Norden Women’s Club holds member guest dinner
Karen E. Livsey, Editor-In-Chief of Swedish American Genealogist, presented recent genealogical research of the Goranson Family and legends in the establishment of music education in Jamestown Public Schools in 1924.
Nancy Jones, Membership Chairman, presented yellow roses to new members Bonnie Larkin and Brenda Johnson. Also pictured is Brenda Fitzgerald, President.
Karen E. Livsey, Editor-In-Chief of Swedish American Genealogist, presented recent genealogical research of the Goranson Family and legends in the establishment of music education in Jamestown Public Schools in 1924.
Nancy Jones, Membership Chairman, presented yellow roses to new members Bonnie Larkin and Brenda Johnson. Also pictured is Brenda Fitzgerald, President.
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The Norden Women's Club began its 111th year recently with a member-guest dinner in the Park Room at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel.
Brenda Fitzgerald and Marla Oste served as hostesses for the 60 members and guests in attendance. Fitzgerald welcomed everyone and introduced Birgitta Hofert, who gave the invocation. A moment of silence was observed in memory of Doris Landy, Gale Peterson, Janice Peterson and Sharon Garrison.
Maria Malmstrom introduced Karen E. Livsey, editor-in-chief of the Swedish American Genealogist, the official journal of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center located at Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill.
Livsey's interest in researching Swedish genealogy began with her desire to know more about her own family. She has been involved locally with the Hall House Research Center associated with the Fenton History Center as well as an annual attendee of the Swedish American Genealogist research trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, now in its 35th year. During her presentation she shared the aspects of the investigations afforded by new technologies as well as frustrations caused by difficult, archaic handwriting, birth names being different from christening records, and actual dates of events being different from the date recorded.
Swedish record keeping was rooted in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which became Sweden's official church. Beginning in the 17th century, parish clergy recorded births, christenings, marriages, and deaths for the entire population. They also conducted annual household examinations that documented the head of household and occupation, address, names and birth dates of family members, and each person's progress in learning the catechism. When individuals moved from one parish to another, they obtained transfer papers from the clergy. After a person's death, probate records listed valuables owned by the deceased – often gold, silver, copper, or warm clothing – as well as property, debts, and all legal heirs.
Of particular interest to those involved in music education in Jamestown Public Schools was the cover story, The Goranson/Johnson Connection, in SAG Vol. 45, No. 1, 2025. Livsey was contacted by a descendant, Brian R. Samuelson, researching Ebba Goranson, founder of the Jamestown High School A Cappella Choir, a membership that remains active in its 102nd year. That same year, her brother, Arthur R. Goranson, established the Jamestown High School Band and Orchestra. The Goranson Bandshell in Allen Park was dedicated in 1966 in honor of both siblings. The article traces the family's genealogy beginning in 1837 in Halland, Sweden, and follows their journey to Jamestown, New York.
The same volume of SAG includes an article by Per Ragnarson, a Swedish man now deceased, who owned a small 220-year-old farmhouse in the village of Käglinge, on the outskirts of Malmö. Now maintained by villagers as a meeting place, the farmhouse is featured in "Emigrant Lindberg Found His Birthplace! A Small Farm in Skåne with a History from Napoleon's War in 1813 to D-Day 1944." The article explains that Alton Lindberg visited the house in 1987 and told the owner he had been born there in 1916. The owner researched and verified the claim and discovered that Lindberg served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 aboard the first ship to arrive at Utah Beach on D-Day. Alton's great-great-grandfather, Anders Orkan, lived in the same village and fought with the Swedish cavalry at the Battle of Leipzig, which contributed to Napoleon's defeat. Livsey obtained photographs for the article from Alton's daughter, Nancy Lindberg Nordwall, a Norden Club member who attended the dinner. Livsey noted that it was unusual to receive two articles within a close time period discussing Jamestown legacies.
Nancy Jones, membership chairwoman, presented yellow roses to two new members, Bonnie Larkin of Sinclairville, and Brenda Johnson of Jamestown. The evening concluded with Karen Bjorkholm winning the drawing for $25.00.
The next member-guest luncheon of the Norden Women's Club will be held Saturday Oct. 3, at the James Prendergast Library's Fireplace Room. For information and reservations contact Maria Malmstrom at 716-708-7226 or Yvonne Roman at 716-640-3691.