When the International Order of Runeberg made the decision to close, the records of each chapter were sent to the Swedish Finn Historical Society. SFHS already had copies of most of the Leading Star. At that time $10,000 was given to SFHS to help support the archiving of these records.
SFHS has recently completed digitizing of the Leading Star (See the issues of Leading Star from 1913 and 1947 below). The digital copies are searchable in Swedish or English. They will be made available to SFHS members online. SFHS has also nearly completed the digitizing of our photo files some of which are from OR. These too will be available online.
One of the exciting things about history is making it available to people to explore their past, their families past and the history of the communities in which they lived. There are 65+ boxes of records of Order of Runeberg. These boxes vary greatly in number of pages from none to well over 3300. Most will have significant numbers of pages. We are still trying to estimate a total page count. It will be a very high number.
The process of digitizing, organizing and uploading to our website is time consuming and expensive. We are asking OR members, OR Chapters, SFHS members, and anyone with Swedish Finn ancestors to please help us with donations to support this effort.
We hope you will support this effort to record your history,
Sincerely,
Bill Carlson
President of Swedish Finn Historical Society
Stewart Lyons
Former President, International Order of Runeberg
Ed Brannfors
Former Treasurer, International Order of Runeberg
Dale and Mary Lou Hjort
Editors of The Leading Star
Mail donations to:
SFHS
1920 Dexter Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109
Email questions to:
kim@swedishfinnhistoricalsociety.org
