This is my first email posting, so forgive me if I do this wrong. I'm trying to research my husband's family tree (David Andrew Carlson). All four of his grandparents came from Sweden. I'm sure you know that Swedish surnames changed every generation (to the father's first name followed by "son" or "dotter"), so this has made it signifcantly difficult to trace it. However I haven't done badly. His four grandparents were Erik Bertel Carlson (whose father also came to Worcester and was called Carl Pearson), Hilma Theresa Lundberg, Andrew W. Hagstrom and Edla Cecilia Hellberg, all around the beginning of the 20th century. Knowing just this, I went to Salt Lake City (Family History Library) and actually now know all of the great-grandparents names as well as some of their birthdates and some of the great-great-grandparents names. I'm not asking for information on these names directly (although if you have information, I'd love to have it). What I'd like, instead, is WHY they chose to come to Worcester area when they immigrated. This is a more general question. Does anyone know the history of the Swedish immigration to Worcester (including Boylston, which is where many of them ended up) and why they chose to come to Worcester? For a lot of them, the reason was simply "because that's where their relatives went". But eventually, you get back to the first set of Swedish immigrants, and you can't use that argument anymore. So WHY did they choose Worcester, over some other locality? Andrew W. Hagstrom has been exceedingly difficult to trace: He changed his name when he got to the USA from Anders Anderson, plus, he seems to have "immigrated" three times, once in 1891 (which I still can't locate), once in 1897 (thru Philadelphia, I have this immigration AND emigration record), and again in 1906 (don't have this record, though I have Swedish records documenting the move) right before his wife and two baby sons immigrated, following him to Worcester (I have this immigration and emigration record). I also know that he was in the Spanish American War around 1898 out of Butte Montana and I have a couple of records from Butte as well. But I can't figure out WHY he moved to Butte, nor why he chose to go back to Sweden to get married, nor why he came over the first time in 1891 (I'm GUESSING that his father was upset because his 14-year-old sister ran away to America and he told him "Go find your sister and bring her back", because he DID bring her back in 1897 then they both again departed for America again in 1897, that's the record I DID find). Anyway, enough rambling. PS, I do NOT have ready access to Internet, so there may be up to a week of delay before any reply to/from me because we're moving constantly. I'll be back in NH/MA area in middle of August. Email works, just don't expect immediate replies. Diana L. Carlson (currently in Custer SD) <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Ham: KC1SP SKP#90815 Full-Time in a 2005 Dutch Star towing 2006 Hyundai Sonata, mail to Melbourne FL, Free WiFi only