Swedish show links local to ancestry

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This article was published 29/10/2019 (2528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took a reality television show created halfway around the world to help connect Winnipegger Brittany Zikman to her family’s history.

Zikman is the first Canadian contestant on Allt för Sverige, an International Emmy Award-winning television series (its title translates to Everything for Sweden, but it is marketed as The Great Swedish Adventure). The show brings a group of Americans of Swedish descent to Sweden to learn about their genealogy and compete for a chance to win a family reunion with every living relative they have in the Scandinavian country.

During the course of the eight-episode season — Zikman is part of the ninth season, which is airing on Swedish network SVT — the participants travel around the country, each of them getting a “special day” on which they get to do a deep dive into their family history. The contestants also take part in challenges and participants are eliminated, losing the chance to learn more about their history and claim the ultimate reunion prize.

Think Survivor meets Amazing Race meets Who Do You Think You Are?

Zikman, 30, first applied for the show five years ago (using a North Dakota zip code to bypass the show’s Americans-only rule), and was one of the top 40 finalists in consideration before getting cut. The show’s casting agents encouraged her to apply again the next year, but she was busy with school, and the following year her paternal grandmother, who was of Swedish descent, died, causing Zikman not to be “in the mental space to reconnect” at that time.

It wasn’t until earlier this year that the timing felt right to apply again. She reached out directly to the show and they remembered her from her first audition in 2014. She landed the spot, and in June, she flew to Sweden to film.

Because the current season is still being aired, Zikman couldn’t reveal any details about how far she made it, if she won or what information she learned. She did say there were a lot of surprises when it came to discovering more about her family tree.

“What I learned about my family is just absolutely bonkers, I can’t believe that I learned what I did learn. My grandmother always did say we are related to royalty, and they (the researchers on the show) found some crazy information,” she says.

The experience also allowed her to not only shed light on the past, but really think about who she is as a person now and how every step and every person along the way, from ancient relatives to closer relations, has had an effect on her life.

“The crazy thing about this is I didn’t realize how Swedish my family really is.

“I mean, my grandmother never got the chance to go to Sweden, she never got to see it even though she was so proud of being Swedish. When we go up to her cabin, we see Swedish stuff all over it. She still baked all the time different Swedish goodies, so she knew she was Swedish and took pride in that, but I think in that classical Canadian tale, as the generations go on, you kind of lose that connection and that touch with it,” Zikman says, adding it was her great-great-grandmother on her father’s side, Anna Frid, who was the first of her family to come to Canada.

“So for me, it was really important, especially after losing my grandma, to connect with that and really remind myself of who I am and how fortunate and what a miracle it is that I even exist. With all of the different things that happened in my family’s history, it’s an absolute miracle that I’m even on this planet walking.”

Zikman’s “special day” episode airs on SVT on Nov. 10. Allt för Sverige does not air on any networks in Canada, but some episodes are available on YouTube.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel