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Scandinavian Research

July 5, 2024

If you have Scandinavian ancestors, you’re lucky. Norwegians, Swedes and Danes have some of the best historical records available. They’re a bonanza for genealogists.

 

This is because the countries of Scandinavia all had state churches. Everyone was a Lutheran – at least on paper. There were always nonconformists, but those folks were still required to be baptized, married and officially buried by the Lutheran Church.

 

The Lutheran Church did an excellent job of keeping track of everyone. Starting in the late 1600s, the churches were required by the government to keep vital records.

Earlier records may only include baptism, marriage and burial records. Later, the records include confirmation, birth date and christening date, engagement or banns plus marriage date, moving in and moving out records and death and burial date.

 

If you have Swedish ancestors, you are especially fortunate. In Sweden, the church kept what were called Household Examination Records. These are detailed census-type records that have been kept since the late 1600s. The parish pastor visited every family on a regular basis (usually every year). He recorded information about all members of a household including their exact date and place of birth. He also entered marriage dates and death and burial dates. He reported when anyone moved in or out of the household including where they went and the date.

 

Using church records, it is possible to trace families back for generations. Of course, like any genealogical research, Scandinavian research has its difficulties. To research anyone, it is necessary to know what parish they lived in. All church records are based at the parish level.

 

Luckily, many Scandinavian records have been digitized and are being indexed. Websites such Family Search and My Heritage have large collections of digitized Scandinavian records. In addition, individual countries have digital archives which contain parish records. Norway and Denmark have free digital archives. Sweden has a great site called Arkiv Digital, but it is subscription, as is their national digital archive website.

 

Another difficulty in using Scandinavian records is that they are in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish – languages that you may not speak or read. Fortunately, church records all follow the same format. Learning the words for baptism, marriage and burial may be enough to get you started. Many of the digital websites have useful word lists. They also have translations of the headings for common record types.

 

Compared to research in many countries, Scandinavian research is simple. I have both Norwegian and Swedish ancestors. I have been able to trace them back to the late 17th century. In some cases, I have been able to go back even further. I don’t speak either language, but I was able to find and figure out the records. Scandinavians really are lucky!

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Getting the Most from Cemetery Records

June 28, 2024

Genealogists love cemeteries. Reading headstones and imagining the lives of those who are buried there lures us to cemeteries – even ones without our ancestors buried there!

 

Despite this fixation on cemeteries, many genealogists overlook some of the genealogical information to be found there. The names and dates on the headstones are important, but that’s just the start of what can be found.

 

If a cemetery has an office, make sure you visit when it’s open. Cemetery offices often have records beyond what’s written on headstones. My great grandmother and her parents are buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in Utah. Their graves are next to each other, and all three have headstones that match. Although headstones are the definition of the phrase “set in stone,” their styles have changed over time. It’s possible to tell the period when a stone was made just by its shape and carving. My ancestors died in the late 1800s, but their headstones don’t resemble the stones seen on other graves from that era. When I first visited them, I guessed they were placed more recently, perhaps in the 1940s or 1950s. I wondered why.

 

A visit to the cemetery office supplied the answer. At this cemetery the office keeps detailed records about interred there. It includes information such as date of birth and death, place of birth and death, name of parents, name of spouse(s), and even cause of death. In the case of my ancestors, I knew most of this information already, but there were also records about the burial itself. They stated that the headstones had been placed in the early 1950s and had been paid for by my maternal grandmother. She was the daughter of and granddaughter of these ancestors.

 

Before her purchase, there had been no stones on the graves. My grandmother was a child when her mother and grandparents died. She was nearly seventy years old when she placed the headstones for her family. My grandmother was poor, but she found the money for these headstones. Clearly, it was important to her that her mother and grandparents were memorialized in this way. When I first visited the graves, my grandmother herself had been gone for decades. I never would have solved the mystery of the too-new headstones without the cemetery records.

 

Cemetery offices frequently also have maps which show burials where no headstone has been placed. These unmarked graves are often for small children and babies. Parents sometimes couldn’t afford to place markers for them. Cemetery records of their burial may be the only records of these lost children.

 

Contact the cemetery office or a sexton who keeps cemetery records for the burial grounds where your ancestors are interred. Some cemeteries may not have as much information as the Oden City Cemetery does, but you’ll never know unless you check.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

Difficulties in Finding Naturalization Records

June 21, 2024

For many genealogists, locating an ancestor’s naturalization records is a major goal. Those documents mark the beginning of a new life for an immigrant ancestor and changed not only his life but that of his descendants.

 

Thanks to widespread digitization and indexing, naturalization records are easier to find now. Many of them can be obtained via a search on one of the large genealogical databases such as Ancestry or Family Search. Others may not be available online but are indexed at online sources such as state archives or other repositories. Records can usually be ordered from these repositories for a reasonable fee.

 

Unfortunately, finding naturalization records can still be problematic for some researchers. Many of us don’t search for them effectively. The problem may be that we don’t know the details of how naturalization occurs in the U.S.

 

The basics of becoming a U.S. citizen has not changed much since 1790. The United States has always required a two-step process for becoming an American. An immigrant must first submit a Declaration of Intent stating his intention to renounce his former citizenship and acquire American citizenship. The second step is to submit a Petition for Naturalization in which the immigrant verifies that he has met the requirements for citizenship and would like to be naturalized.

 

The logistics of filing these documents have varied over the years. Declarations of Intent have always been filed first. They are sometimes called First Papers for his reason. Declarations of Intent were often filed soon after an immigrant arrived in the U.S. However, this was not a requirement. Some immigrants filed Declarations of Intent after having lived in the U.S. for decades.

 

Petitions for Naturalization were filed after Declarations of Intention. Applicants could not file Petitions for Naturalization until they had met certain residence requirements. This period varied over the years, sometimes being as long as seven years.

 

Where a prospective citizen applied for citizenship also varied over the history of the U.S. Up until 1906, an immigrant could apply at any court. Federal, state, county and municipal courts could all naturalize someone.

 

An applicant did not necessarily have to live in the jurisdiction of a court to be naturalized there. Applicants often went to the nearest court even if it was in another town or county. To further complicate matters, Declarations of Intent and Petitions for Naturalization did not need to be filed in the same court.

 

Finding naturalization records filed since 1906 is usually simpler than finding earlier ones. Since 1906 only federal courts and some selected state courts have been able to naturalize people.

 

Because the process of filing for naturalization has varied so much, it’s important to know approximately when an ancestor may have filed. Knowing where an ancestor lived is also important. Many immigrants moved frequently during their early years in America.

 

Finding naturalization records can be difficult. Learning more about the process that led to naturalization can help make the search easier.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society