About Find a Swede
Professional genealogy,
turned on its head.
Find a Swede started from a realization made by connecting with international distant cousins after a DNA-test. Even though Swedish genealogy records were available to read online from anywhere, many got lost in their Swedish ancestry. Between the archaic foreign language in the records and a Swedish society that predated the social welfare system it’s known for today, the historic Sweden was hard for descendants of migrants to understand. The stories of their ancestors remained full of questions.
The need for professional Swedish genealogy in English is real. The records are easily available, but access is not understanding.
Find a Swede was created to share a native understanding of your Swedish family history. It depends on combining local context with international standards. I’ve always loved when my clients got to know their great-grandparents through my work. With time though, the sheer volume of the reports and the time spent on citations and other formalia didn’t seem as relevant. All the details were necessary to reach reliable conclusions, but my clients’ questions were answered in the summary and the number of projects I could take was limited.
“My offers help you read, understand, and explore your Swedish ancestry as if you were born and raised in Sweden.”
So I took what you told me you needed, through your emails and responses to my questions, and created something that would meet your needs while also being economically viable in the tiny sliver of a niche that is Swedish genealogy in English. Because it’s missing and it needs to be made available. My offers help you read, understand, and explore your Swedish ancestry as if you were born and raised in Sweden. My services are now limited and efficient, yet they will help you know what your great-grandaunt faced.
Find a Swede is no longer a traditional genealogy service or educator and it’s not a genealogy site with access to records. In fact, not even Google knows how to categorize what Find a Swede has become. I’m your guide.
Professional Genealogist
Annika Höstmad
I’m a professional Swedish genealogist guiding you through the Swedish landscape to accurate genealogical research.
I’m the owner of the business Find a Swede and the creator of the platform Shortcut to Sweden, which gives international researchers native-level understanding of the Swedish records, history, and methods.
Former Sillgatan, Herring Street, in Gothenburg was where Swedish emigrants waited to board ship and start a new life. A yellow 18th-century building on the same street is now the home of Find a Swede, connecting their descendants with ancestors in Sweden.
Gothenburg, Sweden
Your research. Your choice.
I like to think of this new phase of Find a Swede as a café. It’s a café where the menu comes with a trusted guide to reliable methods and specialized research themes. You’re welcome to sit down and pick what you want when it suits you, whether it’s tomorrow or in three years.
Shortcut to Sweden
Shortcut to Sweden is my ecosystem of tools and resources for life-long learners exploring their Swedish ancestry. Each piece is as extensive as it needs to be to move you forward and no more.
Learn more
READ
Shortcut to Sweden: Illustrated Genealogy Glossary
A curated glossary of genealogy-related terms, built from years of researching Swedish ancestry for international clients. Illegible handwriting complicates reading records in a foreign language. That’s why this glossary includes script font examples covering the mid-1600s to the late 1800s.
START reading
UNDERSTAND
Shortcut to Sweden: Foundations
Form a well-founded understanding of the realities of Swedish genealogy with historical context, Sweden-specific methods, and deep dives into main record types. Foundations answers the common questions when researching your ancestry in Sweden and helps plan and structure the research.
START LEARNING
EXPLORE
Shortcut to Sweden: Navigator
Speed up your research and expand into specialized genealogy themes using the tools I’ve built for client work over the years: Locate your ancestors’ birth home using the searchable parish map and directory, translate documents with the growing translation database, and find the exact resources that put your roots in a new light.
START NAVIGATING
Swedish genealogy research
My Swedish genealogy services give you access to my expertise and judgement for key moments in your family history. Based on years of researching Swedish ancestors, including migrants, I’m here to answer your most crucial questions.
Swedish genealogy wordlist
Download a free Swedish genealogy wordlist with the 40+ words found in nearly every church book. Includes births, deaths, occupations, kinship, and calendar terms—all in the spelling used back then. Plus an introduction to date formats and spelling reforms.
Explore Swedish Roots
Get insights into Swedish history, culture and genealogy research in my newsletter Exploring Swedish Roots. Sign up, and there’s a 70%+ chance you’ll read every email. It’s sent at a slow pace and adjusted to match where you are in your research.