Peering into the Past to Better Understand the Present

My Swedish immigrant ancestor, Johan Gustaf Johannesson, was born 102 years and thousands of miles way from my own time and place. And yet, there are enough similarities in our lives that should we have met, I think we would have found common ground. We both grew up on small struggling farms in remote rural areas as part of large families. We both left home as teens to find our way in the wider world - I to college and he to Denmark at age 16 to work as a farmhand at a time of widespread famine in Sweden (1868). Some of his siblings followed him to America, while others he left in Sweden and never laid eyes on them again; I have had brothers (and cousins) at every corner of this country, sometimes regrettably not seeing them for 20 years at a time.

This blog is an attempt to chronicle a long-standing ambition of mine - to make a pilgrimage to the past. I am embarking on an expedition to follow my ancestors into their misty history, to discover what they left behind, and to recover for myself a sense of connection with the places and forces that shaped my forefather and mothers for thousands of years. As I write this, my daughter Celeste is already in Sweden and has spent the summer there beginning to acquire the use of the Swedish language. Together she and I will travel, meet previously unknown cousins, visit the places central to our family history and generally try to have a great time together! I invite you to follow along and enjoy vicariously the little details of our journey. Valkommen!