Wow, I see that my last entry in this blog is from December 28, 2016, over three years ago! The last time this website was updated was in June of 2017. After the long delay, I’m pleased to announce that this website has been updated with links to two more books I wrote.
I’ve finally finished the eighth volume in my series of books on the High Family’s Swedish ancestors. This book (which is currently called Chapter Eight) covers 3 generations of my ancestors who lived during the 16th century: the 5th, 6th, and 7th great-grandparents of Sven Hög, the patriarch of the High Family (who is also my 3rd great-grandfather).
I’ve also uploaded a massive book I finished last fall called The High Family’s Ancestral Homeland. This book contains detailed information on the places in Sweden that the High Family’s ancestors lived, and includes information on 14 parishes, 14 churches, and 62 farms.
I recently started work on the ninth volume of my series, which is about the medieval ancestors of Sven Hög who lived during the 13th – 15th centuries. This will most likely be the longest volume in my series of books (not including the High Family’s Ancestral Homeland, which is a separate work) and will contains images of dozens of letters which mention the High family’s medieval ancestors. I’m guessing this will take at least a year to write.
The tenth and final volume in my series of books will cover the ancient, unnamed ancestors of the High Family. It will use DNA testing to reveal information about the High Family’s ancestors who lived prior to the 13th century and will cover the Christianization of Sweden, the Viking Era, detailed information on the different haplogroups of the High family’s ancient ancestors, and the first homo sapiens. Since I am a direct patrilineal descendant of Sven Hög, I have his Y chromosome. Thus, I can use DNA testing to follow the patrilineal line of Sven’s ancestors back to Africa, where the first homo sapiens appeared. I am also interested in finding a direct matrilineal descendant of Anna Stina Johansdotter, the matriarch of the High family, so I can obtain information on some of her ancient ancestors.
I’ll be sure to update this site as finish writing each of these two volumes. Stay tuned for more t come!
While it’s hard for me to believe, 2016 marked the 10 year anniversary of when I took a deep interest in my ancestry. In this blog, I’d like to reflect on the past 10 years and the genealogical activities that I conducted in each of those years.
2006: In August of 2006, I discovered my passion for genealogy when I found the 1972 book The High Family: 1799-1972 that listed the descendants of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter, the patriarch and matriarch of the High family. Shortly after I found this book, I purchased a subscription to ancestry.com and entered in all of the known information on my ancestors. That year, I also contacted a researcher in Sweden who uncovered information on Sven and Anna Stina, their parents, and their grandparents. I also had the pleasure of contacting my father’s paternal relatives and getting to know them. Over the course of that autumn, I wrote the High Family: 1726-2006 (First Edition), a 200+ page book on the High family, which was finished on December 23rd.
2007: During 2007, I added several hundred pages to the book I had written on the High family. On December 22, 2007, I finished work on High Family: 1726-2007 (Second Edition) which was over 600 pages. In May of 2007, my mother and I took a bike ride to Warsaw, Minnesota to visit the graves of my great-great-grandparents Charles and Amelia Berndt, who immigrated to America in 1880.
2008: In early 2008, I finally made contact with a distant Swedish relative, Pia Gudbrand Lindgren, my fifth cousin. Both Pia and I had a mutual researcher who introduced us. Pia was the first of many of my Swedish relatives that I’ve enjoyed meeting over the past 8 years. In the summer of that year, I met several relatives on the side of my paternal grandmother, Emma High, whose four sets of great-grandparents all emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1850s and 1860s. On August 3rd of that year, I organized a major High family reunion, which commemorated the 150 year anniversary of my great-great-grandparents Gustaf and Anna Christina High’s immigration to America. This reunion was a huge success, with over 100 in attendance.
2009: In June of 2009, my mother and I took a trip to Sparta, Wisconsin, the town her maternal grandmother, Caroline Stewart Kuebler, was born in 1880. During that trip, we visited Monroe County and Vernon County historical societies and learned more about my great- grandmother’s parents, maternal grandparents, and maternal great- grandparents, and visited the cemeteries that they were buried at.
2010: In October of 2010, my mother and I took a trip to Vermont and Massachusetts, to visit the places where several of my maternal great- grandmother’s ancestors lived. During this trip, we visited the places were some of my 5th, 6th, and 7th great-grandparents lived and the cemeteries where they are buried. In addition to learning more about our ancestors, we also had the privilege of enjoying the vibrant fall colors that were at their peak in New England during our visit.
2011: In June of 2011, I took the trip of a lifetime to Sweden with my father and his wife. During this trip, I met several local historians who kindly showed me several of the places where my Swedish ancestors lived. I also met several of my Swedish relatives during this trip. This trip heralded the start of the current book that I’ve been working on the past five years on the Swedish ancestors of my great-great-grandfather Gustaf Adolf High. When I first started working on this book, I didn’t think I would uncover many new ancestors. Over the next few years however, I ended up discovering a number of ancestors that I didn’t know about.
2012: 2012 was undoubtedly the most difficult year of my life, as my father passed away on July 31st of that year. I spent a lot of 2012 working on writing about the various places my Swedish ancestors lived. I made a few ancestry discoveries in 2012. I learned that I had the wrong parents of patrilineal 4th great-grandfather Anders Andersson and discovered who his real parents were, as well as who his grandparents were. I also discovered the identity of my 6th great-grandmother Maria Engdahl, whose lineage can be traced to her 3rd great-grandfather Per in Äng. At the end of 2012, I revised my book’s format by incorporating several new types of colorful writing blocks.
2013: In January of 2013, I founded Inspirational Genealogy and launched this website as a way of sharing my work with others and inspiring them to write about their own ancestors. That same month, I put on the presentation “Folktales from Linderås and Norra Solberga Parishes” for Nicollet County Historical Society in St. Peter, Minnesota. The following month, I joined Olde Mecklenburg’s Genealogical Society, a genealogy group located in Charlotte, North Carolina, that meets once a month and is dedicated to the genealogy of Mecklenburg County. Joining OMGS was one of the best decisions that I’ve made since I moved to Charlotte in 2007, and I’ve met a lot of wonderful people through it. While I didn’t get as much done with my book as I had the previous couple of years, I did make some progress in 2013. In August, I discovered information on my 6th great-grandparents Nils Svensson and Catharina Svensdotter and found several websites which traced Catharina Svensdotter’s ancestors back several centuries. That same month, I attended the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In November, I came in contact with Roland Hermansson, my sixth cousin, who shared with me information on the ancestors of our 5th great-grandparents, Johan Svensson and Annika Johansdotter.
2014: I didn’t work on my book for the first half of 2014. By this point in time, I had learned of so many new ancestors that I was a bit overwhelmed, and needed to take a little break from it. In the second half of the year, I wrote the first two chapters of my book, as well as most of the third chapter. In 2014, I started serving as the Minutes Secretary for OMGS. That year, I put on the presentation “Incorporating Multiple Voices in Your Ancestors’ Narratives” for OMGS.
2015: In 2015, I continued serving as the Minutes Secretary for OMGS, and also became the coordinator for its publication The Quarterly. In February of 2015, I put on another presentation for OMGS, in which I showed them the first chapter of my book. I finished the third chapter of my book in 2015, and completed most of the fourth and fifth chapters as well.
2016: As 2016 comes to a close, I am continuing to serve as the Minutes Secretary for OMGS and the coordinator for The Quarterly. I finished work on the fourth and fifth chapters of my book this year. In June, I started work on the sixth chapter of my book. That month, I met an eighth-cousin, Britt-Marie Kronstand Wallin, who has graciously helped me research our ancestors my sending me images of scanned pages from books and articles about our ancestors. Over the past 6 months, I have been working on the sixth and seventh chapters of my book, which describes the lives of my ancestors who lived in the 17th century. In November, I put on the presentation “Effectively Organizing Your Family History” for OMGS.
The past decade has certainly gone by fast! However, as I reflect upon it, I am grateful for all of the wonderful experiences I’ve had that my interest in genealogy has brought me.
Despite the fact that I haven’t posted any new blogs over the past year, I’ve accomplished quite a book on my book on my great-great-grandfather’s Swedish ancestors. During the first half of this year, I completed work on the fourth and fifth chapters of my book, which I uploaded to this website earlier this fall. The first five chapters of my book are now available to read on this website, offering nearly 800 pages worth of content on five generations.
Over the past six months, I have been working on the six and seventh chapters of my book, which describe the lives my great-great-grandfather Gustaf High’s 17th century ancestors. This has been an incredibly challenging but rewarding task, as records from this time are both difficult to find and decipher. Fortunately, I’ve met a lot of wonderful and very knowledgeable people over the course of my research whom have been very helpful to me. I wouldn’t have been able to make it this far without them.
The sixth chapter of my book is about the 3rd great-grandparents of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter, the patriarch and matriarch of the High family, and contains information on 7 sets of ancestors. I am almost finished with this chapter, and am just waiting for several records related to Knut Persson, a 3rd great-grandfather of Sven Hög’s who served in the cavalry.
The seventh chapter of my book is about the 4th great-grandparents of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter, the patriarch and matriarch of the High family, and contains information on 4 sets of ancestors. My favorite file (as well as the longest one) in this chapter is about Per Jacobsson, a 4th great-grandfather of Sven Hög’s who was a lieutenant in Småland’s Cavalry. This file will be the second longest file in my book and will be around 70 pages. In addition to including a variety of hard-to-find records (such as landscape documents, court records, military rolls, and church archive records), this file will give an in-depth look at the Thirty Years War, one of the most horrendous times in European history, that Per Jacobsson served in during the 1630s and early 1640s.
Both the sixth and seventh chapters of my book will be well over 100 pages. Hopefully, I’ll upload them sometime in February, depending on how long it takes to transcribe and translate all of their records. After I finish writing the seventh chapter, my book will be over 1000 pages.
Over the course of the coming winter and spring, I plan on working on the eight chapter of my book, which till tentatively be about the 15th and 16th century ancestors of Sven Hög. In June of this year, I subscribed to Riksarkivet (Sweden’s National Archives), which contains a lot of older records that aren’t found on Arkiv Digital (the service I’ve used the past 5 years). In October, I started finding records from the 16th century that mention my ancestors. While it’s one thing to see the names of ancestors that you are supposedly related to on ancestry.com or other genealogy sites, it’s incredible to actually see the records of these ancestors and find evidence that they really were related to you!
As many people know, one of the greatest pitfalls of on ancestry.com or other genealogy sites is they are filled with false information and can frequently list people without the sources to prove the relation. I admit, I’ve been bad about this myself, but I do plan on updating my information on ancestry.com in the near future to reflect my research.
I’m hopeful that the latter chapters of my book will be insightful and inspirational to anyone with an interest in Swedish genealogy. I’ve noticed that most Swedish genealogists stop tracking their ancestors around the 17th century, as it is very difficult to conduct research beyond this point. Hopefully these chapters will be helpful to them, as they will include dozens of old records with transcriptions and translations, as well as short descriptions of all of the types of sources they were found.
At the beginning of every year, I wonder to myself, “Will this be the year that I finally finish my book?” While it’s hard to say for certain if 2017 will be that year, a lot of exciting things are in store for the coming year. Currently, my family line can be traced to at least the late 13th century (the oldest known record is of my 20th great-grandparents from 1300) and I plan on obtaining images of numerous medieval records during the first part of 2017.
I’m confident that by the time this book is finished that it will be one of the most advanced and detailed accounts of Swedish genealogy ever written in English. I appreciate everyone’s support and continued interest in this book, and will continue to keep you updated.
The first volume of my work will focus on the High family’s Swedish ancestors. The first chapter of this volume revolves around the lives of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter, the patriarch and matriarch of the High family. I spent much of 2014 writing this chapter, and it is the most detailed of all of the files I have written on my ancestors. This chapter is 123 pages.
The second chapter in the first volume is about the parents of Sven and Anna Stina and contains a file for Sven’s parents, Anders Andersson and Maria Svensdotter, and a file for Anna Stina’s parents, Johannes Johansson and Maria Håkansdotter. I finished writing this chapter in April of this year.This chapter is 133 pages.
The third chapter in the first volume is about the grandparents of Sven and Anna Stina and contains a file for each set of their grandparents. I finished writing this chapter in September of this year and it contains 157 pages.
The fourth chapter in the first volume is about the great-grandparents of Sven and Anna Stina and contains a file for six of their eight sets of great-grandparents. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information about the maternal great-grandparents of Anna Stina. Currently, this chapter is almost finished and I am waiting for some assistance with deciphering some words from a few records.This chapter should include 131 pages.
I am currently writing the fifth chapter for the first volume, which is about the lives of the great-great-grandparents of Sven and Anna Stina, and contains information about Sven’s maternal great-great-grandparents and Anna Stina’s paternal great-great-grandparents. I hope to have the initial work on this chapter completed by late January or early February of 2016. However, it probably won’t be finished until a few months after that, since it will contain a lengthy 7-page estate inventory that I need transcribed and translated. This estate inventory is incredibly hard to read, and even most expert Swedish genealogists can’t decipher it. Unfortunately, my “expert decipherer” has had several problems with his vision this past year, and I am waiting for his eyesight to be restored after he undergoes eye surgery. This chapter should be around 180-200 pages.
The sixth chapter will probably be the lengthiest chapter in the first volume, and is about Sven and Anna Stina’s distant ancestors. This will be both a daunting and challenging chapter to write, as it is mostly about ancestors who lived in the days before Swedish church records were kept, and it might be difficult to find the source records for them to verify they were indeed Sven and Anna Stina’s ancestors. However, I have looked over several family trees on the internet that contain information about these ancestors, and according to them, they can be traced back to the time of the Vikings. Since this chapter will include information on so many different ancestors, I will have to devise an organized way to present it. I have no idea how long this chapter will be, but it could end up being several hundred pages.
The seventhand final chapter in the first volume will be about the ancient ancestors of Sven (and maybe Anna Stina also) and will analyze DNA from their descendants to provide some light on their genetic ancestors. Since I am a direct-paternal descendant of Sven Hög, I have his Y-chromosome and plan on using my genetic information to find out information on his direct-paternal ancestors. I recently took a DNA test with the National GenographicProject and am still waiting to find out my results. Once I find out my results, I plan on hiring a genetic genealogist to conduct more analysis for me. I would also like to track down a direct-maternal descendant of Anna Stina and have her mitochondrial DNA tested. This would provide me with information on Anna Stina’s direct-maternal ancestors.
The second volume in my work on The High Family’s Swedish Ancestors and Heritage will be about the places associated with the High family’s Swedish ancestors, and include a file on every parish they lived in, every farm they lived at, and every church they attended. I have already written most of the content for this volume, and it may end up being around 500 pages or so.
Although I’m unsure if I’ll actually be able to complete this gargantuan two-volume work in 2016, I am certainly hoping to. I hope that it will be of interest not only to members of the High family, but anyone with an interest in Swedish genealogy. Over the course of the next year, I will continue to upload new chapters to my webpage as they are finished.
Even though the last family book I wrote, The High Family: 1726-2007 (Second Edition), was over 600 pages, the current book that I’m writing will by far exceed it as the most ambitious family history I’ve ever written. This book will focus exclusively on the Swedish ancestors of Gustaf High, my great-great-grandfather, and give a comprehensive and vivid picture of what their lives were like. Over the past two years of working on this project, I have grown quite a bit as a genealogist, and this work will really show that. I’ve revised and tweaked my work numerous times in an effort to develop the very best writing design in sharing family histories. Once I have finished with this book, I dare say that it will be one of the most in-depth and diverse chronicles of Swedish ancestry out there!
May of 2011 marked the start of my work on this massive undertaking. I enlisted the services of Swedish Heart Genealogy
http://swedishheartgenealogy.homestead.com/
, ran by a woman named Rhonda, and sent her all of the information that I had on my Swedish ancestors. Since then, Rhonda has helped me tremendously. Next, I subscribed to Arkiv Digital, a service that contains high-resolution images of over 6 million Swedish records. Since I don’t know Swedish, it took me awhile to be able to navigate through the different records. After a while however, I started to develop an understanding of them and can now find most of the records associated with my ancestors by myself. There are 4 main improvements in the way I incorporate records into my new book:
• I now try to include every known record associated with an ancestor.
• All of the records from Arkiv Digital are in color, unlike the black and white photocopies I previously had.
• My records are accompanied with Swedish transcriptions and English translations. These give authenticity to my work and my readers can now read the records themselves to verify my findings.
• Every record and source is now indexed through footnotes.
A month later in June, I embarked on my first international genealogy endeavor when I traveled to Sweden to visit several places associated with my paternal grandfather’s ancestors. In addition to visiting several old farms and churches associated with my ancestors, I also visited several museums, such as The Nordic Museum and Skansen in Stockholm, the museum in Eksjö, and the Gamlagården in Mellerude, which provided me with very informative insights on how my Swedish ancestors lived. I also had the privilege of meeting with several knowledgeable local researchers and historians who shared with me numerous fascinating tidbits of information on my ancestors. As I traveled throughout Sweden, I took numerous pictures of the places associated with my ancestors. I also carried a notebook and pen around and frequently jotted down several notes on what I learned from the researchers who accompanied me.
My trip to Sweden fueled me with passion for my Swedish ancestors and I was excited to learn more about them. Over the past two years, I have uncovered the identities of several more of Gustaf High’s ancestors. The amount of ancestors I will have listed has more than doubled and I can now trace my lineage as far back as 1520 to my 11th-great-grandfather, Per i Äng.
It’d take me several pages to fully describe all of the nifty features of my new book, but here are some of them:
• Extremely detailed and comprehensive profiles on my ancestors. Each profile now includes every known record associated with the specific ancestor, and is at least 10 times larger in length (from 2-4 pages to 20-40 pages each).
• The book will feature one of the most visually impressive and rhetorically diverse formats ever presented in an ancestry book.
• The book is steeped in contextual information and contains an abundant amount of material on the historical backdrop of the age they lived in.
• In addition to files on ancestors, I have also written files for every known place associated with them, such as the parishes they lived in, the churches they attended, and the farms they lived at.
• Dozens of old maps from the 17th-19th Centuries of the farms my ancestors lived.
• Several supporting documents, such as inventory estates, interesting stories, and intriguing folktales from the parishes my ancestors lived.
In short, this book is a literary museum of my Swedish ancestors’ heritage which promises to be not only of interest to my relatives, but to Swedish genealogy enthusiasts everywhere. Samples of this book can be found on my Samples page. In the future, I plan on uploading more samples from my book to this site.
https://inspirationalgenealogy.com/sample-work
The idea for a 150 year reunion came to me in 2007, during my work on my second family manuscript: The High Family (1726-2007): Second Edition. I knew if such an endeavor were to be successful, something had to be done to reignite people’s interest in the family and motivate them to come to an event where they might not know too many people. One of the key reasons, I believe, why the reunion tradition died out was because younger generations (like that of my own) were starting to not know who the other people there were and might have felt a little bored and awkward coming to such events. While the generation of my father mostly knew each other from childhood (a time where extended family gatherings were much more common) in my own time, I didn’t know who most of the people were at reunions or how they were related to me. Although many people were sad that the reunions died out and were hoping for them to return, it was getting to be too much work for anyone to arrange for one to be held. The fact that very few people were attending them also made it somewhat discouraging for those who spent their time and efforts planning an event, only for very few to attend or show an interest.
I can more than relate to the frustration that the organizers of the family reunion must have had in recent years. One of the most frustrating things in life, I believe, is when you work very hard on something, hoping that people will have an interest in it, and they end up not and all that work is in vein. This of course goes back to the Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern idea. For example, when I spend an hour or so writing a blog – only to have no comments and very few views, I get really upset! Yet as authors such as Stephen Covey or Dale Carnegie have demonstrated, there IS a way of getting through to people and expanding one’s one Circle of Influence. One simply has to understand various principles of human behavior.
With all of that being said, all of the thousands of hours I have invested on my family research finally paid off. As mentioned before, I first put word of the reunion a year ago to relatives. With the assistance of all the work I had been doing on the book and high level of communication I had developed with several family members, a strong amount of interest grew among family members in regards to learning more about their ancestors as well as getting to know their extended relatives. A few months ago, I started sending out flyers to family members inviting them to the event. As I invited them, I stressed to the importance of the event, informing them that it would be more than a typical potluck. In addition to the potluck part, there was a display table hosting several old photo albums, family heirlooms, as well as copies of the book I had written. During the last few weeks, I called several relatives reminding them of the event and asking them to put the word out among other relatives.
As the time grew closer to the reunion, my emotions were a mixture of stress and excitement. Simply from talking to other people who had rsvped me, I had a good feeling that at least 70 people would show up. My initial goal, however, had been for the attendance to break the 100 mark. When I told a distant relative of mine about that goal (a woman who has arranged the family reunions over the last decade) she told me “Dream on!” Yet, I felt that if I shot for a very lofty number, all the work in trying to get such a turnout would at least guarantee over 60 people to show up (previous attendance records were probably in the sixties or seventies).
Even though I was excited to finally get to meet many of the relatives I had spoken with over the phone, I knew that it was going to be a lot of work to put the reunion together. On Sunday morning, I woke at 4 AM and made my way to Seven Mile Creek (a park situated between Mankato and St. Peter, Minnesota) where reunions were held back when I was a child. Despite the fact that the reunion started at 1 PM, I busied myself for most of those 9 hours getting the tables ready, setting up the display table, ect. I was fortunate to have the assistance of my dad, step-mom, and a third cousin of my dad’s wife (the woman who had previously been organizing reunions) in preparing everything.
Around noon, family members started showing up. Car after car arrived, with family members I had either gotten to know – or ones I have yet to – get out and make their way into the picnic shelter. By the time 1:00 had rolled around and the reunion officially got started, an astounding number of people surpassing the 100 mark had arrived. Liz, the relative who helped me organize the event, said to me “I think that it’s a success.” Shortly after 1, a second-cousin of mine and myself drew the crowd’s attention. I was flattered when my second-cousin had the audience give me a huge round of applause – a moment that undoubtedly ranks in the top 5 proudest moments of my life. Once people started eating (from a selection of two tables worth of dishes), I noticed that so many people had come that a few people had to eat standing up!
There was rarely a calm moment for me at the event because I was so busy giving people cd’s of the book, scanning in old photos relatives ha… This was a little frustrating for me as I would have loved to visit more with relatives instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Despite my own stress however, I was pleased to see so many relatives enjoy themselves and see relatives they hadn’t seen in years. Many people came from several hours away to attend the event, with one of my dad’s cousins driving all the way from Illinois with his wife (a 9 hour journey)!
After dinner, a family picture was taken – the largest family photo ever taken in the High family. Unfortunately, a few people had to leave before the photo was taken, but most of them are in it:
Descendants of Gustaf and Anna High
Another noteworthy tidbit to add was that over 60 people present alone were descendants of my great-grandparents (all of whom I wrote about in my book). I can only imagine how many more people would have showed up if I included information about all of the descendants of my great-great-grandparents, much less great-great-great-grandparents (the original patriarch and matriarch of the High family.) I hope that others with an interest in genealogy will read this blog and realize how much one person CAN make a difference and bring the family back together if they work hard enough and not give up.
After the pictures were taken, the family returned to the shelter where they were treated by the music of a few family members playing old songs like “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mounatin”) with guitars and banjos. My 14 nephew, Anthony (who is blind), also briefly joined in with them, playing the violin. While such music was always played at family events in the time of my father’s childhood, it never was in my own. In many ways, it was like stepping back in time.
Although it was stressful running around and trying to talk to so many people, it was extremely rewarding. So many people came up to me and praised me for all of my work. That day, I realized that I had found perhaps the biggest circle of influence in my life. I learned that there is still a tremendous level of interest in my family heritage among family members and that all of the work I did really paid off in the end. What is more important to me than praise and gratitude however, is that family members are taking in interest in ancestors who names and legacies were beginning to fade from memory because of the passage of time. It is equally important to me that everyone had a wonderful time. Of course it was great to receive so much thanks and praise, but to me, those things are more important.
I want to thank all of the family members who made it to the event, those who helped me set it up, and most of all God for making all of it possible. In my heart, I believe that this was meant to be and it succeeded so well because he wanted it to. Two years after writing the introduction to my book which addressed the discouraging situation of family reunions and interest in our ancestry, the future of the High family is looking healthier than ever.
I could write for pages more, but realize I’d better wrap this blog up. The purpose of this blog is as much for me to read in future years as it is for my readers, so even if the ugly trend of little blog views and comments continues with it, at least I’ll have that satisfaction in later years.
The greatest impact of this book was getting the ball rolling on my extensive project. Over the course of a few months, I had developed a rapport with all of my father’s living paternal cousins, as well as several of their children (my second cousins). The first edition of my book showed them that I was capable of carrying through on my work. After all, a lot of family history projects get started, but never get finished due to various dead ends, lack of interest or cooperation from relatives, or interruptions in life!
In February of 2007, I started work on High Family 1726-2007: Second Edition. One of the first things I did was speak to all of the relatives who had received copies of the book and enquired about any errors they came across while reading the book. Not only did several relatives inform me of various misinformation and errors, but they often provided me with much more information.
Over the course of 2007, I received well over 100 new photos from family members. Many of these old photos were true gems that I had never seen before: an 1880s photograph of my great-great-grandparents, Gustaf and Anna Christina High’s family, a wedding photograph of my great-grandparents, Aaron High and Mary Lundgren High from 1895, as well as an abundant amount of wonderful pictures from the 1940s of my dad and his cousins when they were children.
For my second edition of High Family history, I contacted more distant relatives, such as second-cousins of my dad and my third cousins, who were also helpful in sharing new information, stories, and old pictures with me. I also contacted Nicollet County Historical Society, the historical society for the county associated with my family, and received obituary clippings of numerous ancestors and relatives, old church records listing ancestors, and land plat maps which showed the land my ancestors owned in Nicollet County.
I also decided to conduct research on the ancestors of my great-grandmother, Mary Lundgren High, who hailed from the province of Dalsland in western Sweden. The historian from Nicollet County Historical Society put me in contact with a distant Swedish cousin of his, who conducted research on my Lundgren ancestors. I had this researcher find information on my great-grandmother’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. By the time his research was complete, I had enough material for a new chapter dedicated to my Lundgren ancestors. I also came in contact with distant relatives on the Lundgren side who were also helpful in providing me with more information and pictures.
Throughout the course of 2007, I spent hundreds of hours expanding my family history, incorporating all of the new information and photographs I had acquired. The chapters I had written on my great-great-grandparents and great-grandparents tripled in size, as did files on several relatives. By the summer of 2007, I was quite impressed with how much new material my book had!
The last major expansion I made to my book was to the first chapter on my Swedish ancestors. Although the information I had on the High’s Swedish ancestors was limited to basic items such as their names, children’s names, parents’ names, dates of birth, death, marriage, and places they lived, I realized that understanding the historical, geographical, economical, and cultural backdrop they lived in really shed a lot of light on what their lives were like! Thus, Iincluded new sections on18th and 19th Century rural Swedish life, basic information on Swedish weddings, Swedish holidays and festivals, Norse Mythology, Swedish folklore, and some old folktales collected from Småland, the area the High Family’s ancestors lived.
On December 22, 2007, work on the High Family 1726-2007: Second Edition was finally completed. The book was MUCH larger than the first, totaling over 600 pages! Whereas the first book was bound with spiral binding, the new second edition was hardbound, giving it the feel of an official, published book. My relatives were amazed by how much information I had acquired!
Although I definitely wanted to write a third edition of High Family history at some point, I decided that it would probably be at least a few years before such a book saw the light of day. My family had undergone such a transformation from the first to second edition that I likewise wanted a third edition to blow the second one out of the water. I wouldn’t actually start writing any new material related the High Family until May of 2011, a month before I journeyed to Sweden to visit the places my ancestors lived. That though, is a tale for another blog…
Having decided on writing a new chronicle of family history, I was faced with choosingthe scope I wanted the book to have. Of course, I would include the findings on our Swedish ancestors. What kind of material would I want to research and write about for the descendants of Sven and Anna Stina, though? What level of detail did I plan on including? Would this book incorporate many visuals, or would it be an updated version of the 1972 High book?
After thoroughly contemplating these considerations, I decided that the scope of my initial family history would includemore detailed information on fewer relatives instead of the basic birth, marriage, residence, and death information on all of the known descendants of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Andersdotter. After all, I could always update my family history to include information on more distant relatives.
Thus, I decided that first edition of family history would have four chapters:
• Chapter One would cover the High family’s Swedish ancestors.
• Chapter Two would be a biography on my great-great-grandparents, Gustaf Adolf and Anna Christina High, who immigrated to America in 1858.
• Chapter Threewould be a biography on my great-grandparents, Gustaf Aaron and Mary Lundgren High.
• Chapter Four would include biographies for all of the descendants of Gustaf Aaron and Mary Lundgren High.
Throughout the fall of 2006, I worked at least a couple of hours every day on my family book. In addition to providing brief biographies on my Swedish ancestors, I included a little bit of contextual information in the first chapter, such as an overview of 19th Century Swedish history and a description the geographical landscape of Småland, the area my family’s lived. I decided that I wanted my work to be very visually oriented, so I included illustrations on almost every page, including old Swedish church records, U.S. Census records, and old family photos. I also started getting in touch with distant relatives on the High side and interviewing them about their grandparents, parents, themselves, and their own families. I really enjoyed this aspect of my research, as it gave me an opportunity to get to know my extended relatives better. By that point in time, our family had ceased holding annual family reunions, so this was really one of the only opportunities I had to get to know my extended relatives. I set a deadline of Christmas for the release of my first edition, and I steadily worked more and more on it as the weather grew colder. By December, I spent around 30 hours a week on the project.
The High Family 1726-2006: First Edition was completed on December 23, only a couple of days shy of my deadline, and ended up being around 250 pages. I had several copies of the book printed, bound at Kinko’s, and mailed to several family members. This first edition was really a first draft; it lacked photographs of several family members, was plagued with numerous grammatical errors, and even included a bit of inaccurate information. However, the book succeeded in generating more interest among my family on our ancestry. Over the course of the next year, I received dozens of new pictures from family members, fixed numerous errors, and discovered a tremendous amount of more information on my ancestors. Only a couple of months after the High Family 1726-2006: First Edition was finished, work on the High Family 1726-2007: Second Edition began…
First, let’s look back at what the 1972 High Family book said about my Swedish ancestors:
Before crossing the Atlantic to search for old European records on our ancestors, it’s a good idea to have gathered all of the American records on them first. After all, we knowthat family histories aren’t 100% reliable, but official records (such as censuses) often have mistakes as well, such as when a person was born. The actual truth about an ancestor usually becomes more concrete with each record that is found, however, so it’s important to have as much information on them as possible before attempting to find records of them in the Old Country. Thus, I started my research on the High family by using Ancestry.com to verify the information the 1972 High Family book provided on the 4 children of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter.
To verify what the 1972 High Family book states on Sven and Anna Stina’s children, I’ll compare the information it gives on each of them to the records from the Swedish Lutheran Church, the church the four pioneers and their familiesattended after they immigratedto St. Peter, Minnesota. When I first started my research in 2006, I didn’t have the Swedish Lutheran Church, but you’ll notice that they verify the names and birth dates of all four children:
1. Margaret High Mann
Listing of Margaret High Mann in the 1972 High Family Book
Listing of Margaret High Mann’s family in the Swedish Lutheran Church
Notice that the same birth date for Margaret (also named Maja Greta) is listed on both records – April 8, 1830. The name and birth date for her husband, Jonas Mann, and children on the Swedish Lutheran Church records likewise matchwhat the High Family book lists. To the far right of Margaret’s name, the word “Linderås” is listed. Linderåsis the name of parish where Margaret was born in Sweden.
2. Gustaf Adolf High
Listing of Gustaf Adolf High in the 1972 High Family Book
Listing of Gustaf Adolf High’sfamily in the Swedish Lutheran Church
Likewise, the information here on my great-great-grandfather matches. It’s interesting to see that “Hög” is listed as Gustaf’s surname on this record. In fact, all Swedish names are given in these church records, rather than their English equivalents. Linderås is also given as the parish of Gustaf’s birth.
3. Sofia High Williamson
Listing of Sofia High Williamson in the 1972 High Family Book
Listing of Sofia High Williamson’sfamily in the Swedish Lutheran Church
What’s interesting here is that this church record shows that Sofia was born on July 14, 1842, not on July 14, 1833, as the High Family book suggests. The rest of the family information here matches, though.
4. Sven John High
Listing of Sven John High in the 1972 High Family Book
Listing of Sven John High’s family in the Swedish Lutheran Church
The High Family book got a couple of facts wrong on the youngest son of Sven Hög and Anna Stina Johansdotter. The suffix “III” can’t be found anywhere in Sven Johan’s name. Likewise, the place it states he was born at, “Kapela Ruskgard” is incorrect. Both of these errors appear to be minor misunderstandings, however. Everything else on Sven John’s family from the two sources matches.
Thus, outside of a couple of discrepancies, the Swedish Lutheran Church records validated the information given in the 1972 High Family book on Sven and Anna Stina’s children. This was enough information to enable my researcher to find records of my ancestors in Sweden.Records of Sven and Anna Stina’s family were found in Linderås, a parish located in northeastern Jönkoping County, Sweden.
Although there are a variety of different types of records that can be used for Swedish genealogy research, the most common ones are church records for baptisms, marriages, burials, and household examinations. Household examinations were designated to test the Biblical knowledge of a parish’s inhabitants, but they also serve as a census, listing the names of all of the residentsof a household, their date of birth, where they were born, and what year they moved to the parish.
A number of records for Sven and Anna Stina’sfamily can be found in Linderås Parish. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful records for their family is from the 1841-1846 Household Examinations. This record shows Sven and Anna Stina’s family living at Sörhemmet, a soldier’s croft at the farm of Kapela Ravelsgård. All four of their children are listed on this record, and their dates of birth correspond perfectly to what is written in the Swedish Lutheran Records. The names of two children who died in infancy are also listed on this record. In fact, the Sven and Anna Stina tragically had four children that died in infancy. At the bottom of the record is a listing of a maid named Maja Lena Andersdotter. I would later find out that she was Sven Hög’s youngest sister.
Every time I look at this tan record with its beautiful calligraphy, I’m filled with feelings of awe and fascination. It’s amazing to see the actual records of Sven and Anna Stina’s family from over 150 years ago!As with the records from the St. Peter Swedish Lutheran Church, I didn’t have access to the actual Swedish records until a couple of years ago. When I had research done on my Swedish ancestors back in the early days, photocopies of just a few selected records were sent to me, which fail to capture the essence of old 19th Century Sweden for me. In May of 2011, I was delighted to find Arkiv Digital, a company which offers digital images of all of the Swedish church records, as well as millions of other images.
Clerical record of Sven Hög and Anna StinaJohansdotter’s household from Sörhemmet, Kapela Ravesgård, Linderås Parish: 1841-1846
The last question I’ll answer in this blog is: How did the research find who Sven’s parents were? If you look to the right of Sven Hög’s name on the above record, you will see the text “Solberga 01 18/1” listed. This denotes that Sven was born in Solberga (now named Norra Solberga) Parish on January 18, 1801. Norra Solberga Parish is three parishes south of Linderås Parish. Thus, one merely has to browse through the church books for Norra Solberga to find a record of Sven’s birth.
Using the information from Linderås Parish’s Household Examinations, Sven’s baptism record was easy to find. However, Sven was born on January 28, 1801, not on January 18, 1801. According to this record, Sven was born at Sjöstorp, a croft (or cottage) at a farm called Havsvik in Norra Soberga.
Birth Record of Sven Andersson Hög –January 28th, 1801
Sven’s baptism record states that his parents were Anders Andersson and Maja Pehrsdotter. However, the Household Examination for the family at Sjöstorp shows that Sven’s mother was really named Maja (or Maria) Svensdotter. Every other record associated with Sven’s mother also shows that this was her name. The Household Examination for Anders Andersson and Maria Svensdotter’s family at Sjöstorp in 1809 also mistakenly denotes that Sven was born on January 8, 1801, instead of January 28th. In fact, every household examination that Sven is listed on erroneously indicates his birth date.
Despite a few discrepancies on the different records, there’s enough evidence to confirm that Sven’s parents were indeed Anders Andersson and Maria Svensdotter. There are also several more pieces of evidence which support this, but I feel that I’ve listed enough in this blog to make my point.
It’s interesting enough just to see one’sancestors names on 19th Century U.S. Census records. Viewing older European records that contain information on our ancestors is truly surreal! I just wish the generation of my grandfather could have lived to see these records.
From time to time, I spoke with my dad and my uncle about their direct paternal great-great-grandfather.Outside of what the 1972 High book mentioned on Sven, the only other speculation about him tied into his surname. TheEnglish translation of the Swedish word “hög” is “high.” When the four children of Sven Hög immigrated to America, they had their surnames changed to the English equivalent. Since the Swedish letter “ö” doesn’t exist in the English alpahabet,Sven’s children probably didn’t want to be called “hogs.” Henceforth, they had their surnames changed to “High” shortly after they arrived to America.
Sven wasn’t born with the surname Hög; it was assigned to him when he enlisted in the military. The word “hög” can also mean “tall” or “lofty.” Myfamily believed that the reason Sven was assigned this surname was because of his tall height. I remember my great-uncle, Chester High, once describing a family Bible that his grandfather, Gustaf High, owned, which had the surname “Swenson” inscribed on it. Because of this, it was assumed that Sven’s surname had been “Swenson” before he joined the military. Eventually, I would discover that both of those assumptions were false.
In 2005, one of my friends briefly worked for Ancestry.com.During this time, he set me up with an offer where Ancestry.com would conduct free research for any ancestor of my choosing. I saw this as an opporunity to find more information about Sven Hög. When a genealogist from Ancestry.com called me about this offer, I gave him the scant information the 1972 book listed about Sven. I never heard back from Ancestry.com about this, and assumed that there was no luck in finding anything about my ggg-grandfather. It seemed unlikely that any official information on Sven Hög would ever be found.
A year later, I was involved in a very bad car accident while driving cross-country through Kentucky. Although I was lucky enough to avoid any injuries, the event was quite traumatic. My car was demolished and if circumstances had been different, I could have been killed. In times of near death experiences like this, one often finds themselves re-examining their purpose in life. This certainly rang true for me, and the following four months was one of the most insightful and proactive times of my life.
Shortly after the accident,I discovered what a nightmare it can be dealing with an insurance claim for an out-of-state car accident when multiple insurance agencies are involved! Despite being given the run-around at least a dozen times by various insurance people on the phone, I refused to give up. Although my patience was wearing a little bit more every time I heard the words “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. Have you tried contacting so and so?” I knew that the sitation was far too pressing to give up on. I created a document in Microsoft Word where Iregularly kept detailed notes and ideas on my claim, starting calling insurance agents more frequently if they didn’t get back to me, and became more firm and assertive with them about my situation. After over twenty different phone conversations with different insurance agents, things finally came together and I received compensation for my totalled car.
Somewhere along this process, a random thought popped into my head: “What if I was this persistent in finding out more about Sven Hög and my paternal Swedish ancestry? I bet I might actually find something then!”At the time, I had no idea how much truth was in that statement!As I reflecton it, it feels like that random thought was divinely inspired.Little did I know, the amazing journey I was about to embark onwould change my life forever! Not only was I going to finally shed light on a mystery that had eluded my family for three generations, but I was about to enter into the remarkable and intricate world of genealogy!!
After I had finished dealing with my insurance claim, I decided to finally make the jump into the field of genealogy and see if I could unearth any new discoveries on Sven Hög and the High family’s Swedish ancestors. I joined Ancestry.com and entered all of the information from the 1972 High family book. Although Ancestry.com would later prove to be very helpful in learning more about the descendants of Sven Hög, it told me nother about the patriarch of the High family. Thus, I decided to look into another source. After typing “Swedish genealogy” in Google, I found a company which offered services in Swedish genealogy, which I proceeded to email.
Within a day after my email, I received the following response to my enquiry:
I immediately noticed that some of the information this researcher found conflicted with what was in the High Family book. For example, while the High Family book listed that Sven was born in 1799, this researcher found that he was born in 1801. Likewise, the name of Sven’s wife wasn’t listed as “Anna Kilstenia” but as “Anna Stina Johansdotter.” There was enough information, however, that matched (such as Sven’s death year, his occupationas a soldier, and the exact samedate for Sven and Anna Stina’s marriage) to convince me that this Sven Högwas indeed my ggg-grandfather. Thus, I happily authorized 10 hours of research to be conducted on my Swedish ancestors.
About a month later, I received one of the most exciting emails that has ever appeared in my Inbox – the results of my research! Not only was I given a brief summary of Sven and AnnaStina’s lives, but I also learned who their parents and grandparents were!! As I opened each attachment that was sent to me on my Swedish ancestors, my soul was brimming with feelings of excitement. It was a bit surreal to read over information that my grandfather’s generation had spent decades trying to find!