October 12, 2012 - 12:00 am
Hunting Your Swedish Roots – Searching for Clues in the Swedish Census Records
This article is the fourth in a series describing the hunt for one’s Swedish roots. In the previous articles, we discovered how clues can be uncovered by interviewing one’s family, searching public records such as census records and looking at emigration records.
Here we look at Swedish census records and see how they can help a person identify where in Sweden their ancestors came from. There are complete census records for the years 1880, 1890 and 1900, and partial ones for 1860, 1870 and 1910. While they are called census records, these records are extracts from the household examination or clerical survey records that were sent by parish ministers to the government agency SCB (Statistic Sweden). These census records are accessible on the subscription Swedish National Archives site: http://www.svar.ra.se. In addition, the 1880, 1890, 1900 censuses can be purchased as a CD from the Swedish National Archives.
The 1880, 1890 and 1900 Swedish censuses are very helpful in finding emigrants who emigrated after 1880. The 1880 census was published a couple years ago, and this particular database has been extremely helpful since the peak of Swedish emigration was in the 1880s.
Recently, I have been helping Annette in Illinois, who asked me to find out where in Sweden her grandmother, Alma Anderson, and grandfather, Bertel Johnson, emigrated from. I have a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate that showed they married in Chicago on July 18, 1908, and we know they moved to Darien, Wisconsin.
While I had been successful in locating Bertel’s place of origin in Sweden on the Emibas database—which has the names of 1.2 million emigrants who left Sweden between 1840 and 1930—I was not successful in finding any information about Alma on this database. At this time, Annette told me Alma’s birth date was December 3, 1880 and she emigrated with two brothers, Alfred and Andrew. I searched for information about Alma on the Emibas database using various criteria such as birth date only, first name and birth date and various other combinations with no success.
I decided to do some more research to see if I could find an obituary for Alma. Often the obituary will give information such as the place in Sweden where the person came from, names of living relatives and other information. I did find the obituary and while it stated that Alma was born in Sweden, there was a new piece of information which stated she was born in 1879—not 1880. While one can’t be certain this information is correct, I decided to look for births in 1879.
The census records are searchable by various criteria including first name, last name, birth year and parish. While the online and CD versions are both very easy to navigate, the CD has the additional child search feature, where one can search a child’s first name, birth year, siblings' names and combinations of the parents’ names.
I decided to search for Alma on the 1890 Swedish census and clicked on child search to look for an Alma born in 1879, with a brother Alfred. There were 129 cases. That's a lot, so I decided to take the chance that the father’s surname was Andersson and entered that information. I was reduced to 19 hits. This was more manageable, and I quickly found a family with three children: Alfred, Alma and Johan Anders, living in Istorp (Älvsborgs län, Västergötland). Alfred’s birth year was 1877 and Johan Anders' birth year was 1881. Even though one of the brothers found on the census was Johan Anders and not Andrew, many emigrants used their middle names instead of their first names, and Anders was often Americanized to Andrew. The census record shows the parish where Alma was born, and in this particular search where she lived in 1890. A note of caution: The census records are secondary sources and not 100 percent accurate, but mostly the records are correct.
With the information in the census records, we can go directly to the church records and locate her birth record and also the household examination record showing where she was living in 1890 and do further research to verify if we have found the correct person. In this case, we were successful. With further research, the birth dates in the church books for Alma and her brothers matched the birth dates in the U.S. records. Now, we can continue to trace Alma’s family backwards in time and also look to see if there are any living relatives in Sweden.
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September 18, 2012 - 10:38 pm
Hunting Your Swedish Roots—Searching for Clues in Emigration Records and Swedish Records
This article is the third in a series describing the hunt for one’s Swedish roots. Before jumping the pond, one must know a Swedish ancestor’s name, parish of origin in Sweden and a significant date such as a birth date or emigration date.
In the first article we discussed how to hunt for clues within your family and personal sources. In the second we discussed how to look at public records such as birth, death, census, obituaries and other types of public records to see how they might provide clues about an ancestor’s origin in Sweden. In this article, we will search for clues in the emigration records.
In 2005, The Swedish Emigrant Institute and the Swedish Genealogical Society published the CD, Emibas. This has probably been the most significant tool in helping many Swedish-Americans identify the parish their ancestor came from and also the Swedish name. Unfortunately, the CD is no longer being produced, but the contents of Emibas are now available on the subscription site: . Many libraries do have a copy of the CD.
Emibas is a CD with the names of 1.1 million people who left Sweden between 1845 and 1930 and is 75 percent complete. The original source for the database is the moving out (utflyttning) records from the church books. This tool is powerful because it is searchable by many paths such as birth date, emigration date, name, parish, county and other data.
Usually, when anyone asks me to find out where their ancestor came from in Sweden, Emibas is the first tool I use if they have a birth date, a name and an emigration date. The results of the search will include the emigrant’s birth information and where the person last lived in Sweden. Next it's time to jump the pond and begin searching in the Swedish church books.
While the CD is a powerful tool, one doesn’t always get immediate results. The CD does not contain the names of all emigrants since it is only 75 percent complete. If a name, birth or emigration date is incorrect, the search will not be helpful. Often one only has the American name which has been changed from the Swedish name.
I have been helping Annette, in Illinois, who asked me to find out from where in Sweden her grandmother, Alma Anderson, and grandfather, Bertel Johnson, emigrated. She gave me a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate that showed they married in Chicago on July 18, 1908. She mentioned that Bertel and Alma moved to Darien, Wisconsin and said Alma was born on December 3, 1880. I searched on the Emibas CD for Alma’s birth on and around that date but found nothing.
Looking for more clues, I began searching in the census and public records. Knowing the couple married in 1908, I began searching for an Alma Johnson and Bertel Johnson in the U.S. Census records on Ancestry.com. (Most public libraries subscribe to Ancestry.com). I tried an exact search on Alma Johnson with the following criteria: (1) birth year of 1880, (2) birth place of Sweden and (3) lived in Wisconsin. I found Alma on a 1910 U.S. Census living in Darien, Wisconsin. The record gave her age as being 30, birth place as Sweden, and her husband’s name Bert, his age shown as 25, born in Sweden. This was a correct record showing where the couple lived in 1910.
Then I decided to do some additional searches on Ancestry.com looking for Bert Johnson, and I found a naturalization record dated June 3, 1912 for Bertil Johnson living in Darien, Wisconsin, giving his birth date as March 11, 1885. I entered the birth date on the Emibas CD and I found a Gustav Bertil Johansson who emigrated from Sweden in 1903—many Swedes Americanized their surname and commonly used their middle names as their first names. You will note that the spelling on the marriage was Bertel and on the naturalization record was Bertil. The search result shows that he was born in Björkäng, Skaraborgs län (Västergötland) and emigrated—actually he received his moving out certificate from the parish minister—on February 6, 1903. His last place of residence in Sweden was Östergården, Fredsberg, Skaraborgs län (Västergötland). This record indicated that he was going to North America. This was the right person and now Annette can begin to search within the Swedish records to discover more about her grandfather’s family.
Finding Alma’s place of origin required more digging into American records and then searching within the Swedish census records which we will examine in the next article.
Many people also want to know the name of the ship on which an emigrant traveled. There will be another article on looking for ship records and how these can be helpful in identifying an ancestor's emigration date and place or origin.
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September 01, 2012 - 05:29 pm
Hunting Your Swedish Roots – Searching for Clues in Public Records
This article is part a series describing the hunt for one’s Swedish roots. Before one can jump the pond, one must know a Swedish ancestor’s name, parish of origin in Sweden and a significant date such as a birth date or emigration date.
In the first article we discussed the first step in the hunt is to look for personal sources. This includes interviewing family members and finding what information resides within your family, including such items as letters, family Bibles, diaries, photos and other personal memorabilia. If the search among personal sources was not fruitful, the next step is to search for clues in public records and American church records.
Civil public records such as U.S. and state census records, marriage and death certificates, applications for naturalization, newspaper obituaries, World War I and World War II draft registrations are sources that may help you find clues about your ancestor. Many of these records are now online. Many are available on subscriptions sites such as www.ancestry.com, and more records are being added to the free site www.familysearch.org.
U.S Census records
Within the U.S. Census records, information will vary by the year. Census records for the years 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 include the immigration year. (Unfortunately, most of the 1890 U.S. Census records were destroyed.) The place the person emigrated from is usually just noted as Sweden. Most census records only give the person’s age but the 1900 U.S. Census gives the month and year of a person’s birth. This can be very helpful, although you can’t always rely on the accuracy of the U.S. census. The 1940 Census was released on April 2, and while indexing by name is not complete, browsing the records is possible. One can find a good guide for searching the 1940 Census records by going to www.stevemorse.org. This site includes articles on how to search within the 1940 census as well as search tools.
State census records
Some states conducted state censuses and these records can be very helpful especially in the absence of the 1890 U.S. Census. Not all states conducted state censuses but if your ancestor immigrated to a state where censuses were conducted, such as Minnesota, you are in luck. Minnesota has state census records for 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895 and 1905. In addition to U.S. Census records, check for the existence of state census records.
Vital records and obituaries
Marriage and death certificates may provide age information. Many of these records are online but this does vary by state. Obituaries often provide information about where in Sweden the emigrant came from as well as names of siblings who may have remained in Sweden. One might be able to find the place of origin by looking for the sibling in Swedish census records.
Naturalization records
Often the application for naturalization gives very detailed information about the emigrant including birth date, place or origin within Sweden and even parents' names. For detailed information about how to find naturalization records, go to the National Archives website: http://www.archives.gov/research/naturalization/naturalization.html.
Swedish-American church records
Many Swedish immigrants joined Swedish-American churches, primarily Lutheran but also other denominations such as Baptist, Swedish Covenant and Methodist. These churches kept very detailed records including the name of the parish in Sweden where the person was born.
Many of these Swedish-American church records have been microfilmed and are available at the Swedish Swenson Immigration Research Center in Rock Island, Illinois and the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Växjö, Sweden: http://www.augustana.edu/swenson/genealogy.html
The amount of information depends upon individual congregations, but if the information is complete, these records often reveal the date and place of birth and baptism, date received as a church member and arrival year in America.
Swedish-American newspapers
The Swenson Center also has many Swedish-American newspapers on microfilm. Many obituaries can be found in these newspapers. For a list of the newspapers that are on microfilm, visit the Swenson Center’s website: http://www.augustana.edu/x14666.xml.
Hopefully, by looking at U.S. records, one will be able to obtain an approximate age or birth information as well as an emigration date for an emigrant ancestor and with luck maybe the parish of origin in Sweden. But don’t give up if you haven’t found the place or origin; in the next article we will look at emigration records and Swedish census records.
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August 15, 2012 - 05:27 pm
My great-grandfather, Charles Johnson, emigrated from Sweden. How do I find out where in Sweden he came from and more about his family?
For many North Americans with Swedish heritage, jumping the pond seems insurmountable. The two biggest challenges include discovering an ancestor's original Swedish name and finding the place in Sweden where that ancestor lived. During the past few years, however, many new resources and tools have become available that have assisted many people in overcoming these obstacles. Even if your only information is your great-grandfather’s name and that he emigrated from Sweden, success may be possible.
To begin your research, it is good to become familiar with a Swedish genealogy reference guide and study the common challenges within Swedish research: Swedish naming conventions, Swedish geography and the Swedish alphabet.
"Your Swedish Roots"
An excellent Swedish genealogy guide is the book, "Your Swedish Roots" by Per Clemensson and Kjell Andersson. "Your Swedish Roots" can be found in many libraries and is available for purchase on Amazon. Another great book is "Cradled in Sweden" by Carl-Erik Johansson. For the serious Swedish researcher, these are the two key English language Swedish genealogy books.
The first step in your hunt is to begin with yourself and your family.
1. Interview family members—especially the older ones—to see if anyone has memories or stories about your emigrant ancestor. Be sure to contact cousins or relatives with whom you don't have regular contact. If you are second or third generation Swedish-American, create a generation-by-generation family tree that traces back to your emigrant ancestor.
2. Search within your family for old letters, diaries, post cards or photos that can provide some clues. Many families have old photos that were taken in Sweden, and sometimes names and locations, including those of photographers are printed on the backs of the photos. This may be very helpful information.
3. Many immigrants brought their family Bible to the new country. The Bible was a very common place to keep track of family names and dates. Check to see if anyone in your family has an old Bible.
4. If you find Swedish documents, don’t despair if you don’t read Swedish. Find someone who can, and determine if it is an important document. One document that many emigrants had was a Moving Out Certificate, or "flyttningsbetyg." This document is a goldmine because it would have been given to the emigrant by his parish minister. The document shows the parish where the person lived at time of emigration and also birth date and birth parish. With that document, one can immediately go to the Swedish records to research one’s heritage.
After you have exhausted your family's personal resources, record what you found. If you weren't lucky enough to find all the information you hoped for, don’t give up. The next article in this series will explain where you can find public records and what type of information you can secure from these records to assist you in your hunt.
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January 06, 2012 - 08:39 pm
A Swedish-American succeeds in finding and meeting living relatives.
In the early 1970s, Mike Lindstedt saw the Swedish film,“The Emigrants,” which describes the life of Swedes who left Småland and settled in Minnesota—close to the area where Mike’s paternal grandparents had settled. After seeing the movie, Mike made a wish: During his lifetime he hoped to visit one living relative in Sweden.
This past July, Mike’s dream was realized. He not only met one living relative but nearly sixty on his first visit to Sweden.
Mike is a typical Swedish-American with a mixture of other nationalities as well. His mother has Bohemian ancestry and his father is a first generation Swede—his parents emigrated from Sweden.
As a child, Mike questioned his family about where in Sweden his grandparents came from, but none of them wanted to share information or discuss the topic. After retiring recently, Mike found some information about his Swedish grandmother and developed an extensive family tree tracing her family. But as of November 2010, Mike still hadn't found one living relative in Sweden or identified the place where his grandfather came from.
Name, birth date, parish
To successfully research one’s Swedish family using Swedish resources, it is necessary to know the Swedish name of the emigrant, a birth date or an emigration date, and most importantly, that person's parish. Sweden has more than 2500 parishes, and for many Swedish-Americans who have only a name and maybe a significant date, it's just not enough information. Not knowing the parish where that ancestor came from has been the brick wall that has prevented further research for many. But during the last ten years, new electronic research tools have become available and have helped people identify the parish their Swedish ancestor came from.
One tool is the Emibas, a CD that has 1.1 million names of persons who emigrated from Sweden between 1840 and 1930. While it is not 100 percent complete, about 70 percent of emigrants are listed. The CD is very rich in the search capabilities meaning that one can search various criteria such as name, birth date, emigration year and partial year. Emibas, produced in 2005 by the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies and the Swedish Emigrant Institute, has broken down many brick walls. Unfortunately, the CD is no longer available for purchase. There are individuals and some libraries that have a copy. The data is now available on the subscription site www.emiweb.se, and while this is a good source, the search capability online is not quite as rich as on the CD.
Getting the tools
One day, less than a year ago, in November 2010, Mike attended my presentation on Swedish genealogy at the Family History Center in Oakland, California. The presentation focused on showing methods and tools for helping Swedish-Americans independently research their family history using these resources. At the end of my presentation, Mike asked me to enter his grandfather’s birthdate in the Emibas database. By doing so, we quickly found the parish where his grandfather was born. With this information Mike was able to independently research in the Swedish church books that are available online and discover the name of his father's grandfather as well as his mother’s parents. At long last, Mike had broken the mystery in his family about his Swedish grandfather.
During the next few months, Mike continued researching his Swedish ancestry using the church books as well as other Swedish electronic research tools and was successful in contacting families of his direct descendants living in Sweden.
A Dream come true
Finally in July, Mike’s lifelong dream came true when he spent two weeks visiting relatives in several places in Sweden including Göteborg, Kalmar and Gotland as well as the place in Fagerhult where his grandmother was born.
After Mike returned from his trip, he mentioned that he had met his original goal of finding and meeting living relatives in Sweden. He now understands a little more about his personal identity and how his relatives might have lived in Sweden and why they immigrated to the United States. However, one thing Mike didn't realize when he started his search was that his relatives would be just as anxious to meet him and his wife as he would be to meet them. With many of his relatives asking him and his wife to return to Sweden to visit again as well as hoping to visit the Lindstedts in California, he has discovered a new family.
And now Mike has become the family genealogist and has recently built a website where members of the family on both sides of the ocean can upload photos and documents and share their family history. The family that was separated over one hundred years ago has now been reunited.
If not for the Internet and the publication of many Swedish electronic research tools in recent years, Mike’s wish may have remained a dream. While not all searches have been as successful as his, these new tools such as the Emibas have made it possible for many Swedish-Americans to discover their Swedish heritage, and like Mike, others have been lucky enough to visit Sweden and meet living relatives.
By Kathy Meade
Internet and electronic resources used by Michael Lindquist to trace his family history / Swedish Genealogy Resources:
Swedish Church records are available on the following online sites
www.genline.com $Subscription site—also available at Family History Libraries
www.arkivdigital.net $Subscription site
www.svar.ra.se $Subscription site—National Swedish Archives
www.ancestry.com $Subscription site—World Deluxe Collection Edition
Military Research
Central Soldier’s Register
http://soldat.dis.se/index.php
Stockholm City Archives
http://www.ssa.stockholm.se/sv/hem/
Emigration Records
www.emiweb.se
CDs
Emibas—no longer available for purchase, available at some libraries
Swedish Death Index 1901–2009—available for purchase from the Swedish National Archives site www.svar.ra.se
Mike Lindstedt in front of his grandfather’s house in Brålanda, Moryr
Mike Lindstedt in the work space at home
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Genealogy|Släktforskning
Kathy Meade, one of North America’s top experts in the field of Swedish genealogy. She established Genline.com in North America but has since the company's sale to ancestry.com continued to help people find their Swedish roots in other ways. |