In the summer of 2017, I was finally able to take my family to Sweden,
the birth country of my grandmother,
Margit Vanja (Bengtsson) Steele.
What began as a vacation became something more personal—a chance to visit
family, see the places connected to our Swedish history, and return to
Stormon, where Margit was born.
Peggy Blackford holding a photograph of her mother, Margit, in the original kitchen at Stormon.
The family connection
Why Sweden mattered to us
Margit Vanja Bengtsson was the first child of
Agnes (Olsson) and Carl Bengtsson. As a baby, Margit lived with her parents
at Stormon, a small house outside Forshaga in Värmland. The family later
immigrated to the United States, but Sweden remained an important part of
our family story.
After months of planning, seven of us made the trip: Bret and Michelle;
our children Cora, Neva, and David; my sister Sheri “Booi” Blackford;
and my mother Margaret “Peggy” Blackford, Margit's youngest child.
Michelle found rental houses and apartments at the major stops, Booi helped
locate affordable airfare, and on Saturday morning, June 3, we packed into
the family van and drove from St. Louis to O'Hare Airport. The trip had begun.
Follow the journey
Route & trip stops
Each stop links to the detailed travel-journal page.
The 2017 trip was rooted in the Bengtsson family story. Our family-history
archive includes Margit, her parents Carl and Agnes, family trees, wedding
photographs, immigration records, historic photographs, videos, and the
connection between the Bengtsson family and later generations in America.
