Scandinavian Lineage Makes Your Job Easy

If your ancestors came from Norway, Sweden, Finland or Denmark, then you are a lucky genealogist. Good records have been kept in Scandinavian countries from very early times, and many records are available on microfilm.

So don’t be afraid to begin searching for your Scandinavian ancestors.

Putting first things first, I recommend that you do some homework reading about your country as you begin to research. Boundaries and jurisdictions have changed over the last couple of hundred years, and you need to know what country was in charge to know where to look for the records. Any basic history book of the country should furnish this information.

Another valuable tip is to become familiar with the patronymic system of naming. This will help you to trace the family when the name seems to change.

You need to know, for instance, that Olaf Ellingson was the son of Elling Person, who was the son of Pers Landerson, etc.

Major sources of family history information in Scandinavian countries are parish registers, probate records and census records. The law required ministers to keep written church or parish registers, and these become the vital records.

You should be able to find parish registers for Norway dating back to 1688. Swedish parish registers date from 1686, and many are available on microfilm. Danish parish registers can date back to 1573, but most date from around 1645. Finnish records exist generally from 1648, but remember that up until 1809 you will find many areas included in the Swedish records.

Probates are records of death and distribution of the property of a deceased person. The majority of these records in Norway date from the 1687 law which required the death of a person be reported immediately to proper officials so that the estate be properly handled.

Probate records in Norway are often card indexed and kept by civil jurisdictions. Earliest Danish probate records date from the 1500s. In Sweden, the probate record is really an inventory of the deceased; few Swedish probate records exist before 1750. In Finland, probates are available from 1650 to 1860.

Census records are enumerations of the inhabitants, and although the years census records were taken vary from country to country, their content and format are similar. In Norway, the valuable censuses were taken in 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900.

In Sweden, no regular census was taken, but a tax list was recorded. In Denmark, censuses were taken 16 times between 1787 and 1920, and every five years since then. These records are arranged by parish, district and county. In Finland, the censuses were taken every year from 1635 to the present, but are not considered a good source until the later time period.

In addition to those sources which are similar in all the Scandinaviann countries, each country has some unique sources.

For Norway, there are bygdeboker - local area histories that frequently list the owners and even workers on the farms. The farm name is very important in Norwegian research, as it is a very important identifier.

In Sweden, there are clerical surveys which are census-type records kept in five-year spans beginning about 1686. They usually indicate names, birthdates, ages, marriage, deathdates and places where each individual moved to or from, and thus you can follow an individual through his entire life.

Denmark has military levying rolls which are conscriptions or draft lists of all males born in the rural areas of Denmark from approximately 1789 to the present. These records contain the name of men 15 to 63 years old, age, birthplace and residence and name of parent.

Finland has communion records which are similar in content to the Swedish clerical survey records.

The best tip I can give you as you begin your Scandinaviann genealogy would be to get yourself a copy of the Research Outline for your particular country. These multi-page guides are published by the Family History Library, and should be available for copying at the Family History Center nearest you. They are also available at Ancestors Plus in Shadle Center, and they can be ordered directly from the Family History Library, 35 North West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150. Enclose $2 for each country’s guide.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.