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Have you found a Swedish ancestor? 
Have you recently found out that you have a Swedish ancestor and you don’t know where to start? I have written a few (what I hope will be) helpful notes about Swedish church records and what they mean. Remember that the church records may vary from parish to parish – if you are lucky you might find a lot of information about your ancestor!
 Where do I start my research?
- At home actually. Try to find out as much as possible about your ancestor. To know the Swedish parish where he/she was born is necessary. Do you have older relatives who know "the story" (or at least parts of it)? Do you know if anybody has collected old papers (Naturalization Record), bibles etc?
- I have the info I need to start my research (name, birthdate and parish). Now what?
- Well, you need to order the right microfiche (or film). You can
A. Contact your local Family History Center (LDS).
or
B. Order microfiche direct from Sweden (SVAR, Svensk arkivinformation), or through the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center.
- I’m sitting in front of the reader and do not understand a word! What do all this gibberish mean? Födelseböcker and Dopböcker – what is that? And Husförhörslängd? Funny words and three extra letters in the Swedish alphabet! Help!!
- Well, no one ever said it was going to be easy! The Swedish words/expressions/records you have to know are:
1. Husförhörslängd: this is originally records of how much the people knew about the church and the Lutheran religion (reading and understanding the Bible etc). The "questioning" took place once a year and you can therefore follow your family year by year. The records (marked with the letter A in church records) is a register of all the farms in the parish and the people who lived there. Here you’ll find 1) names of all family members starting with the father ("head of the household"), 2) birth dates (or at least the years) and birth place, 3) notes if they had moved in or out of the parish, 4) marriage dates and where it took place, 5) deathdate, 6) their presence/absence and knowledge about the religion and, 7) something called fräjd (could also be frejd or anteckningar = notes). This is quite interesting since the priest could write personal notes about the persons here!
2. Födelseböcker and Dopböcker means registers of all births and christenings in the parish. They are marked with the letter C in church records. The registers may differ from parish to parish but you should find 1) birthdate, 2) christening date, 3) child’s name, 4) parents name (and sometimes the mother’s age), 5) where they lived (name of farm) and, 6) names of the witnesses of the christening. Don’t forget to write down their names - many times it gives you the grandparents or sisters/brothers of the parents!
3. Lysningsböcker and Vigselböcker is the marriage records (marked E). Usual notes are 1) the date of the banns (the priest tells the congregation about the forthcoming marriage), 2) the actual marriage date, 3) names of the couple, 4) where they lived (the marriage usually took place in the bride’s home parish), 5) their age and sometimes even their parents names.
4. Dödböcker and Begravningsböcker which is death and burial records (marked F). These registers contain 1) the name of the deceased, 2) date of death and burial, 3) where he/she lived and 4) sometimes the cause of death.
- My ancestor’s name is Nils Bengtsson – why is his son named Harald Nilsson?
- This is because common people in Sweden seldom used family names before the 19th century – instead they used patronymics. The children got their fathers name + the ending son or dotter (son or daughter). The example above tells us that Harald is Nils’ son = Nilsson. To continue, the son of Harald will be called Nils Haraldsson. The girl was named (for example) Matilda Nilsdotter (Nils’ daughter). Her name seldom or never changed when she got married.
- My ancestor’s name in Sweden was Nils Bengtsson but somehow the name changed to Benson when he emigrated to USA. Why?
- The Swedish farmers who emigrated to the US did not have much – if any – knowledge about the English language. The immigration officers seldom knew any Swedish and therefore couldn’t pronounce (or spell) the name right. Also, many Swedish immigrants changed their names in USA so it would be easier to pronounce or to become more "Americanized".
The three extra letters in the Swedish alphabet
The three are: å, ä and ö (Å, Ä, Ö) and they are necessary if you want to read or write correct Swedish. Question: do you really, really need to know about this? Well, let me put it like this: if you want to write the Swedish word släkt (which means kin, family) and instead writes slakt, it means a totally different thing in Swedish.  The word slakt (without the two dots) could mean slaughter ... So, it is easier to have them where they should be.
The site "Introduction to Swedish" (see below) explains how to pronounce words with these letters.
You want to write them on your PC but don't know how? This is how:
- å, Å : ALT + 0229, ALT + 0197
- ä, Ä : ALT + 0228, ALT + 0196
- ö, Ö : ALT + 0246, ALT + 0214
And two extra Scandinavian letters (used in Denmark and Norway):
- æ = ALT + 0230, Æ = ALT + 0198
- ø = ALT + 0248, Ø = ALT + 0216
Useful books
Cradled in Sweden. A Practical Help to Genealogical Research in Swedish Records by Carl-Erik Johansson (Everton Publishers, Inc., Logan, UT 84321, 1995).
Tracing Your Swedish Ancestry by Nils William Olsson (Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stockholm, 1986).
Swedish Genealogical Dictionary, Compiled by Phyllis J. Pladsen and Joseph C. Huber, 1995, Pladsen Sveria Press.
Genealogical Guidebook & Atlas of Sweden, compiled by Finn A. Thomsen, 1981, Thomsen's Genealogical Center (this book has maps of all the "län" showing the locations of the parishes in each and an alpha index of the parishes)
Useful web pages
Rötter – the Swedish e-zine about genealogy
Introduction to Swedish
Some Notes on the Swedish Language
Some Notes on Swedish Names
Useful newsgroups
se.hobby.genealogi
soc.genealogy.nordic
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