MinnesotaSwede

01/11/2024

Today is Allhelgonaafton, or All Saint’s Eve in Sweden🙏

People are lighting candles by the graves of their loved ones, to remember and honor them. These flickering lights by our ancestors in the autumn darkness can be seen throughout the land.

Want to learn more about your Swedish ancestors? Contact us at [email protected]

15/09/2024

What a Scandinavian Adventure for guests Tim and Melissa from Wisconsin!🇸🇪🇳🇴From the most eastern island of Sweden in the Baltic to the hanseatic harbour of Bergen by the Norwegian sea.

From ancient royal Viking burial mounds and the cathedral city of Uppsala to Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, to the most eastern island of Sandhamn in the Baltic sea archipelago, they enjoyed Swedish culture, nature and history.🇸🇪

After a brief stop at Alfred Nobels estate in Karlskoga, we took them to Oslo for a visit to the Parliament, Akers brygge and the Vigeland sculpture park. We travelled on to see Borgund Stave Church, the historic Flåm mountain railway and a fjord cruise along Naeroy and Auerlands fjords. We enjoyed some spectacular views before parting in beautiful Bergen, Norway🇳🇴

30/08/2024

Three generations of the Gustafson family from Wisconsin learned about their Swedish ancestry this month on a heritage tour to ancestral sites in Kopparberg and Ludvika!

We took them to where their ancestors lived and worked, as miners, farmers and millers. They saw where their ancestors were baptised and the bridal crown used by ancestral brides.

We traced their family back to 1496! Want to know more of your Swedish ancestry? Contact us!

www.minnesotaswede.com

29/07/2024

What a special time we shared with Sheila from Georgia last week! All of Sheilas ancestors were Swedish from different parts of Sweden🇸🇪

Starting in Nora and Örebro where we reconnected her with her mining and farmer ancestors, she saw the bridal crown and canopy that served for generations of family weddings❤️

We journeyed on to the Falköping area where we discovered many of her ancestral baptismal fonts from the early 1100’s: that magic crossover time where Vikings were learning the culture of Christianity. We visited a total of 12 ancestral churches, and the ruins of a 13th. We also visited over 12 ancestral farms, including the one where her paternal 2x great-grandfather grew up before he emigrated in 1880 to the US. We also met the current owner of that farm!

We also visited pre-historic sites and the earliest churches in the ancient countryside.

Thank you Sheila, for allowing us to share your Swedish ancestral heritage with you!🇸🇪🇺🇸

04/07/2024

Wishing everybody in the USA a wonderful Independence Day today!🇺🇸🇺🇸

24/06/2024

Want to rediscover your Swedish origins? 🇸🇪 Do as Marta from Minnesota did!

We just spent a week with her in Västra Götaland and Värmland. We traced her family branches back to the 1600’s and 1700’s. We showed her 9 ancestral churches where her family worshipped for generations. Best of all, she got to meet a living descendent, her 4th cousin Stig!

Contact us at [email protected] if you want to experience this!🌹

21/06/2024

MinnesotaSwede wishes you Glad Midsommar today from Karlstad, Värmland where we are reconnecting a Swedish-American with her family origins🌹❤️🇸🇪

04/06/2024

Meet Katy from Indiana, with husband Phil! Our tour for them this weekend presented the most historical case we ever had!

Katy is a descendent of Magareta Månsdotter Lom of Länna and Peter Larsson K**k of Bångsta. They emigrated on the ship Charitas in 1641 to populate the colony of New Sweden 🇸🇪🇺🇸, and were well-respected years later by Governor William Penn.

We helped Katy even further back in time by tracing her maternal line to Nils Nilsson Natt och Dag, one of the earliest noble families in Sweden from the 1200s!

It was a pleasure to show Katy the historical sites were her ancestors were baptised and where they lived and worked, including Penningby and Rävsnäs Estates.

Want to learn more about your own Swedish heritage? Contact us at [email protected]

30/05/2024

Family Album 2 from Swedish Heritage Tour for Tom from Minnesota 🇸🇪❤️!

Our guests Tom and wife Candy time-travelled to Österslev in Skåne to see heritage sites of his paternal grandmother Ida, who emigrated to the US in 1903. We discovered her birth- and childhood home Knutstorp, Österslöv church with the ancient baptismal font where she was baptised, the school she attended in Kiaby, and her parents (Toms great grandparents grave at Oppmanna church.

But best of all was another joyful family reunion with a son and 3 grandchildren of Toms great-uncle Eric near Oppmanna!🎉❤️

28/05/2024

Family Album 1 from Swedish Heritage Tour for Tom from Minnesota🇸🇪❤️

This week our guest Tom and wife Candy travelled back in time to see ancestral family sites in Värmland where his paternal grandfather emigrated from in 1903. Tom and Hans saw the baptismal font where six generations of their family was baptised, and Candy posed the the ancestral church bridal crown.

The best was a joyful family reunion with Hans, May, Mikael and other family members of his great uncle!🎉❤️

01/05/2024

”So grateful to have seen all this before it is gone”

True words expressed by our latest Swedish-American guest from Indiana. We had the honor to reveal to Jim and his wife Lori over 14 ancestral churches and over 20 ancestral sites, in Östergötland and Småland.

From humble, sometimes abandoned cottages, to farmsteads, to larger estates with roots from early medevil times, we could reveal to Jim his family heritage of members of parliament, tenant farmers, millworkers, and workers for the crown estate.
At one heritage site named Sjöhester, we met the current resident, a historian named Bo who had written about a branch of the family from the late 1600’s.

The ancient family churches contained artifacts directly relating to Jim’s ancestors: baptismal fonts, bridal benches and bridal crowns.

Look out for our newsletter next week! Or contact us at [email protected] to connect with your Swedish heritage!

03/04/2024

ABBA celebrates 50 years this weekend since winning the Eurovision with Waterloo!

Join us in Stockholm to celebrate them 🎉🇸🇪👏

07/03/2024

After more than 200 years of neutrality, Sweden has finally become a member of NATO

23/02/2024

Hemmershult mill in Småland - we love connecting Swedish-Americans with their origins❤️

22/02/2024

Today we are in Eksjö, in the heart of Småland❤️, preparing for several Swedish Heritage tours this summer.

19/01/2024

A sparkling cold (-18C/0 F) day in Bergslagen!

We’re doing what we love, ancestry reseach for a Swedish Heritage tour this summer for a family from Wisconsin❤️

05/01/2024

Don’t miss this opportunity!

If you don’t want to compete in a contest, though, contact us for help to reconnect you with your Swedish origins🇸🇪🇺🇸!

"ALLT FÖR SVERIGE” (English title Great Swedish Adventure) is now conducting a nationwide search for Americans of Swedish descent for season 12 of their Emmy award winning TV show. The show is searching for Americans who want to learn more about their Swedish heritage. Come to Sweden and be a part of an adventure you will never forget.

The deadline to apply is January 15th, 2024.
The show starts shooting in the Summer in Sweden (May- beginning of June 2024)
Apply here https://shortaudition.com/Allt-for-Sverige-
www.greatswedishadventure.com

31/12/2023

Wishing Happy New Year 🎉 to all of our Swedish-American and Norwegian-American clients in 2023!

Do you want to reconnect with your Swedish origins? We still have a few Heritage Tour spots left in 2024, contact us at www.MinnesotaSwede.com🇸🇪🇺🇸