Sweden Genealogy

Europe  Sweden Guide to Sweden ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Country Information
Sweden is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe bordered by Denmark, Norway, and Finland. From 1814 to 1905, it was part of the Swedish-Norwegian Union. Swedish is the official language.

Counties
Collections by SVAR, Arkiv Digital, Genline or the FamilySearch Catalog are organized by Swedish län (usually called county in English). In compliance with the Constitution of 1634, the kingdom was organized into counties (called Län in Swedish.) At this time each province (called Landskap) turned over its civil authority to the county administration. Through the years there have been many changes to the county structure. Some counties were added and others were dissolved. This map represents the county structure as it was in the mid 1900s. It also matches the county structure used in the FamilySearch Catalog. For further reading on the changes through the years see History of Swedish Counties.

Parishes

 * Parish List
 * Parish Pages (Alphabetical Order)
 * Maps of Parishes (Socken) in each county (Län) - in1890, with population for each parish, great for finding nearby parishes
 * Swedish County Letters Abbreviations

Districts

 * District List

Provinces
The provinces of Sweden (called Landskap in Swedish) are geographical areas that are based on political subdivisions that predate the county organization of 1634. The divisions are based on cultural and geographical characteristics that many Swedes (and people of Swedish decent) strongly identify with today. The provinces are unique from each other in many ways such as spoken dialects, traditional clothing, and local social traditions.

With such deep social and cultural roots associated to the provinces, it's not uncommon that immigrants referred to their origin in Sweden by the name of their province. They saw themselves as residents of a certain province such as Skåne, Ångermanland, or Dalarna rather than from a county. Emigrants from large cities, however, such as Stockholm or Göteborg usually gave their origin by the name of the city.

See Provinces of Sweden for a map and links.

More Sweden Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for Sweden.
 * Research Strategies
 * Research Tips and Strategies
 * Tips for Beginners
 * Tips for Swedish American Researchers
 * Getting Started
 * What's the next step?
 * Finding your ancestor in the records
 * Sweden "How to" Guides
 * Finding Records showing Family Structure
 * Finding Records of Moving and Migration
 * Finding Father of Illegitimate Child
 * Post-1900 Research
 * Class on Scandinavian Research
 * Class on Reading Scandinavian Gothic Handwritten Records.''

More Sweden Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Sweden.
 * Historical Maps
 * Abbreviations in Family History Sources
 * Dictionaries
 * Feast Day Calendar (Moveable)
 * Feast Day Lists (Fixed and Moveable)
 * Nationell ArkivDatabas (NAD)
 * Nordic Given Names List
 * Household Exam Roll Headings
 * Swedish Parish Register and Household Exam Roll Headings
 * Translation Tools
 * Type the Letters Å, Ä, and Ö
 * Maps

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in resourcing your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map