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Swenson
Swedish Immigration Research Center Augustana College 639 38th Street Rock Island IL 61201-2296 Tel: 309/794-7204 Fax: 309/794-7443 sag@augustana.edu Swenson Center Genealogy Page Genealogy FAQ Genealogical Links |
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You must already know the name of the parish and county (län) or province
(landskap) in which you plan to do Genline research. Next, it is important to determine if Genline has all of the records for your parish. They have nearly all of the available parishes in Sweden up to the year 1900, but some stop short. When you contact us to schedule your appointment we will be happy to help you discover if Genline has enough records for your parish(es) to make an attempt worthwhile. Tell us the ancestors’ dates and parishes of birth so we can verify that there will be Genline records for you to view when you come. You can also look for it yourself on Genline's web site. Because the Swedish parish records are in the pastor’s original handwriting and all in Swedish, they can be time-consuming to use and especially to learn to use. Genline is not a searchable database; one cannot type in the ancestor’s name and have his birth record magically appear on the screen. Using Genline is the same as turning pages in a book or scrolling through a microfilm. If you are a beginner to Swedish parish records, Genline appointments will be available to you only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when our volunteers are available to assist you while you use Genline. Our volunteers will give you free assistance and show you how to use the records and software, and we hope that you will then have the confidence to continue using Genline on your own in the afternoon. If you have experience with Genline or other forms of the Swedish parish records, you may schedule a Genline appointment for any other time during our open hours Tuesday through Friday. If you are new to the Swedish parish records, we recommend that you try to read a bit about them before coming, using one of the books Cradled in Sweden by Carl-Erik Johansson or Your Swedish Roots by Per Clemensson & Kjell Andersson, or by finding a web page that explains parish records, like this one (click on "Church Records"). We cannot guarantee that we will be able to read all of the handwriting for you, especially in the older records, but we will give it the very best try. We are not responsible for time lost if the Internet happens to go down when you are here. A book that you will find useful during and long after your visit here is the Swedish Genealogical Dictionary by the late Phyllis Pladsen. Direct ordering information from Phyllis' children is here. Also, the Genealogical Guidebook and Atlas of Sweden by Finn A. Thomsen will be useful. It can be purchased from the bookstore of the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis (call 1-800-5-SWEDEN). These are the first two books that we reach for when we get stuck. We also have a copy of each of the above books at our Genline computer station for patron use. To help us defray the expense of the subscription, we charge an hourly fee for the use of Genline: $10/hour for non-members of the Swenson Center and $5/hour for members. In addition, see the 2nd paragraph on our genealogy page for information about the Swenson Center’s entrance fee. You will find that a Swenson Center Associate membership ($25 per year) can easily pay for itself in one visit. See our membership web page, and consider adding a subscription to our journal Swedish American Genealogist for $15 more. Questions we will ask you on the phone or via e-mail: 1) Have you used Genline before? 2) Have you used Swedish parish records before in some other format? 3) Does Genline have the parish(es) that you need? 4) Give us a few dates/parishes of birth so that we can verify that Genline has records for the dates and time periods you need for those parishes. 5) Are you aware of our Genline usage fees? Our daily entrance fee? 6) Are you a member of the Swenson Center? E-mail us now to make your appointment, or call 309.794.7204. We can also be hired to do research for you in Genline and other records. Look for the Research Request Form on our Genealogy page. To the Swenson Center Genealogy page Updated February 12, 2009 |