Swedish Research: Tips for Beginners

Back to Sweden Portal Page►

Step Backward before Stepping Forward
Once you have a goal, look at the associated information to the problem. For example: If your goal is to find the parents of an individual (who is one of the end of lines on your Pedigree Chart), take the time to look at all the associated clues to the known individual. It’s a process of understanding the known before moving to the unknown. If you gather everything you know about that individual, and your information is still very sketchy (meaning you really don’t know much) you should probably move your goal forward in time to where you know enough to build on.

Understand Where You Have Checked
Evaluate what you have already checked. This is a lot easier if you have documented your sources during your research activities.

Think Phonetically
You may have from family or other sources the name(s) of the place(s) in Sweden where your ancestor lived or came from. However, when you try to find that in a place list such as the parish listing for Sweden, or, a gazetteer, it doesn't show up. What then? Remember that an "American language" ear heard what your Swedish ancestor was trying to say in his "Americanized Swedish," or not.

There are letters beyond "z" in the Swedish alphabet, and their sounds must be taken into account when trying to figure what people and place names really are. Those letters are