My Swedish Valentine

by Tom Lundeen

My e-mail address is tlundeen@ais.net
and I live in Palatine, Illinois.

For a couple of years, my families had been listed in the Roots Surname List (RSL). During that time, the only responses received had been spurious inquiries, most of whom had done little or no research of their own.

Then, I got my valentine. On Valentine's Day, I got a response from a woman in Sweden saying, "I live in that area of Sweden, and I'll do some lookups for you." Since all of my g-grandparents had emigrated from Sweden, and since I had not been able to find anything from Sweden, I started to get excited.

But then, I remembered the other responses -- and decided to temper my enthusiasm. Her email address gave me a clue as to her general area, so I selected two ancestors to send her: my great- grandfather, who was born about ten miles from the place in her email address, and my wife's grandmother, who was born about 40 miles away.

When I checked my mail on February 15th, I got one of the biggest shocks of my life. Much to my surprise, my "valentine" was born and lives in the little village where my great-grandfather was born!

Not only that, but she has been very active in the local genealogical society, and had much of the locale's genealogical information on her computer. She sent me a complete history of my his family, including two that were born in Illinois, and was able to answer a nagging question concerning the origin of the name he assumed for a time in Illinois!

Through subsequent emails, we have learned that we are shirttail relatives -- a member of her family married a member of my family. During the intervening time, she has researched my family's heritage in Sweden, and provided us with ever so much information.

My wife and I are now hoping to take a vacation to Sweden in 1999 or 2000, principally to research our ancestry, but also to meet our new-found friend and relative.

Submitted:  Mon Jan 5 09:38:16 1998

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