Program
“The Fewer, The Prouder…The Wikgren Soldiers”
Claire Wikgren Schaeffer, SGSC Member
The presentation will focus on the period of the Great Northern War, an event and time period that defined both Sweden and Russia. In the course of this presentation you will encounter various soldiers – their names, their families, their relationships – as well as the hard times in which they lived.
Claire Wikgren Schaeffer
Claire is a native-born Denverite and a 2nd-generation American. Her Wikgren ancestors come from the far north of Sweden in the parish of Piteå in Norrbotten. In the course of researching family, she has discovered 154 soldiers (as of this writing). While looking at their families, she has uncovered what might be construed as a culture of the military among northerners. Finding what might be construed as singular among members of our group, she is interested in prompting further research into the topic of Swedish soldiers.
Short
“Mystery Postcard”
Karen Rademacher, SGSC Member
The postcard was sent to my great-grandfather from a previously unknown cousin. A clue on the front of the postcard and help from city directories, a census, and a family tree posted on Ancestry led me to a whole branch of the family that I never knew about!
Karen Rademacher
Karen has been interested in genealogy since the late 1970’s, when an aunt on her mom’s side of the family self-published a book about her Swedish and Scottish/English ancestry. Karen took this as a challenge to research her dad’s side of the family, which is all Swedish. In 2013, she traveled with her husband and parents to Sweden and visited all of their ancestral villages and churches. Karen joined SGSC in 2014 and is currently the SGSC webmaster.
Karen grew up in Arvada and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Civil Engineering. Karen and her husband Dale have four grown children and live in rural Weld County. She works at Northern Water in Berthoud as a water resources engineer.