Swedish America Heritage Online (SweAme)
SweAme
Registered User Special Recognition:
David Anderson
This year we are
very pleased to present SweAme Registered User, David Anderson, from Portland,
Oregon and the Swedish Roots In Oregon organization.
In 1999 Ross Fogelquist (in Portland) came up
with an idea that he presented to the New Sweden Cultural Heritage
Society. That idea was so grand and so
large it was decided to start an entirely new group that would be devoted to
research, document and preserve the history of Oregon’s Swedish
immigrants. Out of that idea was born
the Swedish Roots in Oregon (SRIO) project, which was granted tax deductible
status by the Internal Revenue Service in December 1999. Ross continues to be an active member of
SRIO, and it is his home Fogelbo, a warm inviting log cabin richly decorated
with Swedish memorabilia that the SRIO, where the SRIO Board of Directors
meets.
The small, but active SRIO Board (see members
data below) continues adding to and publishing results of the rich knowledge of
Swedish Immigrants to Oregon. We
encourage you to take part, and to donate to, Swedish Roots In Oregon.
There are five goals that SRIO has:
1.
Create a
data base of first and 2nd generation Swedes in Oregon;
2.
Collect
genealogical information from individuals and institutions;
3.
Build a
database and publish it;
4.
Research the
lives, settlements and achievements of Swedes in Oregon and publish the
results; and
5.
Build an
archive of oral histories of Swedish immigrants. Over 14 booklets and books have been
published by SRIO, the database, now on the SweAme.org website is expanding and
including scans of documents found at the Oregon State Archives.
Rhonda Erlandson’sfather emigrated from Sweden in 1948 a few years before Rhonda was born. Rhonda grew up steeped in Swedish culture and was fortunate to make several trips to Sweden. Family members still live near the northern city of Lycksele. She became involved with SRIO, like several others, thru an invitation from Ross Fogelquist. She knew she wanted to roll up her sleeves and help with research efforts uncovering and sharing the rich history of Oregon’s Swedish heritage. After serving as SRIO Secretary for a few years Ronda was elected President in January 2016.
Herje
Wikegard, first
generation immigrant, stepped up and designed a new webpage, when a new one was
needed. We now have www.swedishrootsinoregon.org thanks to Herje. It has changed tools periodically and new
information gets added from time to time.
And, Herje serves as SRIO’s treasurer too!
Mike Timshel, 2nd
generation immigrant, didn’t seriously begin studying Swedish until about 15
years ago, despite his father being the first generation immigrant! A few years ago Mike was encouraged by Lars
Nordström to attend an SRIO Board Meeting, and a few meetings later was elected
to be a Board Member at large, and loves translating Swedish works in to
English!
Ann Stuller
and David Anderson
serve as genealogists for SRIO. One of
Ann’s Swedish cousins helped start SVAR in Ramsele, Sweden, and later presented
the family with a
written family tree
that furthered Ann’s interest in genealogy.
Ann has taught conversational Swedish at Portland Community College for
20 years. In addition to genealogy Ann
enjoys photography and painting. One of
her photos graces the cover on one of SRIO’s books! She was invited to an SRIO meeting by long
term friend Ross Fogelquist.
David Anderson, in addition to genealogy, has long pursued other
hobbies – such as photography. Taking
pictures was one of the most important activities that David enjoyed during his
days in the United States Peace Corps.
Many of us take family
photos for granted. Many of us were
given cameras at an early age, our parents had cameras, and their parents
frequently had cameras. David can build a photo
tree back to his father’s grandparents.
That is not the case with most everyone in the world.
From 1975 to 1977 he was a
Co-op Advisor with the Peace Corps on remote Ujelang Atoll in the Marshall
Islands. The people he worked with had
been removed from Enewetak Atoll so the American government could test nuclear
and thermonuclear device. They are
currently still experiencing negative impacts as a result of the testing
period.
David was the only person
on Ujelang with a camera. One of his
personal goals was to record life on Ujelang in the mid-1970s. His Mom would send several rolls of slide
film to him every few months. After
exposure the film would be sent home for developing. The developed slides would be returned to
Ujelang where he would make notes on them, as to who, what, where. It is amazing to think that no rolls of film
were lost in this process, since mail service to Ujelang was not daily, weekly,
or monthly. It happened when a field
trip ship called every two or three months!
Album of photos on flickr
from Ujelang:
In January 2016 David flew
out to the Big Island of Hawaii to visit people he knew on Ujelang. There are now living there more people with
ties to Ujelang/Enewetak as there were in the mid-70’s. Preparations for the trip included printing
photos of people on Ujelang and giving them away. The looks on people faces as they saw
themselves, or a loved one 38 years ago was priceless. One guy asked David if he had a photo of his
father. David looked at him and asked how
old he was, and he said 46. David had a
photo of him and his brother, with their Dad.
A few days later they
learned his older brother passed away in the Marshalls.
Life in Ocean View
Estates, Hawaii is not easy for the Marshallese. Life is basically ‘off the grid’, and is very
reminiscent of life in the Marshalls, although they are living at 1,000 foot
elevation on lava rather than at sea level on coral rock. And, they are living on a volcano that is
inflating. Jobs are hard to come by. One woman leaves her house at 3:30 a.m. to
drive to the north end of the Big Island to drive handicapped students
around. She returns home at 6 pm. And repeats this five times a week. On weekends she is out picking macadamia nuts
or coffee in season. Depending on the
grower picking coffee can net someone about $8 an hour. Sometimes a little more, and sometimes
significantly less. Depending on the
grower. It is a family affair picking
coffee involving parents and children and the money goes in to a collective
pot.
People from
Ujelang/Enewetak are in Hawaii for the same reasons our Swedish ancestors came
over: a better life for them and their children. Health care is a driving factor since
diabetes and hepatitis are rampant and there are still continuing issues from
radiation poisoning.
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SweAme
Accomplishments:
Program
Status
The
SweAme (www.sweame.org)
websites continue to facilitate the growing interest in digitizing our past (and
present) and continues to exceed our expectations. As of December 31, 2015, SweAme has exceeded
the 1.1 Million mark of Individuals on our series of data bases. This number is the count of Individual records
(ALL persons on our websites) who were Swedish born immigrants or who were related
(as ancestors or descendants) to the immigrants.
This
year again there has been growth in all of the data base statistics – two are
shown here:
Project
Status
In
2015 the SweAme project teams have completed the state of North Dakota, and
initiated the major projects for New York and Massachusetts. This brings the websites total count of
Swedish born immigrants up 417,091, which is 70% of the total number of emigrants
who were living in America in the year 1900.
The
total completed state count is 39, plus 63% has been completed for New York and
Massachusetts. This leaves SweAme with
37% of New York and Massachusetts and nine (9) remaining states
to capture and document online.
Hardware
& Software Upgrades
In
2015, there were no major upgrades to the SweAme hardware servers at Simply
Hosting.
A
major software upgrade has been partial implemented with the SweAme Gateway
webpages. These additional webpages have
been implemented to provide a more user friendly experience. The new webpages were developed using
Responsive Web Design (RWD) techniques to provide self-adjusting webpages for
any size of device – desk top, lap top, tablet and/or phones. The new webpages use color images as
selection buttons to LINK to the many different segments of the SweAme
resources. You can access the new pages
at www.sweame.org.
SweAme
Summary Financials:
2015
BOPSF Funding: $ 3,500.00
2015
Expenses – Swedes In New York: $ 987.45
2015
Expenses – Swedes In Massachusetts: $
1,035.18
Remaining
Project Funding: $ 1,477.37
Completed
States/Territories:
Arkansas
Arizona
Terr.
California
Delaware
District
of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii Terr.
Illinois
Indian Terr.
Indiana
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nevada
New
Hampshire
New
Mexico
North
Carolina
North
Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South
Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
West
Virginia
Wyoming
Thank you for all your hard work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bet, for your kind words. It is Great to hear from you.
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