Find a Swede - Swedish Genealogy
Genealogy you can trust.
Most Swedes in the 19th century had a last name from their father’s name, a patronymic. But there were other types of surnames. One, probably the largest, of the groups with a different type of last names was the soldiers. They went by a solider’s name (soldatnamn).
When joining the army, most soldiers ...
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Can you imagine being forced by law to leave the farm your family has lived on for generations? That was the reality for many Europeans in previous centuries. Sweden implemented land reforms in the 1700s and the 1800s. The last one was laga skifte. If you haven’t stumbled upon the term before, it provides a good tool for Swedish genealogy. More on that later.
The land reforms are also useful to know about if you want to understand the life of your Swedish ...
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Most people with Swedish ancestors, have ancestors who were poor. Because every other Swede was poor in 1850.
You will see it in the titles. They were crofters, backstugusittare or inhyseshjon, maids, farmhands, and day laborers. Sometimes there’s a comment saying utfattig (penniless). Or they were living på socknen, without steady ...
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Your family has probably told you a few things about your Swedish ancestor. Did they say she came from Storegården, Äspered Parish, Älvsborg County? I would guess not. (If she did, please say hi!) Chances are that the name you have for your ancestor’s home in Sweden needs to be interpreted in some way. It is a key part in answering the question where did my Swedish ancestor come from.
Let’s face it. Genealogy isn’t cheap. Between the database subscriptions and the family tree software it adds up. It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting out and not ready to spend the money, or if you are on a budget for any other reason. It is still possible to research your ancestry in Sweden with these free tools.
(SWE means the interface is only in available in Swedish.)
Swedes celebrate Luciadagen, St Lucy’s Day, on 13 December. It is an event in memory of the catholic saint Lucy, Lucia. Originally, St Lucy’s Day fell on winter solstice. This was when Sweden followed the Julian calendar. Sweden shifted to the Gregorian calendar in 1753 [1].
There are many different traditions surrounding Swedish Christmas food. Here is a selection of some of the most common dishes and snacks served.
Julbord is a Swedish Christmas buffet. It is a Christmas version of the smorgasbord served at Swedish holidays. Christmas parties for organisations are often held at restaurants serving Christmas smorgasbord. The main event for the ...
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The way to identify a place in Swedish genealogy is to specify the parish (socken) and the county (län). But there are many other regional divisions. Here is a brief look at the most common ones. Please note that the exact borders vary over time. The most ...
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Did you know that only 15% of Swedes can count on a white Christmas? I grew up with the risk of snow between October ...
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Newspaper clippings are a great resource in family history. The easiest way to find them in Sweden is through the National Library of Sweden. Its collection of digitalized daily newspaper is free to search at https://tidningar.kb.se/. It allows for w*ldcard searches, in case ...
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