GuidedResearch:Why Can't I Find the Record - Sweden Deaths

This page will give you additional guidance and resources to find death information for your ancestor. Use this page after first completing the death section of the Sweden Guided Research page.

Additional Databases and Online Resources
If you know your ancestor's parish, use the Sweden map to navigate to the Wiki page for the parish to find more localized information.
 *  Church Records  at ArkivDigital ($)
 * 1649-1920:  Sweden Burials  at FindMyPast ($); also at MyHeritage ($)
 * 1840-1942: Sweden, Indexed Death Records  at Ancestry ($)

Additional Records with Death Information
Substitute records can contain information about more than one event, and are used when records for an event are not available. Because the substitute records may not be created at the time of the event, it may contain incorrect information. Search for as many substitute records as possible to corroborate information found in substitute records to help improve accuracy.

Finding Town of Origin
Knowing an ancestor’s hometown can be important to locate more records. If a person immigrated to the United States, try Finding Town of Origin to find the ancestor’s hometown.

Virtual Genealogy Consultations
Schedule a free online consultation with a research specialist:

Ask the Community
Select a community research group where you can ask questions and receive free genealogy help.

Tips for finding deaths
Success with finding death records in online databases depends on a few key points:
 * Try different spelling variations of the first and last name of your ancestor (e.g. Niels, Nils).
 * Try a given name search (leave out the last names).
 * The use of patronymic surnames in Sweden declined in the early 1900s, and family surnames became more permanent through generations. (See the following article for more information: Naming Customs.)
 * Women began adopting their husband's surname in documents in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and adoption of their husband's surname became law in 1920.


 * Expand the date range of the search.
 * Try searching with the county name only instead of by parish.

Known Record Gaps
Records Start Church records in in Sweden officially began in 1686, but some were kept sporadically before that time. These include death and burial records. Early records may be inconsistent.

Records Destroyed Any known record loss will be mentioned on the parish page. Locate your parish by navigating to the parish page starting here.