Family Connections Continued

   Spring is here in Venice, Forida and the new leaves on our oak trees are so beautiful and green. I am using Family Tree Maker (FTM) and those green leaves are also beautiful as they have helped me gain new information for my Norwegian families: Bjerknes and Horgen.
   While I am not a shy person, taking a step to contact a stranger is not easy for me. However, once I do take the step, I look forward to getting a response and hope some of my questions are answered. I was so excited when Gerd Rabben responded very quickly in February!
   Since Gerd's responce to me, she has found many records and sent them to me for both Bjerknes and Horgen families. I also sent Bjerknes information to Gerd that she was missing. As a result of our collaboration, Gerd discovered that we have a common ancestor making us distant cousins: 10th cousins, 2 times removed. I now have a lot of new information to add in to my tree.
  I am very thankful the Digital Archives records have so much great information. I am able to access the Archives in English and the webpage translates to English. I wish I could read Norwegian.

Scandinavian SIG meeting

About Scandinavian Special Interest Group (SIG) of Englewood Genealogy Society  of FL (EGSF)

   The EGSF Scandinavian SIG is unique as many are seasonal Florida residents, November - April. When they leave FL, the majority go to the midwest.
   We met again last Wednesday with Laila and will meet again April 12th. We are meeting at Elsie Quirk Library (EQL). 
   When we started to meet in January, I was under the impression the majority were researching Norwegian ancestors. However, quite a few are also researching Swedish roots and one researching Danish roots.We also discovered many of us are researching Chicago, IL ancestors!
   EQL is wireless and connecting to the internet is slow. The library has the library edition to Ancestry, but access is on their computers. Fortunately, almost all in the SIG have an Ancestry subscription. All but one had a wireless laptop when we met. We researched using the Digital Archives, Ancestry  and http://www.stevenmorse.org/ working individually or in small groups. Laila assisted members with reseach and answered questions. Immigration and  passenger lists/ship manifests were also researched.
   It was a great meeting and we are looking for our next meeting.