Short: “Converting Riksdaler to Dollar in 1850” by Bryan Soderberg ~ SGSC Member. Please find a handout under “Research and Mentoring/Members only”.
When SGSC member Brian Rapp wanted to know what 2000 in Swedish Currency was worth in US currency in 1851 when his ancestors sold their Farm in Sweden, Bryan Soderberg began a search for the answer.
The riksdaler was the name of a Swedish coin first minted in 1604. Sweden was the first in Europe to introduce the paper notes in 1661. It was followed by the founding of the Riksbank, the world’s oldest central bank. Between 1777 and 1873, the riksdaler was the currency of Sweden. The daler, like the dollar, was named after the German Thaler.
The Swedish Krona was introduced in 1873, replacing the Riksdaler at par. The currency was introduced as a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union with Norway and Denmark.
Bryan Torbjörn Per Olof Soderberg was born on Sept. 6, 1954 in Stockholm and grew up in that city and in Åsarna and Ostersund, Jamtland, in central Sweden
Bryan came to the U.S. in 1972 as an exchange student in Grand Forks High School in Minnesota where he received a high school diploma. Following his graduation from his school, Wargentinsskolan, in Ostersund in 1974 he studied aerospace engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm until 1976 when he returned to America to study Aerospace Engineering at Northrop University, Inglewood, CA receiving his BS in 1977.
He continued his studies while working in the aerospace industry and received his MS from USC in 1984. This year is significant because he also became a U.S. citizen. In 1987, Bryan married Maryann Wizda whom he had met at the Swedish Folkdance Club.
In 2007 Bryan and his family relocated to Denver when his company, McDonnell Douglas, merged with Lockheed to form “United Launch Alliance”.
Bryan and Maryann have two daughters. In 2011 they organized the Swedish Folkdance Club of Denver.
Program: “The Naturalization Process” by guest speaker Carol Darrow, past CGS president, certified genealogist, and author.
Becoming a citizen of the U.S. was a three-step process that took five years or more to complete. Finding records of naturalization can help you learn when and where your ancestors arrived in the U.S., help identify family members, and perhaps help to identify where and when your ancestor was born.
Naturalization records are often overlooked by genealogists, however, because they can be difficult to locate and understand. To gain a better insight into these records, it is helpful to understand the three-step process involved in gaining US citizenship.
1. Declaration of Intention -First Papers.
2. Petition for Naturalization- Second or Final Papers
3. Certificate of Naturalization
Becoming a citizen was not always easy and finding naturalization records can be a challenging task.
Carol Cooke Darrow is a Certified Genealogist who works as a lecturer and researcher. She has a degree in history from the University of Texas and has been a Certified Genealogist since 2005. She is the co-author of The Genealogist’s Guide to Researching Tax Records published in 2007. She is past president of CGS (Colorado Genealogical Society).