Swedish American Historical Society of Wisconsin

One area of focus for Swedish American Historical Society of Wisconsin is to document unique stories from people in Wisconsin of Swedish descent. These stories may be about the life in Sweden, the journey and immigration to America or life after settling in Wisconsin.

The following story is told by Karen Snowberg. Karen was born in Wisconsin but spent most of her adult life in Westchester County, New York.  During 25 years of membership in the Vasa Order of America, she has served in many officer positions in the local, district and the Grand Lodge levels. She is the Grand Lodge Past Cultural Director for the USA & Canada and is currently serving her 10th year as Secretary on the Board of Directors of the Vasa Order of America National Archives.  Karen’s many trips to Sweden allowed her to learn quite a bit about her family history on Öland. With an advanced degree in the performance of Renaissance and Baroque music, Karen has been a dedicated church musician all her life, coaching choirs, recorder ensembles and brass groups to enhance the worship service. Moving back to Wisconsin Karen became a SAHSWI member in 2022. This is Karen’s story about her great uncle Herman Miller Snöberg.

The youngest brother became a world traveler

  “When I first visited Degerhamn on Öland with my brother and his wife, we met many descendants of my mother’s grandmother.  One of these relatives, Gösta Wahlgren, was the town historian who had organized a small museum for the records, photos, and other things he had collected to preserve the history of Degerhamn.  He was able to fill in the background of our grandmother who left Sweden at 16 to emigrate to America. 

In telling us about our grandmother’s family, Gösta mentioned that he had lost track of her younger brother, Herman, who had run away to sea as a teenager.  Gösta asked us if we would try to trace him in the United States.  Over the years since, I have found ship’s records of Herman’s various entries into the U.S. and his application for citizenship.  This year I found a number of documents detailing his life as a seaman, as well as his death certificate.  The following is a synopsis of his life.  I feel that I’ve finally found Herman, the youngest and lost brother.

Herman Wilhelm Snöberg was born December 20^th, 1891, the last of the six children of Anders Gustaf Snöberg and Sophia Mathilda Norberg.  His oldest sibling Emma Sofie had already emigrated to Minneapolis, MN four years before he was born.  His other sister Wilhelmina followed Emma when Herman was ten.”

The rest of the story…press the link below.

The Youngest Brother Becomes a World Traveler

On the SAHSWI website you can also find previously published immigration stories. Brent Erikson’s immigration story was first told by his grandmother Sarah, Carol Gustafson story is about her great great niece and famous opera singer Christina Nilsson, Bev Wenzel‘s story is about how the Spanish Flue affected her family in Sweden, and Martha Bergland’s story is about her ancestor Anders Berglund who arrived at Bishop Hill in 1847 to join the Swedish colony there. To read these stories go to the following page:

These are all unique stories all related to our membership. If you have a story to tell about your family’s Swedish heritage and/or immigration, please contact Martha Bergland and she will help preparing it for publication. Martha’s contact info: email marthasbergland@gmail.com or through postal mail: Martha Bergland, 7460 North Longview Avenue, Glendale WI 53209.