Shortcut to Sweden
Self-guided Swedish genealogy resources and tools
with Find a Swede
READ
Shortcut to Sweden: Illustrated Genealogy Glossary
- Curated wordlists as they appear in records and old documents
- Three centuries of handwriting examples
- Calendar terms
- 34 sets of record headers
- Detailed descriptions of unique Swedish terms
- Spelling and langugage reforms
- AI translation guide for more reliable results
- Transcription tips
- Instant digital delivery
Real, old words from actual records.
€39Get the Glossary
UNDERSTAND
Shortcut to Sweden: Foundations
- Naming conventions
- Six essential record types and their history, use, and interpretation
- How to read passenger lists
- Swedish place names
- Geographical terms
- Soldier names
- Swedish geography and how it affected your ancetors
- Housing conditions
- Economic history
- Causes of migration
- Finding missing people
- Sweden specific methods including troubleshooting
- Locating living Swedish relatives
- Place name worksheet
- Research plan workbook to help you discover your ancestry with more ease
- Swedish record workflow for reliable research
- Research log template
- Instant digital delivery
As useful as a course on Swedish genealogy, but yours to download and keep.
€129get foundations
EXPLORE
Shortcut to Sweden: Navigator
- Monthly guidance emails
- Searchable parish map overlayed a contemporary map to help you locate ancestral homes
- Parish directory detailing counties and boundary changes
- Growing translation database
- Resources database with specialized sources for Swedish genealogy so that you can go deeper and solve your specific mysteries
- Instant online access
My guidance and tools, for you to discover your Swedish roots.
€30 / quarter or €89 / yearSign Up
Accessible records, foreign lives
For a genealogist, having Swedish ancestors is a stroke of luck. Swedish residency has been registered since the late 1600s and life events were recorded even earlier. These records are freely available online. But access is not understanding. Cracking the code to a foreign language is a challenge in itself. Family history requires also tracking how countries have evolved over centuries.
Understand Sweden to know your story
Shortcut to Sweden is my ecosystem of tools and guides for Swedish genealogy in English, made for lifelong learners ready to find answers about their heritage. The parts are made to help you read, understand, and explore your ancestry without the barriers of language and historical context.
Because I don’t think you need another course, you want results, and that comes from the right guidance at the right time.
Professional Genealogist
Annika Höstmad
I’m Annika Höstmad, Swedish genealogist and the creator of Shortcut to Sweden — tools and teaching built to help descendants of Swedes research their roots.
Over fifteen years of Swedish genealogical research, tracing both migrants and those who spent their whole lives in Sweden, has gone into everything you’ll find here.
My office is in an 18th-century building in central Gothenburg, Sweden. There’s an eight in ten chance that your ancestor passed right by on their way to the port and their new life.
I offer personal guidance for your research and translations, available seasonally. The waitlist opens in June.
Your mystery deserves guidance
Get personal guidance in your genealogical research and record translations by Annika, straight from Gothenburg, Sweden.
PS. Top photo of four women at the coffee table in the garden at Olaigatan 26 in Örebro, by Wikström, Alfred, 1880, Örebro läns museum (OLM-2008-4-83), Public Domain Mark.
Shortcut to Sweden is also accessible at shortcuttosweden.com.