A variety of investigative techniques will be required to produce a list
of every family relative who immigrated to the USA from Sweden. Most
likely
the details about these distant ancestors of yours are not known to you at
this moment. So the job is to track down all facts which will be essential
to
proceed with genealogical discovery. The goal of this activity is to find
the
full name, birth month, birth year, relationship, and immigration year of
each
immigrant relative. Enter these details on page 29 of this workbook.
This investigation should include ancestors and all other family members
who
immigrated, not just your direct ancestors. A direct ancestor is a person
like
a great great great grandfather, but not a great great great uncle.
There may be a need to track down a person through a sibling.
When some people left Sweden, they did not appear in the records
as leaving. Although there was a requirement to obtain an emigration
document from the home parish, some people did not complete the paperwork.
Also if a person went to Germany and then left for America, the records in
Sweden would not reflect their departure. That's why details about a
relative,
like a sibling, might be useful to find parents. Think of the process as a
big puzzle. The more pieces you can find, the more success you will have.
A tentative pedigree chart will be helpful for you to start with. That
way
you can see who is related to who. I have put a blank form on the internet
that you can copy. It is from the LDS PAF program. See page 34 in this
workbook.
Here is the URL.
Please be advised at this point in your investigation that the more
comprehensively
and inclusively you perform this task, the easier other tasks will be to
perform.
You are advised and encouraged to develop the discipline to stay on task.
You may want to jump ahead to other activities. Well, until page 29 of
this
workbook is complete for all the known immigrant ancestors you can find,
it
needs to be your focus. You will be unable to enter the Emibas CD to find
emigration
dates for your ancestors without the details on page 29. Further, you will not
be able
to access the church records at Genline without the information on page 29.
The
situation is much like dominoes. You need to do one thing before you do
another.
This order is essential to success.
Admittedly you will not know everything or even anything about some of
your
immigrant ancestors or family immigrants when you begin this activity. This
full
process of genealogy will probably do for you what it has done for me: Find
many
relatives that I never knew about. And I'm not even close to done. Stand back
for
the family parade.
Through the work I have done, I have managed to find living relatives in
Sweden,
living family members in the USA, and names of ancestors back farther in
history
than I ever expected.
Go on now to follow through this workbook to gather the facts. Interview
family
members. Collect documents. And follow other tasks to use the USA census data
to
begin building your family tree. Begin to fill in your pedigree chart. Watch it
grow.
Be prepared to hear that
the family records and papers
from the old country
were discarded
just a few years ago.
Tracing Your Swedish Roots
Do you sometimes feel an urge to loot, pillage, burn and destroy? There
could be Viking blood in your veins! This page will help you find out.
Sweden has kept excellent records of its citizens since the 17th
century. This means that people of Swedish descent can trace their
family's history in Sweden and discover distant relatives, if they just
know some of the basic facts about their families. A little bit of luck
might even take you down to the 12th century. On this page you will find
links to all available resources and tips on how to begin and continue
researching your Swedish ancestry.
Even if you choose to do most of the research yourself, the non-profit
organizations and archives that can assist you sometimes charge fees to
cover their basic operating costs. Those who do not wish to do the
research themselves can hire professional genealogists who do family
histories for money. Some of the sites listed below belong to non-profit
organizations, while others are operated by people who may be offering
their services as professional genealogical researchers.
FamilySearch is a free web
service sponsored by LDS and provides instant online access to 300
million records out of the total of over 2 billion on microfilm in the
church repository. Their
page on Sweden is probably the best starting point you can find
anywhere.
Ellis
Island Records Opened in mid April 2001, this new site offers online
access to 22 million immigration records between 1892 and 1924. Here's
where you have a chance to find the key to the church records: the
parish where your ancestor was born. Be prepared for long response times
- the site is swamped with millions of search requests every day from
all over the world. 56 million in its first two days alone.
Released
Dec. 28: Additional
records relating to Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel A.
Alito's career are available online.
Records
are also available from the Reagan
and Bush
Presidential Libraries. See the latest press
release.
See
"Democracy Starts Here" and discover the National
Archives Experience: learn how records tell our stories, our
history. Watch
the video now
State
of the Archives: Address to the staff of the
National Archives and Records Administration by Allen Weinstein,
Archivist of the United States.
Released
Dec. 28: Additional
records relating to Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel A.
Alito's career are available online.
Records
are also available from the Reagan
and Bush
Presidential Libraries. See the latest press
release.
See
"Democracy Starts Here" and discover the National
Archives Experience: learn how records tell our stories, our
history. Watch
the video now
State
of the Archives: Address to the staff of the
National Archives and Records Administration by Allen Weinstein,
Archivist of the United States.
