By Jennifer Hansen, AG
Peder Pedersen lived on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. He lived on a farm in Sonder-Okse, a community too small to be called a town. Peder’s father, Simon Pedersen, lived in the same small town. Peter’s grandfather, Peder Simonsen, and his great-grandfather, Simon Pedersen, and generations beyond that, also lived in the same small town. Peder Pedersen’s son Martinus Pedersen, however, chose a different path: he crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in the western United States. My father, Martin Peterson, shares this emigrant grandfather’s name.
Finding the Place of Origin
The first step in researching your Scandinavian ancestry is to find the exact place of origin, including the church parish boundary in which your ancestor resided in Scandinavia since most records in Scandinavia are kept on the local parish level. If family stories do not include the place of origin, finding these origins may be done through using several sources:
- Obituaries. An obituary may list where an immigrant lived prior to living in the United States.
- US Church records. Church records in the United States often list the last parish that a person attended, and if you find the Church your ancestor first attended once arriving in the United States, it may list where they came from.
- US Immigration or naturalization records. These records may state the area of origin.
- Scandinavian emigration records. These records of emigrants may also state the area of origin.
My family knew that our great-grandfather came from a farm called Sonder-Okse, but we did not know the farm’s specific location in Denmark. Sonder-Okse is so small that it does not appear on most maps, but using a detailed gazetteer for Denmark, I discovered that Sonder-Okse was part of Brovst Parish, which lies about 30 minutes from of Aalborg. After learning the name and location of the Parish my family came from, I searched the records for that parish to find more information about my ancestors in Denmark. This same pattern of discovery can be followed for ancestors in the other countries of Scandinavia.
Record Types
The primary source for Scandinavian research is church records. The state church throughout Scandinavia is the Lutheran Church, and by law, all christenings, marriages, and burials were recorded by the parish priest, but the information found in the parish registers may vary from year to year. It is possible to extend a family by several generations using the parish records alone.
- Christening records. These records were made at the time an infant was first brought to the church. This was typically within weeks of the birth, so this date is often used in place of a birth date, if the actual birth date is not available. The christening record will include the name of the child, the date of christening, the parents’ names, and the godparents’ names. Occasionally the child’s date of birth, the father’s occupation, and names of other witnesses are also available. It is important to note the names of the godparents and witnesses because they were typically relatives or other important individuals to the parents.
- Marriage records. These records were documented either at the time the marriage was announced or at the time the actual marriage took place. In either case, the records will list both the bride and groom and will usually include the bride’s and groom’s ages and their places of christening. Sometimes their occupations and dates of christening will also be included. Bondsmen will be also listed, and they were typically related to the bride and groom. The bondsmen may be the couple’s fathers, uncles, brothers, or other relatives. The same rule of recording all names on the records applies here, since many or all were usually relatives. As more family names are gathered, it will become easier to identify entire family groups.
- Burial records. These records were made at the time of an individual’s burial and are often used instead of a death date, if that date isn’t available. These brief records provide the date of burial, the age at death, and some other identifying information, such as the parents’ or spouse’s names, an occupation, or a place of residence.
There are not large public cemeteries throughout Scandinavia as there are in other parts of the world. Rather, the churchyards provide a small burial place for members of the parish. Because of limited church property, individual graves are marked for only 25 years. After that, another individual is buried in the same place, and the headstone is replaced with one for the most recent individual. Imagine my disappointment when I learned there would be no evidence of my ancestors from the 1700s in the Brovst churchyard!
Most Scandinavian church records are available to view online, and most are available free of charge. You can find those records in each country’s national archives, and the Swedish records are also available through Ancestry.com. FamilySearch has smaller collections from each country, and the research wikis for each country can lead you to various record collections.
You can find the records for each country at these locations:
- Danish national archives: www.sa.dk
- Norway digital archives: www.arkivverket.no/eng/Digitalarkivet
- Swedish digital archives: www.arkivdigital.net or www.ancestry.com
- Denmark FamilySearch wiki page: familysearch.org/wiki/en/Denmark
- Norway FamilySearch wiki page: familysearch.org/wiki/en/Norway
- Sweden FamilySearch wiki page: familysearch.org/wiki/en/Sweden
To learn more about Scandinavian research, read my companion post, “Keys to Scandinavian Research.”
