This past weekend, the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, ArkivDigital along with six genealogists from Sweden led a Swedish genealogy workshop in Lindsborg, Kansas. Nearly 100 persons attended. The workshop began on Friday evening with a welcome reception at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery. The next two days were filled will lectures and computer lab sessions where participants were able to research using ArkivDigital.

The lecturers were Kathy Meade of ArkivDigital, six genealogists from Sweden: Anneli Andersson, Charlotte Börjesson, Olof Cronberg, Anna-Lena Hultman, Ingrid Nilsson and Elisabeth Thorsell. Geoffrey Morris from FamilySearch in Salt Lake City and Michael Peterson from Tioga, Texas, a participant on the Allt För Sverige TV series.

The lectures included presentations both for the beginner and the advanced researcher. A special treat was a presentation by Michael Peterson who shared his amazing journey to Sweden and his experience participating on the TV series, Allt för Sverige.

Workshop participants were given the opportunity to work in the computer lab to gain hands-on experience using ArkivDigital and to work on their research projects. All the lecturers plus the staff and volunteers from the McPherson County Old Mill Museum assisted the participants in their research.

A wonderful surprise happened in the computer lab. Two participants, Bruce Frost and Connie Fulkerson discovered that they shared the same second great grandparents. Olof Cronberg was helping Connie and her father, Paul Nelson, research their ancestry and Bruce Frost overheard their conversation and learned that they were searching for one of his ancestors. They discovered their common ancestors, John Nelson and Anna Carlsdotter Peterson. Anna Carlsdotter Peterson was from Blekinge and arrived in Chicago in 1868. Below is a picture of Bruce Frost, Connie Fulkerson and her father, Paul Nelson along with Olof Cronberg.

Bruce Frost and Michael Peterson are also related. They share the same great grandfather, Nels Peter Flyckt from Kalmar. While Bruce and Michael had been in contact previously by email, they met for the first time face to face at the conference. Bruce and Michael took a side trip to visit Nels Peter Flyckt’s grave at Salemsborg church, just seven miles north of Lindsborg during a break. See the picture below.

A participant, Peg Frost, commented about the weekend, “All in all it was an amazing weekend! We gained so much knowledge from all the speakers and had so much fun interacting with all the workshop participants.”

A one-day workshop will be held in Aurora, Colorado (suburb of Denver) with four of the genealogists from Sweden along with Kathy Meade of ArkivDigital on Saturday, October 3^rd. So if you happen to be in the Denver area, there is still time to register for the event. Information about the Swedish Research Fair in Colorado.

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