In my last post, I shared a screen shot of a record I’ve been looking for, for a long time. It was so exciting to find it, but unfortunately, I could not figure out what it said! I was staring at the names of another generation of ancestors without being able to read it.

That’s when I turned to social media, Facebook to be exact. I have over the last year or so joined a wide variety of genealogy groups, local historical society pages, and specific family groups, as well. I have rarely, if ever, posted in these groups. I finally decided now was the time to ask for assistance with translating this record. I joined the Swedish American Genealogy Group and posted my query.

Not only did several people respond within an hour, they helped me translate the text and also linked another record to the family. The generosity and shared interest in the group is phenomenal. To be honest, most of the genealogy and history groups I follow are the same way.

While, I couldn’t tell anything about what was going on in the 4th column a few days ago. I can now tell you that my 2nd great-grandfather, Carl Victor Johansson was born in Högsby, Sweden on January 26, 1845. He was baptized February 2nd. AND his parents were Jonas (Johan) Peter Samuelsson and Eva Lisa Danielsdotter of Kisebast. I was able to find out more about each parent through the help of the link shared by a kind person in the Facebook group. I’ve added Eva Lisa’s parents too! I am still searching for Jonas (Johan) Peter Samuelsson’s family.

If you haven’t tried using the help of social media on your brick-wall ancestors, I highly recommend it! If nothing else, you’re bound to get in touch with other people who share your genealogy obsession.