Guest speaker Lilly Setterdahl will present her latest book: “Not my time to die: Titanic and the Swedes on board”, describing her research to find the 34 surviving Swedes out of the 123 Swedes on board.
She will also talk about the Swedish-American church records that she and her husband, Lennart Setterdahl, microfilmed while travelling around USA. Furthermore she will talk about the thousands of interviews with Swedish immigrants that Lennart Setterdahl taped in USA during several decades.
Lilly Setterdahl was born in Frändefors, Dalsland, where she did her first writing. In 1959, she settled in Cleveland, Ohio, with her family. Having moved to East Moline, Illinois, in 1971, she attended college and taught Swedish. In 1978-79, she worked at the Emigrant Institute in Växjö as family researcher. In 1981-85, she was the researcher at the Swenson Center, Augustana College in Rock Island.
She assisted her husband, Lennart Setterdahl, as he inventoried and microfilmed Swedish American church records and interviewed Swedish Americans. After her husband’s passing in 1995, she processed his huge collections, including nearly 3,000 interviews with Swedish Americans in North America.
Lilly has written 16 books about Swedes in America. Her latest book, Not my time to die: Titanic and the Swedes on board, was published this year. She is currently working on another book. Lilly has three sons and six grandchildren in three different countries.