SGSM members enjoy Tidningen for its educational and interesting articles and images. Although your SGSM membership offers many benefits, members often refer to their SGSM membership as their “Tidningen membership”. Our members know a good thing when they see it and so does the National Genealogical Society (NGS). NGS has announced that they have selected Tidningen as the winner of the 2024 NGS Newsletter Competition for societies with less than 500 members. NGS conducts this competition to honor excellence in newsletters edited by volunteers and published by genealogical/historical societies. It takes talented and dedicated editors like Cindy Wentland (2022-24), and before her Ron Swanson (1997-2021), to plan, organize, coordinate and produce a highly regarded newsletter like Tidningen.

We celebrate this award and thank all the volunteers who have contributed. Besides the articles that some of you write and contribute, there are many functions that need to be performed to edit, proofread and fact-check articles, do page layout, find relevant images, optimize the images, compile upcoming events for the calendar, etc. You might say “it takes a village”. This is even more important now since Cindy will be stepping down as Tidningen Editor at the end of 2024. This creates an opportunity for another member to fill that role as well.

If any of these activities sound interesting, we would love to have you on the Tidningen Committee. Even if you don’t have any direct experience in publishing a newsletter, you might have relevant experience or training, or you could even learn some new skills. If you have any questions or interest in this, please email president@sgsmn.org or go to our Volunteer page for more information.

February 23

DNA: Issues for Scandinavian-Americans

DNA can be the key to breaking through many genealogical brick walls. But it can be a complicated genealogical source to use, and can pose special difficulties for Scandinavian researchers. This presentation will look at topics such as ethnicity estimates, endogamy, patronymics, and Scandinavian history. We will also compare ...

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March 28

Mark Granquist - Why Swedes Left Their Homeland and the History of the Augustana Synod in the USA

Dr. Mark Granquist will explore the forces that drove Swedish emigration and examine the impact Swedish immigrants had in Minnesota. The talk includes an overview of the Augustana Synod and how life in the New World shaped Swedish Lutheran religious beliefs. Mark A. Granquist is the Lloyd and Annelotte ...

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May 30

Wendy Biorn - Why Andrew Peterson Settled in Minnesota and How His Diaries Influenced Vilhelm Moberg

This presentation traces Andrew Peterson’s journey to Minnesota and the discovery of his diaries by Vilhelm Moberg, which later informed his classic novel The Emigrants. About 2010, the Carver County Historical Society inherited a property once owned by Swedish immigrant Andrew Peterson. Peterson immigrated from Ydre Sweden in 1850. First ...

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