A Journey Through The Past

Exploring ancestral roots in Sweden proved to be the trip of a lifetime

- Janet Jones

This summer we were able to take the trip of a lifetime to one of our ancestral homes. Our great-grandparents were Peter and Gölin Ringwall. In 1883, as newlyweds, they left the small village of Överhogdal in the Härjedalen province of Northern Sweden to begin a new life farming near Cooperstown, N.D. Gölin’s parents and siblings also settled in North Dakota and Minnesota over the next five years. In 1900, Peter and Gölin became pioneers once again and moved to a recently-opened-up territory in what would become Alberta. They settled on the shores of Red Deer Lake, south of Wetaskiwin and started a second farm. They had ten children, two died of tuberculosis, but the other eight married and had families. Our grandmother was the fourth daughter, Minnie, who married Cliff Frickelton. We are the four children of their daughter, Jeanne, who married Bill Karney.

Several years ago, I began correspondence with a man in Sweden, a talented family historian named Thomas Sievertsson. Thomas told me so much about our family’s Swedish home and history that a longing grew in me to visit the place of our Swedish origins. He also introduced me to the fascinating world of DNA research. Thomas figured out that we (at the closest) are sixth cousins. I planned the trip initially with my sister, Tricia Hein, and then our brothers and wives, Bryan and Joy Karney, and Ron and Jeanette Karney decided to join us.