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How can I find living relatives in Sweden?
Is it necessary to go all the way to Sweden to use the Swedish records?
How can I find my nearest Latter-Day Saints Family History branch library?
Are any of these records online?
Does the Swenson Center have the Swedish parish records?
What types of parish records exist?
Is it possible to go to Sweden to do research?
Can I access Swedish records for every year that they were kept?
Why did they keep these wonderful records?
Some of the letters have double-dots or circles over them...
Why can't I find my ancestor's name in the Swedish parish records?
How can I find out where my ancestors were from in
Sweden?
I know the name of the town my ancestor was from in Sweden; how can I find the
parish name?
What else can I try?
Where can I find some information about the parish
that my ancestors lived in?
How can I find living relatives in Sweden?
To find living relatives in Sweden:
1. use the Swedish parish records to locate the ancestors who stayed in Sweden
(such as the immigrant's siblings or cousins). You must first know where your ancestors
were from in Sweden--see other steps below to learn how to determine where ancestors were
from.
2. trace their descendants as far forward as the available public records go.
3. Write to the office of the most recent parish in which you found the
descendant or to the regional archives, to have them look up information
in later records. You may write in English. Because of limited staffing, it can
take some months to hear back from a parish.
To find the contact information of a Swedish parish, click here and type in the parish’s
name. Most have e-mail addresses now.
Is it necessary to go all the way to Sweden to use the Swedish records?
No! Swedish parish records have been microfilmed by the Latter-Day Saints and
are available for the general public to view on microfilm at their main library
in Salt Lake City. Copies of the microfilms can be borrowed in their numerous
branch libraries around the world for a nominal fee, and this is probably the
least expensive and one of the most popular ways to access the records. It is
possible that there will be a volunteer at your local LDS branch who knows how
the Swedish records work well enough to help you place an order and use them
when they arrive.
How can I find my nearest Latter-Day Saints Family History branch library?
Go to their web site here. For people
who do not have access to an LDS branch, the same records are available for purchase on
microfiche from SVAR, and we are SVAR’s North American distributors. The fiche
are then yours to keep. More information about SVAR is
here.
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Are any of these records online?
It is indeed possible to find many records online. All over Sweden, people are working
on entering information from Swedish parish records into databases, and more
than one company is scanning images of the original and
making them available for subscribers to view online. Do not rely on databases alone. Find the microfilms, -fiche, or scans of the original parish records, even after
you have found them in databases, to guard against possible errors and to see the records
in the original handwriting. This web
page is updated regularly with links to parishes whose records are available to see online
in one format or another. Not all of the links will be in English.
Does the Swenson Center have the Swedish parish records?
The Swenson Center has parish records on microfiche from two of the 24 Swedish counties (län): Kopparbergs
län (recently renamed Dalarnas län) and Kronobergs län (part of Småland province).
Also, we have a subscription to Genline, the Swedish parish records
online, so we have the potential to find quite a lot of information for you. See
our Genline web page
for details. We also have several complete databases of inhabitants of Sweden,
such as the 1890 & 1900 Censuses, and one partial 1880 Census of Sweden.
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What types of parish records exist?
There are chronological birth records that show the child's first names, the
parents' first- and last names, and the name of the farm on which they were living. From
there you can go to household examination records or husförhörslängder, which
are arranged by farm, not alphabetically. There it lists all of the family members, their
dates and places of birth, and tells of any movements within, into, or out of the parish.
Those are the most-used types of records. The records are in the pastor’s original
handwriting, which is sometimes difficult to read or is filled with his own personal
abbreviations, but many people with no knowledge of the Swedish language learn to use
these records and find it very rewarding to do the research themselves. For more
information about the purchase of SVAR microfiche, click
here.
Is it possible to go to Sweden to do research?
It is definitely possible to go to Sweden to do research in various regional, national, and
even privately-owned archives (search for them at this web site). Please contact them
before going to get their hours, find out if they require an appointment, and how much
they charge to use their facilities. One thing we recommend, however, is doing as much
research as possible from the U.S. (or Canada) before going to Sweden. If going to the
trouble and expense of traveling to Sweden, why not spend your time visiting with
relatives rather than looking for them? (Keep in mind that finding living Swedish
relatives can lead to a lifetime of friendships, but also be prepared for the real
possibility that the Swedes will not be interested in corresponding with their American
relatives.) There are always exceptions, and it may be desirable to take a trip to Sweden
just to do research and sightseeing.
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Can I access Swedish records for every year that they were kept?
No. Because of the same type of privacy laws that we have in the U.S., Swedish parish
records are not available to the public until after 70 years have passed, and so far only
records up to about 1930 have been released (and not everyone has them up that
far). On the Internet, the cutoff is the
year 1900. The more recent records may still be kept in
the individual parish offices, depending on the part of Sweden that your ancestors came
from. In Sweden they are currently undertaking the microfilming of the more current
records for preservation. As of 2006, parishes in approximately the northern 80% of Sweden have been
microfilmed and are now kept in the regional archives for their individual areas. For the
addresses of the regional archives (Landsarkiv) around Sweden, click
here. It is possible
that the parishes have been given microfiche copies of their own records in return for
turning theirs in for microfilming, but it is also possible that not every parish office
is equipped with a microfiche reader!
Why did they keep these wonderful records?
Originally
for taxation purposes, and it eventually also became the way that the pastor kept track of
how well each person knew his/her catechism, through annual examinations called förhör.
In Sweden, until 1991, each
parish pastor kept track of all of the parish’s inhabitants. Some date back to the
late 1600s. Whenever someone was born, died, married, moved in or out of the parish, or
even moved to another farm or other residence within the same parish, an entry was made in
a record book. More details about the parish records and their history can be found on this Swedish Roots page. And here is a page with a drawing
showing a man at his annual examination or förhör.
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Some of the letters have double-dots or circles over them...
The Swedish alphabet contains three extra vowels that are situated in the alphabet like
this: ...x, y, z, å, ä, ö. They are not simply 'a's and 'o's with indiscriminate dots
and circles above them. If your parish’s name includes the Swedish vowels å,
ä, or ö, it is important to include that vowel when writing or typing the word. Spelling
the name with just "a," "a," or "o" where a diacritical mark
is required is incorrect and it will affect your search results.
Here is
a page that explains how to type the Swedish vowels.
Why can't I find my ancestor's name in the Swedish parish records?
You may find it, but you may not recognize it as the name you have heard all your life.
For example, if you knew your ancestor as Andrew Johnson, he had likely changed from a
Swedish version of the same name. The names Anders and Andreas were usually Americanized
to Andrew. Do not get stuck on any one spelling of an ancestor's name, even if you think
that his name was always Andrew Johnson. Expect changes in spelling. Many Swedish
immigrants Americanized their names when they got to the U.S. Andrew Johnson was probably
Anders Johansson or Johannesson or Jansson or Jönsson or
Jonsson or Jonasson or ...? Even if your ancestor's name was Anders Johannesson, you can
find it spelled a variety of ways in the various records. It was the discretion of the
record-keeper to spell things the way he wanted. He may have preferred the spelling
Johansson over all the others and used it every time. Your ancestor may have spelled his
own name differently each time he wrote it.
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How can I find out where my ancestors were from in
Sweden?
If you do not know where they were from in Sweden, it is
possible that we have records here at the Swenson Center that can be of help. If you have
not already done so, please go to the
genealogy
page of our web site and read about the records we have on the premises, what one can hope
to find in them, and how to access them.
I know the name of the town my ancestor was from in Sweden; how can I find the
parish name?
Many times the town name is the parish name. Our definition of "parish"
is the church and the physical boundary representing the area for which that church’s
records were kept. There were often many (dozens of) villages and farms within a parish,
but it is the parish name that one needs to proceed in Swedish records. Usually it was the
name of the parish that the immigrant referred to when naming his hometown.
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What else can I try?
It might be worth your time to post a query to a Swedish genealogy web site or mailing
list, to see if anyone has already done research on your family and will recognize your
ancestors' names. Start at the Swedish web site
Anbytarforum. It is monitored actively
by many people in Sweden, including genealogists, and someone might recognize the names
and dates you provide, or have just the right bit of advice for you. Other good sites and
lists are shown at the very bottom of our genealogical links page
here.
Consider also contacting the local genealogical society in Sweden nearest your
ancestral parish, or the society for your county or province. There is a list of
many such Swedish societies here at the web site of the Federation of Swedish
Genealogical Societies
http://www.genealogi.se/. Click on Medlemsföreningar to see the list
of their member organizations, which are arranged by province. Look for contact
information on their individual web sites.
Where can I find some information about the parish
that my ancestors lived in?
Don't forget your local public library. The interlibrary loan department of your
local library should be able to do a worldwide search for you. Have them search for the
name of the parish and request any of the resulting hits for you via interlibrary loan
(at least within the U.S.).
The book you receive may be in Swedish, but there may also be some photographs of scenes
from around the parish, or genealogies, or names of emigrants. Anything can happen.
Another source is the LDS library. Search their online catalog for the parish name and
look under "books" for any titles that may have been microfilmed, which means
that those titles would be available to order to your local LDS branch.
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[Back to
Swenson Center Genealogy page]
Updated August 20, 2008
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