Sweden/Denmark Trip

At the end of last year, I started teaching my kids (and myself) about my Swedish heritage.  When I was growing up, I didn’t know many details about my Swedish heritage (besides that my grandma’s parents had emigrated from Sweden)  but over the past several months of learning about my ancestors, a dream grew inside...Read More

On the second day of our trip, we got to meet up with an 84 year old Swedish man, named Erik, that lives in the same small town as my ancestors did in the 1880s.  A cousin of mine (technically my mom’s cousin’s daughter) was fortunate enough get connected with Erik 11 years ago (see...Read More

(journal entry from August 26, 2019) After the schoolhouse, Erik took us over to the farmhouse where Swen and Thilda lived before the schoolhouse.  The farmhouse has been abandoned for several years and unfortunately, it burned down a few years ago, but it was still really neat to see the barns that were still standing...Read More

(journal entry from August 26, 2019) After these adventures, we were all pretty hot and sweaty so we headed over to Erik’s house to meet his wife, Eila, and have Fika with them.  We had apple juice (the best apple juice I’ve ever had) and nectarines. Erik showed us some old photos that he has...Read More

(journal entry from August 27, 2019) Jershon and I wanted to go canoeing on Osby lake. My parents weren’t interested so they stayed at the Airbnb. So we went to Osby lake and waited a little while before the canoe rental guy showed up and gave us all the gear. It was about 5 pm...Read More

(journal entry from August 28, 2019) This morning we woke up, got dressed and packed up and then left our Airbnb in Osby. We drove 2 1/2 hours to Kalmar, which is right on the east coast of Sweden. The plan was for Jershon and I to drive across the bridge to Öland (an island...Read More