For those interested in Swedish-American family history research, extensive materials exist at the Swenson Center. If you wish to search our records yourself, you are welcome to visit the Center. Our hours are by appointment only, Tuesday through Friday.  Please contact us to schedule an appointment and to learn our hours, by phone 309. 794.7204, fax 309.794.7443, or e-mail sag@augustana.edu. We can also help you much better by consulting with you in advance of your visit, either by phone or e-mail. It will help us to determine which of our resources will best suit your needs and help us to prepare for your visit.

The Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center is a private, non-profit, member-supported organization dedicated to providing resources for the study of Swedish immigration to North America. For that reason, the fee for non-members conducting genealogy research at the Swenson Center is $10 per day ($5 per half day).

To request a search in our records by a staff member, please print out the research request form in either format below and mail it to us along with your payment. Research conducted by a staff member is $30 per hour and $20 per hour for Swenson Center members. If you plan to visit the Center to do the research yourself, we suggest that you fill out the same form and bring it along with you. This will help us find the proper sources for you more efficiently and it will expedite your search when you are here. We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with the sources we have available before contacting us or sending us your research request form since our staff resources are very limited. We cannot guarantee that we can find what you are looking for, but we can usually tell if you have enough information to warrant a search.

Research Request Form in PDF format  (download Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Research Request Form in html format

För svenskar:

Klicka Här om du vet var emigranterna bosatte sig

Klicka Här om du inte vet var emigranterna bosatte sig

Swedish-American and Swedish-Canadian Church Records
The Swedish-American and -Canadian church records are the most frequently used sources of information for family history research. We have on microfilm records of the Swedish-American and -Canadian congregations from the denominations listed below.  If you are interested in a specific church, please see our listing.

It is important to realize that the quality of the individual church records varies. If the church books were complete and accurately kept, the following information can be gained about members:

• date and place of birth and baptism
• year of arrival in America
• date of confirmation, marriage, death
• previous and subsequent residences in U.S.
• date received as a church member
• similar data for spouse and children who were also members

To begin a search in the church records, you must know where the immigrants settled in North America. In the case of a city with a large Swedish population like Chicago or Minneapolis, the name of a specific church, a street address, or even neighborhood of residence is essential for search purposes. If your immigrant ancestors settled in an area that was not well populated with Swedish immigrants, it is possible that there was no Swedish church there, which means that we will not be able to use this source.

City Directories on microfilm (useful when you try to locate a residential address, especially in large cities like Chicago and the Twin Cities). Similar to a phone book, without phone numbers.

• Chicago IL (1839-1929--some years missing)
• Minneapolis MN (1861-1901)
• St. Paul MN (1856-1901)
• Moline IL (1855-1860, 1882-1901)
• Rock Island IL (1855-1860, 1882-1901)
• New England States (selected cities and years) 1881-1902 (CD-ROM)
• Pennsylvania (selected cities and years) 1887-1893 (CD-ROM)
• Massachusetts (selected cities and years) 1885-1897 (CD-ROM)
• New York (selected cities and years) 1886-1894 (CD-ROM)
• Northern Midwest (selected cities and years) 1884-1898 (CD-ROM)
• Southern Midwest (selected cities and years) 1882-1898 (CD-ROM)

Swedish Passenger Indexes: on microfilm & a Swedish CD-ROM (CD-Emigranten). Usually provides passenger's age, last parish of residence, ultimate destination, and a contract number which can be used to find the name of the ship of departure.

• Göteborg (1869-1951)
• Malmö (1874-1939)
• Kalmar (1880-1893)
• Stockholm (1869-1940)
• Norrköping (1859-1922)
• Helsingborg (1929-1950)
• Hamburg (1850-1891)
• Norwegian port indexes are here on the web
• Danish port indexes are here on the web

Indexes of Emigrants from Swedish län (counties) on microfilm. Taken from parish emigration records, tells name of last parish of residence, occupation and age of emigrant (sometimes even the date of birth), and country of destination.   

• Hallands län (1861-1900)
• Jönköpings län (1860-1895)
• Kalmar län (1861-1900)
• Kronobergs län (1861-1883, 1890)
• Malmöhus län (1861-1900)
• Norrbottens, Stockholms (excludes City), Södermanlands, and Uppsala län (1851-1947)
• Värmlands län (1861-1900)
• Älvsborgs län (1861-1900)
• Östergötlands län (1851-1947)

Emigrant lists from parishes in Swedish län (Befolkningsstatistiken) on microfiche:
These records are statistical lists of emigrants from each parish in a given län, compiled annually by the parish pastor and submitted to the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics. We have them for each of the 24 Swedish län for 1865-1940. Please note that they are not indexed and are extremely time-consuming to use if you do not know the year of emigration or the parish the person came from. You must know at least the län and year of emigration to use these records. They usually provide the person's year of birth and country of destination.

Index of emigrants from Sweden (CD-ROM called Emibas): This is a database containing nearly 1.1 million emigrants from more than 2,300 parishes (roughly 3/4 of all emigrants from Sweden).

U.S. Passenger Arrival Records on microfilm:

• Swedish Passenger Arrivals in the United States 1820-1850 by Nils William Olsson.
• Index of Swedes arriving in New York (1851-1860) - does not give person's origin in Sweden.
• Index of Swedes arriving in New York (1861-1869) - does not give person's origin in Sweden.
• Castle Garden Records (New York) are searchable (1830-1892) here.
• Ellis Island Records (New York) are searchable (1892-1924) here. You will be asked to register as a user on the ellisislandrecords.org web page before it will allow you to pursue any results.

Swedish-American and Swedish-Canadian Newspapers on Microfilm:
If you are interested in obtaining obituaries, another important source is the Swedish-American and -Canadian newspapers. In order for us to search them, we need to know the date and place of death. Sometimes there is little more than the person's name and date of death. The Swedish-American and -Canadian newspaper microfilms are also available via interlibrary loan. Please see our online listing for specific titles, or if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the listing, go to our publications page.

Swedish-American Lodge Records on microfilm:
Includes minutes of meetings and some membership records from fraternal orders that Swedish immigrants joined in the U.S.  Orders include Independent Order of Svithiod (IOS), Independent Order of Vikings (IOV), Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT), Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), and Scandinavian Fraternity of America. See our Swedish-American lodge listing.

CD-ROMs from the U.S.:

• Scandinavians in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census. Index of heads-of-household and anyone with a different surname than the head.
• Scandinavians in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census: same criteria as above
• 1920 U.S. Federal Census indexes: from most U.S. states where groups of Swedes settled
• New York port arrival indexes 1850-1891.

Swedish Parish Records on microfiche:
We have a full set of records from Kopparbergs län (Dalarna) plus birth and household records for Kronobergs län. Our Genealogy FAQ page also provides tips about other ways to find Swedish parish records.

Genline subscription on computer:
New, Autumn 2005: we now have a subscription to Genline (Swedish parish records online) for use by the public by appointment. Now 99% of Swedish records are scanned up to the year 1900 and available to see at the Swenson Center. If you know the name of the parish that your ancestor came from in Sweden, you have the potential to trace them in the Swedish parish records throughout their lives and back into the 1700s. Please follow this link to see how to use Genline at the Swenson Center. We can also use it to do research for others. You can also subscribe from home at Genline's web site.

Research Hints
It is to your advantage to collect as much information as possible before you contact us:

• talk to older relatives; ask them where the immigrants' children were baptized and confirmed (denomination and location of church)
• If possible, obtain copies of marriage licenses, death certificates, census records, and listings in City Directories.
• A pastor's name on an official church document is also helpful
• If you do not know the year of immigration try to locate the person in the Census records. For the years 1900, 1910, and 1920 there is a column that lists approximate year of immigration.

We are currently experiencing a 4+-month response time for filling research requests.

e-mail: sag@augustana.edu

Interesting and useful genealogical links (Swedish, Scandinavian, and general).

Other Swedish-related web sites

(click on the icon to the left, then on "Foreign Exploration")

More printer-friendly version of this genealogy page                                  updated June 5, 2008