need to know about sweden geneology?

Question

my grandpa was born in sweden but not sure on name spelling he was born i think july 1 1895 around there came to usa and married alice veronica peterson in 1921 lived in wisconsin polk county dresser wisconsin area died i think in 1964 alice died in amery wisconsin nursing home in 1994 around there need geneology info if anyone has anything free
thanks

i forgot, his name in sweden i was told from family was aaron albert nelson or nielson not sure on spelling but came to us and changed it because too many nelsons here then he had two brothers that kept the nelson name in red oak iowa and a sister that stayed with his mother in sweden

Answer 1

I LOVE researching in Sweden. Everything is so well-organized!

There are four resources that will help you. Ellis Island will give you immigration information. Genline will give you Swedish Church records. The Center for Scandinavian Studies at North Park University in Chicago and possibly the Finnish-American Heritage Center at Finlandia University in Hancock, MI will have the records on Scandinavian immigration, census records from Sweden, etc.

http://www.genline.com/databasen/
http://www.ellisisland.org/
http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?northpark=Centers_Scandinavian.CtrsS_Main
http://www.finlandia.edu/catalog/intro.pdf

I'll snoop around and see what I can find, but this is where you're going to find the records from Sweden that will help you go back several generations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden was almost as good as the Roman Catholics about keeping meticulous records. They just didn't have as many sacraments.

Answer 2

www.ancestry.com

Name: Albert A Nelson
Age in 1910: 16
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1894
Birthplace: Sweden
Relation to Head of House: Lodger
Father's Birth Place: Sweden
Mother's Birth Place: Sweden
Home in 1910: Chicago Ward 33, Cook, Illinois
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Gender: Male
Year of Immigration: 1900

This is all I can find about him--if this is the right one. Would you believe I just live 23 miles from Red Oak, Iowa?? There are 21 Nelsons listed in our phone book living there now. If I had some names, I could possibly (if it doesn't go against YA guidelines) email their addresses and phone numbers to you.

Answer 3

Here is a tip for when you get to people born in Sweden, from

http://genforum.genealogy.com/sweden/messages/28125.html

This has helped me several times when I was searching for Swedes in the LDS site. It may help some of you who are beginners. The rest of you will probably mutter “What’s he going to discover next, Soundex?”

The Mormons have a section of their web site devoted to vital records. They only have five countries in that section, but Sweden is one of them. Go to:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=vr/search_VR.asp&clear_form=true

(Or, go to
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
click on “Vital Records Index” on the left-hand side.)

I will use the individual record for this lady as my example:

Maria
Birth: 29 Aug 1851 Place:
Christening: 06 Sep 1851 Place: Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden
Father: Nils TROEDSSON
Mother: Petronella PETERSDR
Source Information:
Batch Number: C432071
-----------------------------------------------------

Here is the trick. When you find someone's birth record, click on "Batch Number". You get a custom search form. Then enter the surname, one of the mother's names and one of the father's names.

(Play around with it; spelling varied back then. Sometimes the father's given name works, sometimes his surname, sometime both. Ditto mom.)

I used Maria above and entered this in the custom search screen:

Surname = NILSDOTTER
Father's surname = TROEDSSON
Mother's given name = Petronella
Batch = C432071

The wizards at Mormon central know that NILSDOTTER is only for ladies; men would have surname NILSSON, so I got nine hits, some men, some women, even though the surname was NILSDOTTER:

1. Nils NILSSON - Vital Records Index
Gender: M Birth/Christening: 24 Apr 1849 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

2. Nilla NILSDOTTER - Vital Records Index
Gender: F Birth/Christening: 25 Mar 1850 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

3. Maria NILSDOTTER - Vital Records Index
Gender: F Birth/Christening: 29 Aug 1851 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

4. Nilla NILSDOTTER - Vital Records Index
Gender: F Birth/Christening: 20 Jun 1852 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

5. Ola NILSSON - Vital Records Index
Gender: M Birth/Christening: 02 Mar 1856 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

6. Johanna NILSDOTTER - Vital Records Index
Gender: F Birth/Christening: 15 Feb 1859 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

7. Carl NILSSON - Vital Records Index
Gender: M Birth/Christening: 24 Aug 1842 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

8. Johanna NILSDOTTER - Vital Records Index
Gender: F Birth/Christening: 08 Dec 1844 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

9. Henning NILSSON - Vital Records Index
Gender: M Birth/Christening: 13 Dec 1846 Farstorp, Kristianstad, Sweden

So it looks like Maria had 8 siblings. Click on each one to make sure all four of the parents' names match. Nils TROEDSSON's brother Erik may have married Petronella CARLSSON.

Treat the records all as clues, not facts, too; but even though the Swedes only used 12 names for boys and 8 for girls, the odds of two parents having all four names the same as two other parents in the same small town are slight.

Happy hunting!

Answer 4

Most genealogy sites will list ancestors from Sweden (or any other European country). So, ask all your living relatives for all the information they can provide, write it all down, including who said what.
Then
Anyhew, as to searching, try these:
Free sites: there are several to choose from. Start with:
http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Assuming they emigrated from Europe, start with Ellis Island and the Battery Conservancy sites:
http://www.ellisisland.org
http://www.castlegarden.org

For Scotland, check:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

For Sweden:
http://www.genline.com/databasen/
-http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?...
http://www.finlandia.edu/catalog/intro.p...

For ship’s passenger lists, try:
http://www.immigrantships.net/
www.cyndislist.com/ships.htm
www.geocities.com/Heartland/5978/Emigration.html
www.immigrantstips.net/
www.searchforancestors.com/passengerlists/
www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/passenger-arrival.html

For those with native American ancestry, try:
http://www.tribalpages.com/
http://www.cherokee-nc.com/geneology.php...
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/herita...

Netherlanders: http://www.genlias.nl

For a fee, try a DNA test:
When you really want to know where your ancestors came from, try such sites as: www.familytreedna.com, dnatribes.com, dnaancestryproject.com, and, of course, the National Geographics Genotype program, https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/geno...
For Jewish ancestry, try:
www.israelgenealogy.com

For people from India, try:
http://www.fibis.org/

Have a look at these sites these are South African ones,
http://genealogy.about.com/od/south_afri...
http://www.rupert.net/~lkool/page2.html....
http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/website...
http://southafricanfamilyhistory.wordpre...

Meaning of names:
http://www.winslowtree.com/surname-meani...

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f...

Here are some general sites with lists of African names:
http://www.swagga.com/fname.htm
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/afr.php
http://www.familiesonlinemagazine.com/ba...

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/...

Military:
www.military.com
http://www.familymilitaryrecords.com/

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/militar...

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesear...

http://genealogy.about.com/b/2007/05/24/...

http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ww1/draft/sea...


Finding live people:
Two good places I use are www.zabasearch.com and www.peoplefinder.com

Don't forget, use your local library. Ours (a small one, yet) has www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com, as well as periodicals, books and guidance from an experienced genealogist.

Keep good notes on where you find what: sources are very important.