Researching Swedish roots is easier than ever
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Researching one's ancestral roots in Sweden is easier than ever before, thanks to the availability of computer databases and Internet resources. Moreover, Swedes are apt to be as eager to contact their American relatives as Americans are to contact Swedish relatives.
Those were the messages that came through clearly during the visit of representatives of the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies to Salt Lake City Aug. 15-17.
Seven deputies from the federation presented workshops and classes at the Church's Family History Library as part of the Swedish Genealogical Tour 2002. Other stops on the tour were in Kingsburg and Ontario, Calif., earlier in the month.
The federation deputies were hosted by the Family History Library at a luncheon with President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, and his wife, Frances. Both have Swedish roots, and President Monson shared accounts of his visits to and association with Sweden.
Ted Rosvall, federation president, described it as "an umbrella organization for 132 member organizations, societies all over Sweden."
"And they, in turn, have about 50,000 members," he added. "So genealogy is big in Sweden."
Indeed, an estimated 100,000 people in Sweden are involved in genealogy in some sense, said Olof Cronberg, one of the federation deputies on the tour. "That would make it 1 percent of the population [of Sweden]," he noted. "That is really impressive."
He added that 1 million Swedes emigrated during the 1800s, comprising 25 percent of the population at that time. "So every Swede has American relatives, and I think that as you want to know Swedish relatives, Swedish relatives want to know American relatives. So I don't think anybody [in Sweden] would mind getting a letter from America saying, 'We might be related.' And nowadays, most genealogists have computers and e-mail addresses, so it's really easy to make contact."
Language is not a problem, Mr. Cronberg said, because virtually all Swedes born since World War II have learned English in school. There may be some older people who don't know English, but they can obtain help from their children or grandchildren, he said.
Federation members have something in common with Latter-day Saint family history enthusiasts in that most pursue genealogy as a hobby, not a profession. Mr. Cronberg, for example, is a medical doctor. And federation president Rosvall is a church organist and choir director by profession who has been in Salt Lake City before on a tour featuring one of the choirs he directs.
Mr. Rosvall said he got involved in genealogy at age 10 when he became fascinated with the royal families of Europe, especially the Swedish royal family. "From there, I turned to my own ancestry, of course. It became evident that so many of them had emigrated to America, and that's when I became fascinated with the emigration era."
He said he became acquainted with the Church's vast family history resources early on when he visited a Church family history center in Stockholm. "This is my fifth visit to Salt Lake and this magnificent house," he said, referring to the Family History Library.
"I'm glad to see that the Family History Library is adjusting to modern techniques and they realize here that the era of microfilm is now passing slowly and that digitizing is the key word now."
He said databases are an exciting aspect of family history research these days, "all sorts of databases that are frequented by volunteers as well as organizations that will help you find people. Especially the emigration databases that I am presenting here [as part of the tour] are absolutely wonderful. You can find practically everyone that left Sweden."
Information on such databases can be readily obtained from The Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies (Sveriges Släktforskarförbund), Box 30222, 104 25 Stockholm, Sweden; their e-mail is: genealog@genealogi.se; and the Web site is: www.genealogi.se
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com
