Recently, Brain Rapp, Clair Hanley, Karen Livsey, Sandy Johnson, MaryAnn Ingrao, and Janet Wahlberg traveled to Salt Lake City to join the Annual Swedish American Genealogy conference. It was a week filled with classes, research, fellowship and fun. We stayed in a hotel that is just around the corner from the Library. It is also just across the street from the Tabernacle, making it possible to easily attend the Tabernacle Music and the Spoken word on Sunday morning, truly stunning music.
Each year the Swedish American Genealogy group from Augustana College in Rockfield, IL brings professional genealogists from Sweden to assist us. This year Eva Dahlberg, Carl Johan Iversson and Ulf Bergren joined Jill Seaholm and Mike Swanson from the U.S to provide us with lectures and individual assistance. The lectures covered a wide range of topics: What’s Next in ArkivDigital, 1523 – a significant year in Swedish History, Old Handwriting, DNA 2023 Edition, Leaving Sweden: The Emigration Process, How to Find People When the Church Records Burned, How to Use the Swedish Court Records, Using the Nordic Collection at the Family Search Library, Swedish Cemeteries, and Land Reform in Sweden. So, you can see how valuable and interesting the offerings are.
After the classes, each day we all headed for the workstations. These are truly State of the Art. There is a computer and at least two monitors at each station. There are three where there is a microfilm reader.
As we worked on our individual projects, we had access to any one of the five genealogists for assistance with translations, databases and general research to help us to keep moving forward. On a personal level their assistance allowed me to finally locate Muster Roll records for my husband’s great- great grandfather. Those of us who attended brought back new knowledge that we can share with others working on their Swedish Roots.
If you have an interest in attending this conference in Salt Lake City next October 13-20, 2024, contact one of us. Or go to this link for information: www.swensoncenter.org/sagworkshop. Our own Karen Livsey is the editor of the SAG Journal that is published twice a year.
