KATHY MEADE

 Kathy is the North American representative for ArkivDigital, a company that offers online access to newly photographed color images of Swedish historical records. She has been working with Swedish genealogy for nearly twenty years. Ms. Meade serves on the advisory board for the Swedish American Genealogy Research Center at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago. She volunteers at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago and the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington Heights, Illinois helping patrons with their Swedish genealogical research 

• Swedish-American Church Books – Great Genealogical Resource! Saturday at 10:15AM
• Swedish Emigration Resources: Saturday at 3:15 PM
• Swedish Genealogy in a Computer World: Saturday at12:45

Swedish-American Church Books – Great Genealogical Resource! – Kathy Meade; Basic, Intermediate; (Saturday at 10:15 AM)

Many Swedes who immigrated to North America (the United States and Canada) joined a Swedish-American Church. While most of these congregations were Lutheran, there were also Swedish Covenant, Swedish Methodist, Swedish Baptist, Swedish Mission, and other free churches. Many of these churches kept detailed records as they did in Sweden. These records are an excellent source to discover where the person came from in Sweden and, in some cases, trace internal migration within North America.
 

This presentation will highlight the history of Swedish-American churches, the various denominations, what records were kept, and where you can find these records online and offline. We will review a few records to show the immense detail that some of these churches kept.

Swedish Emigration Resources – Kathy Meade; Basic, Intermediate; (Saturday at 3:15 PM)

Between 1820 and 1930, it is estimated that more than 1.2 million people emigrated from Sweden. Most went to North America. This presentation will describe the reasons for departure, travel routes, and destinations. We will look at Swedish emigration records, such as moving-out records, passenger ship manifests, and other Swedish sources. We will also look at records to discover where the Swedish emigrants moved to in North America.

 Swedish Genealogy in a Computer World – Kathy Meade; Basic, Intermediate; (Saturday at 12:45 PM)

This lecture highlights the websites available for Swedish research, including Swedish genealogy guides, learning videos, dictionaries, maps, Swedish-American church records, emigration resources (ship passenger indexes), images of original Swedish records (church, probate, military, and tax), Swedish census records, grave records, telephone directories, translation tools, and other helpful sites.