I wanted to start my blog post by introducing some background into why I was drawn into this trip and why it is such an exciting team to be apart of. From a young age I have always been taught that family comes first. The part that I always felt was missing from the equation is the knowledge of where my family has been and what led us to where we are today. My parents had always told me our family traced back to the Scandinavia region of the world, but could never pinpoint where. Well the Fall of my Junior year, I finally found a piece of that puzzle. My great uncle (Maternal Side) has a document that traces the family lineage all the way back to 1799. This is the earliest record that I have on my family and according to state records both sets of parents of (Klocker) Erick Erickson and Anna Ersdatter Modig (Moody) lived in the Dalarna county of Sweden, which by the map you can see is right in the middle of the country! On June 20th 1868 Erick and Anna arrived in Minnesota, where they settled down and lived until their deaths.

All this to say, when I found out about the Sweden trip, I was drawn to it because my family line starts there. All the fun business interactions and touristy things will be a blast also, but I think one of the biggest take aways from me is to see the place where it all began. I am still searching for answers and tracing the line back on my fathers side of the family, but with a last name of Larson, I am confident that that line will trace back to Sweden as well.

Until next time, Farväl