Linda Girardi writes in the The Beacon News Online (Chicago) about a promise a woman made to her father concerning their family history and his genealogy research:
After four years of scouring family records and visiting her family’s Swedish ancestral homeland, as well as discovering relatives for the first time, Nelson is now fulfilling her father’s wishes by publishing the family’s history in a 400-page book written in two languages.
“My father began knowing very little about where his family came from in Sweden, and he just decided he was going to put it all together for everybody,” Nelson said.
When Daniel Nelson was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he asked his daughter to complete what he started. Nelson died in November 2001.
“He asked me to please finish his project,” Nelson said. “Of course, I said yes. At that point I would have done anything. (My family’s heritage) began to interest me.”
The end result is the dual-language 400-page book already mentioned, closer ties between the American and Swedish branches of their family, and a family reunion involving around 200 people from the US and Sweden. It’s a good article about how much can be accomplished these days.