On this page I'll provide a little information about who I am and what inspired me to do this research. Most of this
information was obtained from talking to living relatives, reading old letters, and from researching public records both in
the U.S.A. and in Sweden. In the course of doing this research, I've discovered that I have many more relatives than
I ever thought possible!
My name is Russell Olson, I currently live in Dallas Texas. Growing up, I had heard that we were of Swedish ancestry
but no one ever talked about the family or of Sweden. About 3 years ago after I moved to Dallas, I began to research
a little about Sweden. I became fascinated with Viking history. I knew that my great grandparents had come to
the U.S. from Sweden in the 1800's. But I knew little else. My father had obtained the family bible many years
earlier, it had a few names and dates recorded in it and a few old photographs. We gathered the little information that
we had and sent a few emails to churches etc. Because of the lack of information, our expectations were not very high.
One day we received an email response from Kathy Swanson at a church in Pennsylvania that indicated that
we may be related. After several phone calls we confirmed that we were in fact cousins. I spoke with Bill
Nystrom and his sister Carole Bloomquist (both cousins) who provided the needed additional information. Thus our search had
begun !
Many years ago my maternal grandmother researched genealogy for her family and it was very nice to know the family background.
My father however knew very little about his ancestry, so because of that I have dedicated not only this site, but all of
my research to him - Arthur G. Olson.
This is a work in progress, so please contact me if you have any information that might help round out the picture.
