I Emigranternas spår

This book highlights 35 years of travels in North America to microfilm historical records and tape personal memories of Swedish immigrants and their descendants, an accomplishment which has greatly benefited genealogical researchers. Read about the man behind this unprecedented effort, Lennar Setterdahl, and his family. It begins in 1959 Cleveland, Ohio, and the voluntary recording of interviews in the 1960s in northeastern Ohio and  the western pats of Pennsylvania and New York. The story continues in 1969 when Lennart was engaged by he Swedish Emigrant Institute to locate, inventory, and microfilm Swedish-American church records, a project which was later expanded to include secular societies, periodicals, not-for-profit organizations and companies founded by Swedes, as well as private collections. The work necessitated travels by car through every state in the continental United States and some Canadian provinces. From 1972, the Setterdahl home base was in East Moline, Illinois. During the years 1985-1994, Lennart devoted his time to recording oral histories. The author presents a colorful story of the first-hand travel experiences, tribulations, and rewards connected with the work, placing it in a geographical and historical context. Of the thousands of Swedish Americans whom the Settedahls met during their travels, the author sketches vignettes of more than one hundred individuals. But perhaps foremost, the book is  the story of the author's own immigrant family that constantly had to adjust and pull together to achieve extraordinary results.
(From the back of  the book which was published in Mellerud Sweden in 2002. Available at Melleruds Museum, Dalsland.) For sales in the U.S., please contact the author.


I Emigranternas spår: Människor vi mött 1959-1995 handlar om våra liv i USA från ankomståret till och med det år som Lennart gick bort.  Boken berör mest de resor som jag var med på tvärsöver den stora kontinenten.  Under tiden lärde jag mig mycket om de svenska invandrarna och deras boplatser.  Våra barn fick också en bra uppfattning om landets storlek och hur utspridda svenskarna var.
Lennarts karriär som bevarare av svenskamerikanarnas historia kröntes med ett hedersdoktorat vid Göteborgs universitet 1990. Vår sista resa tillsammans gick till Sydney, Australien, där han genomförde sitt sista uppdrag medan cancern tärde på hans krafter.
Jag skrev boken till hans minne och den utkom i Mellerud, Sweden, 2002. Bilderna på framsidan visar några av våra private  bilar som slets ut under alla tjänsteresor.  (In Sweden, the book is available at Melleruds Museum, Dalsland.)