Finding Migration Information for Swedish Family History Research

Back to Sweden► One of the greatest challenges you will face as you search for your Swedish ancestors will be migration. Knowing where a person came from or where they moved to is vital to finding the person in records. Usually people find a note regarding migration in the household examination records. The next step is to look at the actual moving in or moving out record for additional clues. The key is making sure you are actually following the same person. To do this, you must know 2 things: *1. The approximate date of moving *2. The name of the parish where the person is leaving from, or going to. Based on the migration dates you see in the household examination, and the moving out record, you search the respective moving in (inflyttningslängd), or moving out (utflyttningslängd) record of the parish where the person came from, or went to. Sometimes finding the parish that a person came from (or is moving to) can be a challenge, for example: often the place the person came from (or is going to) is listed by the name of a farm. In this case, the next step is to find what parish the farm belongs to. To find out what parish to look in, you will need a Swedish gazetter (see the Swedish Gazeteers page.) Other times the moving information is not recorded in the household examination or in the inflyttnings- or utflyttiningslängd. In situations like this, you can search other records for clues that the person moved. The good news is, the entire kingdom of Sweden was organized into parishes long before records that show migration were being written. This means the majority of people are recorded in a record that shows migration. The question is what record? The table below is a list of Swedish records that show migration information. The records have been ranked with the best source at the top, followed by others that may help. If you find a possible match in a record, but need help to read or interpret the entry, go to the FamilySearch Forums for Sweden or the FamilySearch Sweden Genealogy Research page in facebook for assistance (the information in the FamilySearch Forums is easier to use at a later date.) {| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" |- ! Name of Record ! Jurisdiction ! Record Description |- | In- och Utflyttningslängder | Församlingar (parishes) | These are the parish moving in, and moving out records. Time Period: 1600’s – 1991 (depending on the parish.) |- | In- och Utflyttningsattester | Församlingar (parishes) | These are the moving certificates that a person would get from the parish priest before moving to another parish. Often the parish priest in the new parish would keep the certificate for future use. Other times the certificate was used in other ways such as: supporting documents to engagement and marriage, supporting documents to court cases, or even as a note indicating death. Time Period: 1700’s – 1991 (depending on the parish.) |- | Husförhörslängder | Församlingar (parishes) | These are the household examination records that were used for religious and later demographic purposes. They often contain notes that show clues of migration. In later time periods, they have actual moving in, and moving out columns. Time Period: 1600’s – 1894 (depending on the parish, after 1895 use the Församlingsböcker) |- | Länsräkenskaper: avkortningslängder | Länsstyrelse: Landskontor | Records of people whose tax payment was delayed (sporadic.) Time Period: 1600 - 1800’s |- | Passjournaler | Länsstyrelse: Landskansli | County migration passport journals. Time Period: abt. 1750 -1860 |- | Avkortningslängder | Kronofogdar | Records of people whose tax payment was delayed (sporadic.) Time Period: 1700 - 1800’s |- | Länsräkenskaper: avkortningslängder | Kammarkollegiet | County records of people whose tax payment was delayed (sporadic.) Time Period: 1600 - 1800’s |- | Folkmängds-redogörelser | Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB) | Only Emigrants and Immigrants (from 1875.) Time Period: 1860 - 1947 |}