the short 
and the long reference lists to those who asked, and offer to upload the 
combination list to some appropriate site or sites.

The short list:

While all my ancestors were Swedish emigrants, I never knew any of the 
first generation, and only one of the many second generation.  
Therefore, I desire to learn more about their thoughts, feelings, 
aspirations and in general, their life and times.  I have many questions 
but few answers, so I have sought answers through written material.  All 
of my ancestors immigrated between the end of the Civil War, and the 
close of the nineteenth century, so my time of interest may be somewhat 
narrower than yours.  Anyway, a general list of  my sources follow:

1. County Historical Societies:  All of my first generation Swedish 
emigrant ancestors settled in one of six counties in America, and each 
of these counties just happens to have a marvelous Historical Society.  
In each case I have visited the county historical society, and found 
lots of information; copies of early newspapers, pictures and personal 
items representing their early life and times.  Furthermore, and more to 
the point, each of the six historical societies has produced a book of 
the early history of the county.  These books are full of many very 
interesting stories.  Several of these books include interesting stories 
about my ancestors, but even the stories of their neighbors and fellow 
settlers are fascinating and paint a vivid picture of their everyday 
experiences.  While these books are, for the most part, not cataloged by 
Melvyl, nor the Library of Congress, they are a great resource.  Since 
you will want to look for this material from the specific counties where 
your Swedish emigrant ancestors settled, I won't include my list here.  
However, I would encourage you to investigate your respective county 
historical societies.

2. Biographical Stories.  I discovered that my grandmother's family 
moved from Chicago to a homestead in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota 
in the spring of 1880, and barely survived the winter, which the local 
county history book listed as "the worst winter in recorded history."  
During that winter, they lost an infant son, and all of their farm 
animals, except for two mules, which they kept alive in their small 
kitchen.  Some 62 years later, my grandmother wrote a beautiful letter 
that she titled "Life on the Minnesota Prairie", describing that winter 
in some detail.  When I stumbled upon this letter, I was ecstatic over 
such a find.  In mentioning it to a friend, he suggested some parallels 
to the "Little House on the Prairie."  I immediately purchased a book 
from that series titled "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingels Wilder, pub by 
Harper Trophy, 1971, and was delighted with the many similarities 
between the two stories.  Thus, I now find that part of the series is a 
good depiction of the Swedish emigrant's life, at least as it relates to 
my great grandparents on my father's side.  Then I found a book titled 
"From These Shores" by Helga Skogsbergh, published by Covenant Press, 
1975 (This is an abridged version of three titles, "Comes the Day, Comes 
a Way", "From These Shores" and "That was Then" by the same author.)  
This book is especially interesting in that it associates some vaguely 
familiar Swedish sayings with typical events within their day to day 
life.  These inexpensive paperback books have provided some very 
enjoyable reading, and have certainly contributed to my understanding of 
the life and times of my Swedish emigrant ancestors.

3. General Historical Research -- The book titled "The Background of 
Swedish Immigration, 1840 - 1930" by Florence Edith Janson, Arno Press, 
1970, provides insight into life in Sweden during the wave of 
immigration, and discusses many of the reasons prompting our Swedish 
ancestors to leave their homeland for a strange foreign land, often 
leaving their family and friends, and at risk of life and property.  
While there are many other books that cover the same material, this was 
in the local library, and I found it very helpful.

4. Resource for Swedish Emigrant Research -- The Swenson Swedish 
Immigration Research Center, Denkmann Library, Augustana College, Rock 
Island, Illinois 61201-2296, Phone: (309) 794-7221, has proved helpful 
to me.  Among their resources are microfilm of church records of many of 
the churches (Lutheran, Swedish Baptist, Methodist, Covenant, and some 
Evangelical Free) started by Swedish emigrants in America.  
Additionally, they have microfilm of most of the Swedish newspapers 
published in America, plus a microfilm archive of Swedish embarkation 
records.  I spent several days their and found their resources and staff 
very helpful.  By the way, they speak fluent Swedish, but will resort to 
English for researchers like me.

5. State Archives -- My ancestors settled primarily in Minnesota and 
Nebraska.  Both states have an archive with newspapers on microfilm, and 
many other helpful sources.  I find the newspapers very helpful, not 
only for their obituaries, but also to provide a background of the local 
events of their time and place.  Examples include plagues, typhoid, 
prairie fires, blizzards, etc.  For example, my great grandparents lost 
several children to both diphtheria and typhoid.  The newspaper accounts 
helped to narrow the time of death (death certificates either not issued 
or records destroyed), and the number of people involved.  
(Coincidentally, Nebraska has an alphabetized list of the names of those 
that applied for Naturalization in Nebraska, and parts of Iowa.  Each 
entry also indicates the court name, date, and book name and page of the 
papers.)  Nebraska Historical Society, 1500 R Street (at intersection of 
15th), Lincoln, Nebraska 68508, Phone (402) 471-4751, Hours M-F 10am - 
5pm, Sat 8am - 5pm.  Minnesota Historical Society, 690 Ceday Street 
(across from the state Capitol), St Paul, Minnesota, Phone (612) 296-
6126, Hours Mon 9am - 8:30pm, Tue-Sat 9am - 5pm.

Summary -- There is more information available than I had ever imagined, 
and I am convinced that I have just scratched the surface.  I hope this 
has been of help to you.  But many of you are far ahead of me in this 
area of research, so please share with us your list as well.


The Long List:

If you have e-mailed me requesting the Melvyl list, you should have it 
by the time you read this post.  If not, please wait a day or two, then 
e-mail me again.  If you did not e-mail me, but would like a copy of the 
list anyway, please wait while I find an appropriate location for it.  
Then I will post a message with instructions for downloading it.


LaRonn Erickson
lhe@hare.udev.cdc.com

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