Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center

06/15/2026

06/13/2026

Happy 50th wedding anniversary to Sweden’s King and Queen! They visited Augustana College together in September 1996 and stopped here in the Swenson Center to meet the staff and one of our founders. See our newsletter article about their visit, on page two of the 1997 Swenson Center News

06/08/2026

Join us Monday, June 15th at 6pm central for our monthly virtual Genealogy Club meeting. This month's topic: Swedish-American City Research. Come and tell us about your experiences finding (or just looking for) Swedish immigrants in big US cities. RSVP for June at the link below. Free for Swenson Center members, $10 nonmembers.

Join our virtual genealogy club! We’ll also have discussions about various aspects of Swedish-American and Swedish family history research—with a monthly theme—from the different types of records available to research in specific Swedish regions.

05/19/2026

Love those Swedish dishcloths! So versatile. Use them in your kitchen, in your gym bag, laundry room, shower, shed, pool, just about anywhere!. Three designs, $6 each or 4 for $20 plus $3 postage.

Support the Swenson Center with your purchase of these eco-friendly, biodegradable dishcloths! Dishcloths can be used just as you would a regular sponge. You can even wash them in your washing machine.

05/12/2026

Join our May virtual genealogy club meeting on Monday 18 May at 6pm Central US. We'll talk about genealogy research in Västergötland, Sweden. Free for Swenson Center members. Do you have ancestry from there? Tell us about your successes and struggles. Click on the link below and then the RSVP button. Enter your contact info to receive the Zoom link 24 hours beforehand.

Research in Västergötland Province

05/08/2026

A Swedish tradition greeting the coming of spring is kosläpp (letting the cows out), which is when farms release their cows out into the fields after a long winter in the barns. The event, typically sponsored by dairy firms making arrangement with local farmers, is hugely popular, drawing more than 200,000 people and selling out quickly.

Released to feed on their own on grass and dandelions, the cows jump and prance to the delight of onlookers, who, it is claimed, primarily come from urban areas far from any livestock. For this year's festivities, my daughter even color-coordinated with the happy bovines, but that is not a requirement.

04/29/2026

Free and open to the public! Wednesday, May 6 at 1pm central. In-person only.

04/21/2026

It's back for another year! Watch The Great Moose Migration live from northern Sweden, 24/7. There isn't always any wildlife to see (only the natural beauty!), but keep watching or checking back. There are several cameras with lots of opportunities.

It will ask you about cookies first, with the choices "allow necessary," "customize," and "allow all."

Then it will ask you to log in or create account, or continue without logging in.

Finally, click on "Spela" (Play) to start watching. If you want to take part in the chat, you will need an account.

I flera tusen år har älgarna vandrat samma leder för att komma till sommarens rika betesmarker. For several thousand years the moose have walked the same path to get to the rich pastures of summer. Follow the walk live from Kullberg in the north of Sweden.

04/11/2026

Sign up for our April 20th virtual genealogy club meeting. Geoffrey Fröberg Morris will tell us about naming customs in Sweden. Free for Swenson Center members; $10 nonmembers. RSVP at the link below to receive the Zoom link 24 hours before. Välkomna!

Have you been confused by a first or last name in Swedish records? Maybe you cannot find your ancestor because their given name was recorded differently? Or, maybe their last name changed completely? But why would a person change their last name?