Dear Readers:
I have told a number of you that my stories and books are based largely on the lives of my ancestors. As a longtime genealogy addict, I find over and over that truth is stranger than fiction. Researching the lives of those who have gone before us provides wonderful material for characters, and stories that may have been forgotton.

In writing Sverige Nights, I was fortunate to come across an old family letter, written by a son of Karolina Magnuson in his old age. His details about Karolina and her memories of Sweden provided many of the details in the book. I supplemented this letter with a photograph of my late grandfather's, of Minnie (Bryngelson) Trones on her wedding day in 1897.

I researched 19c Sweden and the Great Migration for some months, using both printed reference sources and the Internet. What I found was surprising; although most of us know that our immigrant ancestors left great hardships in Europe, very few know just how harsh the conditions in Sweden actually were. In Karolina's case, she was sold into indenture for a period of 5 years. Her year's pay was a pair of shoes.

My relative recounted how Karolina rarely talked of Sweden, and surmised how she was haunted by its conditions and homesick for her family, whom she would never see again. Her husband, Andrew Bryngelson, actually came from Norway, just across the border, from a much better-off family. He was much more optimistic about the New World he found in Granite Falls, Minnesota, and very progressive for his time.

I am indebted to family members, including my grandparents and mother, who took time to archive family stories from the past in the midst of their busy lives. I have a sense of admiration for these long gone ancestors, whose brave voyage across the sea set the foundation for my own American life. And I have a newfound love of Sweden, this magnificent and ironic country of my family. I hope my readers will come away from the book with some of that love.
Sverige Nights
by Julie Sandland
RFI West Publishing
ISBN: 1-58697-338-X
in html, pdf, and Ms. Reader
forthcoming in trade paperback
order at: www.rfiwest.com