myHERITAGE HAPPENS

If you have been following along with this adventure already, I thank you! If you are new to my blog or aren't up to date with this series of posts, I suggest you go back and read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , and Part 4 before continuing on here with Part 5. March 5, 2011 I received an email stating: "Thank you for your audition for The Great Swedish Adventure! Your profile and responses have been submitted to the casting decision-makers working on the project, and they're eager to see your videos. If you're selected for the next round of casting, you'll be contacted directly." Finally, I had completed the audition! This seemed like a chore to me by the time I finished this step. Originally, I was emailed the audition information on March 1st. As I believe I stated in Part 4, my mind set was that I needed to get a webcam and I wasn't about to spend the money, besides an online audition made me very nervous for some reason. Therefore I lagged complet

Ok, so... there are those who think I am trying to torture them or something by not getting to the "meat of this" adventure sooner. I have been thinking about that. I can understand exactly how someone would feel that way! If I were kicking back reading these posts on someone else's blog, I too would want to know the end result ASAP! So, I thought about bringing you to the here and now, the matters at hand for this very day, giving you the whole enchilada! But as quickly as I thought about doing that, I immediately decided, I can't. That would be so unfair. You wouldn't get to go along and experience this journey with me, as I had to do it, which was little bits at a time, and a lot of waiting! So, no dice! The excursion is for you to follow. Now, let's see where did I leave off? Oh yes! The company sent me an email message informing me I had been chosen for the second round up! What did the second round up entail? Well, I read this one and it made me laugh!

In case you missed them, here are  Part 1 and Part 2  which will help Part 3 make more sense! February 28, 2011 I received an email from a representative of the TV program. She thanked me for my application and interest in the Great Swedish Adventure. She stated this as being " a new exciting reality television series that will be shot and broadcasted in Sweden."   Then she informed me that I had been chosen for the "Second Round Up!"  Seriously? Wow, this was a real surprise! So now what? Well, she said they want to learn more about me and my "Swedish cultural heritage." Ok. I can understand that, I wonder what I need to do for this, the second round up? I was given information on the casting process ~ Chosen participants for the Great Swedish adventure will compete in extreme cultural challenges to discover their rich and fascinating roots while trying to win the grand prize; MEETING THEIR SWEDISH RELATIVES ! This is my dream right no

Hopefully you have read Great Swedish Adventure ~ Part 1 , as that will bring you up to speed for part 2! After I sent in the application it was about a week later that I received an email from "The Company" . There was a several page information packet they wanted me to fill out. Was this all for real? I never felt this was a "hokey" deal ( which I very well could have ) only because it had been brought to my attention by two very trustworthy individuals, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Yvonne Henriksson . When I first read the advertisement, it was almost unbelievable to me because this was exactly what I was working on at the time, getting to Sweden, somehow. If you are unaware, I have a distant cousin in Sweden who found my blog last year. We have been in constant contact since that time. I couldn't tell you who was more excited about the connection, him or I. We have shared information, pictures, questions and even brick walls. He wasn't as heav

On February 16, this is what it said: "Cool opportunity for Americans of Swedish heritage!"  This was a post on Facebook, which also included a link and more information, by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak . I remember replying to her post telling her that I have Swedish heritage. She said she wished she did. On February 20th, I received a message on Facebook from Yvonne Henricksson , who is the blogger at "Swedish Thoughts" and actually lives in Sweden. She was aware that I have Swedish heritage and wanted to inform me of an e-mail she received relating to the same opportunity that Megan had posted. She thought I, or maybe some friends of mine, would be interested in this offer. The producers of the Swedish version of "American Idol" and "Minute to win it" are coming to America to find people for their new reality show called ~   GREAT SWEDISH ADVENTURE Do you have Swedish ancestors? Do you have a dream to see Sweden? Do you have an urge t

I have be given the "One Lovely Blog Award," not once, not twice, but three times! I wish to thank Christine-rootsresearcher from So That's Where I Get it From , Margel from 2338 Washington Blvd and Wendy B from Shaking Leaves:My adventures in Genealogy for thinking so kindly of Heritage Happens when giving out this award! I truly feel honored and appreciated, thank you all so much! This of course comes with rules for accepting the award, they are as follows: 1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.  2. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. 3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them  know they have been chosen for this award. Here are the 15 blogs I chose, in no particular order~ A Forest of Oakes A Sense of Family A Multitude of -sens Beyond the Home GeneaMania Gol Gol Girl Genealogy Simple & Fun Leaves For Trees Those Old Memories The Live

Free B Kins Free Web Graphics I have been saying for a couple weeks now that my life could be consumed by webinars! They have been popping up like crazy this month! The webinars have taken a bit of time to sign up for, simply because there are so many. I thought I had signed up for every webinar being offered, but I was disappointed in that I missed a couple that were actually broadcast today. If you haven't hooked yourself up to any of the webinars yet, you need to check out everything that is being offered, they are free! Webinars have been offered from Roots Magic , Legacy , Lisa Alzo , Michael Hait , and DearMYRTLE among others. DearMYRTLE made it easy for us by setting up  GeneaWebinars , the one stop shop to see them all! Easy and free, what more could we want? Oh yes, to sign up! Thomas MacEntee, Mr. GeneaBlogger himself, started GeneaBloggers BlogTalkRadio which airs Friday nights. It starts one hour prior to the  "Who Do You Think You Are"  episode,7:00pm p

Karin Lundberg, unknown infant. Photo emailed to me from Sweden February 10, 2011 by Jan Lundberg. Karin Lundberg is my great grand aunt in law. Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!  Copyright © 2011 Cheryl Palmer

Recently I have been communicating with a new Westby cousin from Washington state. Today, I was looking at some of the information I already had on some of these relatives. One page, a copy of 12th Federal Census for the Westby's intrigued me. I have had a copy of this for some time now and was aware of some things on this paperwork, but not of others. I was aware this particular 1900 census page lists three different Westby families. I haven't worked much with the Washington Westby's, so I hadn't really looked closer at this record until now. One of the Westby families listed is Ole T. Westby with his wife and children. Ole T. was my great grand uncle. I am aware there was an Ole T. and an Ole A. Westby which lived on the same road in Washington. Both of their families are listed on this census, along with an Erling Westby. For now though, I am just looking at the Ole T. Westby family. His wife was Helena. There are seven children, two sons and five daughters, Torv