Find your Swedish Family
 

 
  Do you, too, have family in Sweden?
When your grandparent boarded the ship for North America or Australia, perhaps he or she left brothers and sisters behind in Sweden. If so, their children and grandchildren, your Swedish relatives, might be wondering about you, wanting to find you, but not know how and where. The reality is that it's much easier for you to find them in Sweden than for them to find you.  But you might need some help!

I have worked with Swedish genealogical research for many years, and have much experience and knowledge when it comes to finding families here in Sweden. In fact, there are few cases where  I have not found a relative in Sweden!  I’m very familiar with Swedish archives, church records, and most important, the Swedish language, the one I grew up with!

An initial consultation - for free!
I'd be happy to hear from you, but please start by reading my newsletters to learn about archives, records and areas of Sweden. Then send me what you know about one of your emigrants, be it your maternal grandmother, mormor,  or paternal grandfather, farfar.

Here is the information I need from you:  

Name and date of birth
 Province and parish in Sweden (where born or lived)
The year of emigration and the destination in the US, Canada etc.
Travel companions (spouse/children)

Here is an example of what I need from you:
My paternal grandmother (farmor, in Swedish), Anna Strandberg, was born on March 23, 1883, in Växjö, Småland. She emigrated around 1900, alone, to Jamestown, N.Y.

Just send an email or a letter to Bridge to Sweden, Marie Louise Bratt, Vigelsjöhöjden 1B, 76152 Norrtälje, Sweden. and I'll check the following databases, when appropriate. 

1.      Emigranten, especially Emihamn, based upon the Swedish passenger lists, when people boarded the ship, usually in Göteborg or Malmö. This is quite complete, but starts only around 1869.

2.      Emibas, an incomplete (unfortunately) database of emigrants, with information taken from the church records. Often very useful when you know the emigrant’s date of birth (if he or she is included, of course)

3.      Sveriges befolkning (Swedish census) from 1890 or 1900

More research - for a fee
After this jump start, you might be able to do more research on your own. If you need further help, or don’t have the time for research, I’m available to do it for you.

Perhaps your grandfather emigrated, while several of his siblings stayed in Sweden, had children and grandchildren, who are probably alive today. Of course, all of them might have emigrated too, and maybe one sister died in infancy and the others never had any children. Then there are no descendants from any of your grandparent’s siblings!

You might now decide to do no more. You have learned much about your grandparent’s family: names, dates and places of birth of both parents and siblings - and you know what happened to the siblings. You might also decide to continue your research, with one of grandpa’s parents, perhaps his mother: the names of her parents (date and place of birth) and her siblings. Perhaps you even want to follow these siblings forward in time, to see if they stayed in Sweden and had children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, a rather involved research.

So now that you have found the descendant of grandmother's sisters grandchildren, or your great grandmother's brother's great grandchildren and you want to make contact with them. In my experience, the more closely related you are to them, the more interested they are. Of course, Swedes with interest in genealogy are always interested!

Prices for my research

1.      One grandparent emigrated alone
We hope to find one of his or her brothers or sisters staying in Sweden – who also had children and grandchildren, your second cousins.

Price: $350

2.      Your grandparent emigrated with parents and siblings, or a great grandparent  emigrated alone
Now we have to go to the next generation, to the parents’ siblings, to find descendants. Let me give you a rather typical example:

Farmor (paternal grandmother) Emma emigrated with her parents, Karl Andersson and Anna Persdotter, both born in 1853, and her sisters Karin and Ulrika. We focus on Emma’s mother, Anna, (great grandmother). Did one of her siblings stay in Sweden? Anna’s youngest sister, Kjerstin, did while her brothers emigrated. Kjerstin married and had 9 children, but 7 of them  emigrated and 2 stayed, Britta and Peter. Britta had 3 children, born in the 1920s, but only one is alive, Ivar. He is elderly, does not know English, and feels he is too old and not interested in making contact. He does have a daughter, though, who speaks English.

Price: $550

What do you get?
 names, dates and places of birth of parents and children
 names of all the places (farms, villages, parishes, counties) where the family lived
a full report of all findings
 a family tree
copies of the church records used
 at least one living Swedish relative
  names and addresses of living relatives in Sweden

Note that it could happen, but has rarely happened, that records are so poor that it's impossible to take the research up to the present time.  

 
 

Useful links for your research (all in English):

About genealogy

About 
Swedish genealogy

Maps

Swedes in America


 Swedish shopping

 
 

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