Presentation

My name is Anders Köhler. I was born in 1956. My home is outside Norrköping, a city in the South of Sweden not very far from Stockholm. I have been researching genealogy and family trees since 1993 and I have been extremely interested in genealogy since I was a child. To gain an insight into the history of one´s family at different levels of society throughout the centuries has always been and still is, for me, a fascinating journey.

I would like to send my deeply felt gratitude to all these ancestors of mine, both men and women, for the talents and abilities they have demonstrated throughout the ages. It is due to them that I have had the privilege to be born, end it is through their training and upbringing from generation to generation, both for good and for evil, that I have become the person I am today. Some of these ancestors was the swedish king Gustav Vasa, his son king Erik XIV and his daughter, my 11th great grand´mother born and raised at the castle Tre Kronor in Stockholm.

For about twenty years I have been running Köhler´s Genealogical Travel Service. This is a company which mainly addresses itself to Swedish Americans who wich to contact lost or unknown relatives in Sweden. I can, of course, assist with other research as well if desired.

A real high point in this work is when you pick up the phone and call an American client and give him or her greetings from a lost relative in Sweden.

One case I recall particularly well was a farmer from the Mid-West who had decided to travel to Sweden when he was quite old to look for relatives. His paternal great grandfather had emigrated to the USA in his youth. I was given the necessary information and started my research. I soon discovered that the farmer´s grandfather was a farmer´s boy from Scania in the South of Sweden and that the farm was now owned by the great grandfather´s brother´s great-great-grandchildren. All the Swedish American gentleman had to do was get on a plane to Copenhagen, rent a car and drive across to the Swedish side of the sound to the farm where his grandfather was born. The farmer stayed with his wife in an old cottage on the property, and believe it or not, his grandfather´s cradle was still there on the farm! This was a truly successful occasion for everyone concerned.

 

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