Guidebooks

It is best to purchase at least one guidebook. These are excellent. "Your Swedish Roots" is easier to start with and "Cradled in Sweden" is more detailed. I own both. The book titles below the images are links.

"Your Swedish Roots" 

"Cradled in Sweden"




If you think about purchasing a used copy of "Cradled in Sweden", only purchase the 1995 and 2002 editions. The earlier editions have much less material. The two recommended editions have the same material, except the covers and type are different. (The author died between the two editions.)

You can also download a booklet with an overview of Swedish genealogy plus ideas on how to gather clues about where your ancestors may have lived in Sweden. This booklet is called "Tracing Your Swedish Ancestry" and was written by James E. Erickson and Nils William Olsson.

 "Tracing Your Swedish Ancestry"



That last url changes frequently. It works today but if it changes, do what I do. Google the title. I have been able to find the site through many url changes by remembering the title.

Judy

Swedish Genealogy Week next June in Sweden

There is an event in Sweden which may interest you, especially if you have roots in Dalsland province.

 I don't remember seeing much about this. I discovered it by accident, so maybe they need a little publicity. ;-)

http://www.lilleskogen.se/dalsland.htm

I asked about this when I heard about it and somehow got on their mailing list. They sent the following email yesterday. I may or may not attend. I haven't decided yet.

---------------------
Information about the Genealogy Week

Final confirmation for participation should be made by March 31st.
I will send an e-mail to everyone on the registration list during March and ask for confirmation.
To go through with the arrangement we need a minimum of 18 participants.

A deposit of 2000 SEK should be paid by April 30th and we will provide you with payment details.

A final payment should be made by May 31st.

So far we have 14 participants on the registration list.

For further details you can go to www.lilleskogen.se or send me an e-mail.

Kind regards
Lotta
---------------------------
Contact information is on the first website above.

Note that all meals and all lodging is included for that week, according to their site. Of course you need to get there on your dime.

I used the following currency converter to convert the price.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

As of yesterday (because currency values change over time, depending upon the value of the dollar compared to the Swedish kronor), the price **PER PERSON** in a double room would be $1,350.60. The single supplement of 250 kronor is **PER NIGHT**. 250 kronor converts to $37.74. Multiplied by 7 nights, the single supplement is $264.18. That means the single price would be $1,350.60 + $264.18 = $1,614.78.

The deposit of 2000 Swedish kronor (SEK) converts to $301.82.


This is the place where we will stay.

Judy

Estate Inventories (Bouppteckningar)

Bouppteckningar (estate inventories) are online (for at least some areas in Sweden) on the Arkiv Digital site, which is fee-based. After the recent free weekend from Arkiv Digital, there are quite a few postings from people who hope to get a complete translation. Sadly, we are mostly on our own. It is hard to find someone who will translate those wonderful records for us.

Full translations of the bouppteckningar would overwhelm the helpers and we have few helpers on boards and lists who are able to do this. (If one person gets a total translation, that opens the door to **everyone** getting a total translation.) I am only one person and I have found dozens of bouppteckningar and I'm sure I'll find more. Add the rest of the people with bouppteckningar who would like a translation and think of what our helpers' lives would be like if they tried to help out with complete translations. (I've completely translated only one of mine, although I have a pretty good idea of what the beginning paragraphs say for most of mine.)

The help desk at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will ***NOT** translate them. They might help out with the paragraph at the beginning which has the genealogical information and some of the column headings, but they can't possibly spend hours trying to read and translate the inventory. They have too many other people needing help to spend all that time with just one patron.

I have collected some links for bouppteckningar. Use the information from those to figure out the basic legal vocabulary and to help you get started.

1) Pono's site: Look at the links on the left side of the page. He has a link to some of his own translations and also has a link to a picture dictionary of items often found in a bouppteckning.

 http://tinyurl.com/7fqdexv



2) SweGGate: Dr. Haeffner created a guide to bouppeckningar (Click on his links.) and also has definitions for many bouppteckning words.

 http://tinyurl.com/3k9mtd



3) a thread on the Rootsweb Sweden board:

 http://tinyurl.com/7qgqjxc



4) a thread on the Sweden Genforum board:

http://tinyurl.com/7hsam7f



5) Ordering a bouppteckning:

This is the site through which we can order a bouppteckning. There is a cost, they say. I have never had to pay a penny, but if you lack details and they need to do research, you will have to pay.

Order form in Swedish

Google translation of the order form




6) Elisabeth Thorsell's site recommends this article about bouppteckningar:

 http://tinyurl.com/cl3fn8o


Go to the links for each picture to see the actual page from which each screen shot was taken.

Judy

Swedish Records After 1900

I've been told by someone formerly connected with Genline that Ancestry.com has been steadily uploading scans from Genline. I forget how often this was done, but I think it might be once a month or so.

At any rate, Genline has SCB births, marriages, and deaths scanned until at least 1938 and I think they are done up to 1940 in some parishes. Those scans will eventually get onto Ancestry.com.


The SVAR service has those records until 1940 (soon to be 1941) on that fee-based service.

http://www.svar.ra.se (subscription)

This tells how to find them.

http://researchingswedishroots.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archi...

I also see records well into the 1900s on the fee-based Arkiv Digital site.

http://www.arkivdigital.net (subscription)

There are cds for the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Swedish Censuses. (yes, the late 1900s!) If you have DETAILED information about descendants, ask on a message board such as Genforum or Rootsweb, and someone with those cds will do a lookup. (You will need to provide your email because information on living people should not be placed online.)

If you get a lookup on the dvd "Swedish Death Index 1901-2009", then you can use that information to ask for a bouppteckning (estate inventory). That should provide the names of the children still alive at the time of the death of that person.

Use this page to order a bouppteckning.

http://www.riksarkivet.se/default.aspx?id=17462

This is a translation of that ordering page.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js...

Once you have information on those people from the bouppteckning or the later census cds, you can use a site such as these to get contact information.

http://www.birthday.se

http://www.ratsit.se/

http://personer.eniro.se/

http://www.hitta.se/

The first FAQ on this page provides some other ideas on how to try to find living relatives in Sweden.

http://www.augustana.edu/x14885.xml






If you are planning a trip to Sweden and want to find living relatives, please do not wait until a week or two before your trip to get started searching for relatives. The search is time-consuming and then you have to contact the relatives and arrange (if they are interested) in meeting.



Judy

Mantalslängder (Tax Censuses) on SVAR

It has been a long time since I've updated this blog. Partly I've been too busy, but also I lost my blog's password for a time. (I've finally written it down, so I hope that problem won't happen again.) At any rate, I feel guilty about not posting since September. Perhaps that guilty feeling will inspire me to continue adding tidbits to this blog. ;-)

I don't want anyone to think I'm a spokesperson for SVAR, but they do have some great scanned records. Unfortunately SVAR is not as easy to use as Genline or Arkiv Digital. Some people subscribe and find nothing because they don't know how to find materials on SVAR.(They should have asked for help on a message board or asked for help from SVAR, but they didn't and wasted their money. I still feel sorry for them.)

I have been trying to use the mantalslängder (tax censuses) more because there is a huge gap in parish records of any type for about 20 years in Frändefors parish where two of my grandparents were born. It is therefore quite hard to get back more than a few generations using only the parish records. One useful record is the mantalslängder. They were created just about every year, as far as I can tell (with some gaps, perhaps). Also, the best records are in the Swedish section of SVAR. There are some records which can be found if the site is changed to English, but the choices are far greater if you use the Swedish listings on the left side of the home page.

The mantalslängder is not exactly a census. It is a listing of those who were supposed to pay the "mantalspengar". The listings are for people from about 15-63 years of age. Wives are usually listed as wife, not by name. Soldiers were exempt. I think the extremely poor were exempt. There seem to be age categories into which there are numbers placed. I am far from familiar with every part of this record, but there are listings of the older children (I suppose.) so you can keep track year by year of at least some of the children who belong to a particular family.Servants (farmhands, female farm workers, etc.) and children are just added to a column by numbers. (4 female farm workers, 3 farmhands, etc.)

This site explains the column headings.

http://tinyurl.com/7osmk2y

Years ago I used to order microfilms of the mantalslängder from a Family History Center. They are in the  Family History Library Catalog under:

Sweden --> Swedish County --> Census

Once the film is selected, you have to find the film which has the parish you are searching in. Then you have to find the farm or village. This is a bit time-consuming, to say the least.

On SVAR it is easier. It has the mantalslängder from 1642-1820. (I think that the microfilms go later than that, but this is a good start.)

This is how I find those records.

1. Go to SVAR.


http://www.svar.ra.se

2. Sign in. (This is a subscription service.)

3. On the left side of the page, you will find "Skatter" (Taxes).

4. Click on "Skatter".

5. Click on "Mantalslängder 1642-1820".

6. Use the drop-down menu by Län to select the county you need.

7. "Församling". (parish)

a. Type the parish name. (Don't forget to use the "Swedish letters", if necessary.)

b. or you can use the drop-down menu. Choices are: "Innehåller" (contains), "Exakt" (exact), "Del av" (part of), and "Börjar med" (begins with)


8. "Härad" (Judicial District). You can leave this blank, or enter the härad, if you know it. 


9. "Startår" (beginning year)


10. "Slutår" (ending year)


11. "Sök" (Search) or "Rensa" (Erase)


12. Click on the "Bild" (Image) for the year you want. Iif you need to move forward to see more choices, click on "Nästa sida" (next page) at the bottom. If you need to move backwards, choose "Föregående sida" (previous page).


13. Once you have reached the images you want, you can adjust the size at the top of the page, but the size will change back to "Fit Page" unless you use the "Installningar" (Adjustments) link at the bottom right of the page.


14. I use the "Zoomnings grad" adjustment. The choices are "Hela sidan" (the whole page) and then the percentage of zoom. "Spara" means Save.


15. "Källa" (source) When you find the page you want, click on "Källa" and then copy the highlighted section. Then paste into your genealogy program.


16. You can move forwards or backwards one page at a time by clicking on the forward or backward arrow points.


17. You can move forwards or backwards five pages at a time by clicking on the +5 and -5 numbers.


18. You can move to the beginning or ending of the volume by clicking on the double arrow points.


19. There is also a drop-down menu which can be used to select the number of the image, which is probably not the exact page number.


20. If you find the image you want, then right click on the image. Move to "Selection" and then to "Copy". Paste into an image program. I use Irfanview, which can be downloaded for free. (I discovered Irfanview at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.)

http://www.irfanview.com 


21. You can then save the image using Irfanview.




The guidebook "Cradled in Sweden" discusses the mantalslängder in chapter 11. 


There will be a class on Swedish Research with intermediate to advanced topics at this January's Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. (However, as of this writing there are four seats left in this class.) Mantalslängder are among the topics which will be taught. Scroll down on the following website to find the information on the class.


http://tinyurl.com/8432j2q


                 

Births, Marriages, and Deaths on SVAR until 1940

SVAR has the SCB birth, marriage, and death records scanned until 1940. If you know the parish where your relatives lived, this is very helpful. The records for 1941 should be released near the start of 2012.


SCB records are extractions from the full birth, marriage, and death records. They leave out baptism dates, banns dates, and funeral dates, for example. They are still a very useful source of information.

SCB stands for Statistiska Centralbyrån. The Genline site has a useful article which will explain them better than I can do.

http://www.genline.com/databasen/SCB-materialet.php

I will try to explain how to get to those records. Unfortunately, there is no English translation on the SVAR site for this part of the site.

1. Sign into SVAR.

http://www.svar.ra.se

2. Select "Släktforskning" on the left side of the SVAR home page.

3. More choices will open up. Select "SCB utdrag".

4. There are now more choices. Choose "SCB-utdrag-födelse, vigsel, och död 1860-1940".

5. You should have reached a full page called "SCB-utdrag födelse, vigsel, och död 1860-1940". Move down to the box below.

Församling (Parish): Fill in the parish name. Be sure to spell the parish the Swedish way. The letters a, ä, and å are not equivalent, and the letters o and ö are not equivalent.

Län (County) Select the county from the drop-down menu.

Startår (Starting Year)

Slutår (Ending Year)

Typ av SCB utdrag (Type of SCB extraction)

Alla Typer (All Types)

Födelese (Births)

Vigsel (Marriages)

Död (Deaths)

6. Sök (Search) and Rensa (Clear).

7. There will be a listing of available records. Bild means image.

8. You can adjust the size of the image at the top of the page, but the size will change back to "Fit Page" unless you use the "Installningar" (Adjustments) link at the bottom right of the page.

9. I use the "Zoomnings grad" adjustment. The choices are "Hela sidan" (the whole page) and then the percentage of zoom. "Spara" means Save.

10. Källa (Source): When you find the page you want, click on Källa and then copy the highlighted section. Then paste into your genealogy program.

11. You can move forwards or backwards one page at a time by clicking on the forward or backward arrow points.

12. You can move forwards or backwards five pages at a time by clicking on the +5 and -5 numbers.

13.  You can move to the beginning or end of the volume by clicking on the double arrow points.

14. There is also a drop-down menu which can be used to select the number of the image, which is probably not the exact page number.

15. If you find an image you want, then right click on the image. Move to "Selection" and then to "Select Region". You will see a + sign which can be dragged around the part you want to copy. Move to the top left edge of the image and drag that + sign around the outside of the image.

16. Once you have highlighted the image, right click again, move to "Selection" and then to "Copy". Paste into an image program. I use Irfanview, which can be downloaded for free.  (I discovered Irfanview at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.)

http://www.irfanview.com/

17.  You can then save the image using Irfanview.

I know that SVAR can be confusing. SVAR is a great site with much valuable information, but it hasn't made things easy for those of us who are not native speakers of Swedish. If you need further elaboration, let me know.

Judy

Getting into the Swedish Content of the World/International Version of Ancestry.com

I'm taking a detour from discussing how to use SVAR. I've discovered how to get into the Swedish content of the international/world version of Ancestry.com.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2225

Judy