It all started recently, this family heritage project I have undertaken.  It is at times a bit tedious, others quite gratifying, and others still – just like work.  I have found that I will certainly need to organize my work very well.  Keeping everything orderly will help:

B = Birth Records
C = Census Records
D = Death Records
F = Father
Ma = Marriage Records (and wife information)
Mo = Mother
S = Siblings

To not have duplicate records, and as the households are listed by the family name, it is not necessary to have C or Ma records under the wives’ folders.

I ran into a problem last night.  Seems the number of characters combined in file names and folder names exceeded the number acceptable.  As I had already created all the folders above, I then had to go shorten them.  Ugh!  As you can see I still have a few to go!

Note:  This is just a partial list of just some of Philips’ ancestors, mostly on his fathers’ side.

I have at least organized my work carefully and can continue adding the records I find in an orderly manner.  All data collected is backed up locally and will be FTP’d daily also, ensuring an offsite backup.

In order to give day to day access to these files to family, I am going to setup an additional FTP account.  This will allow family to stroll through and download these files as they see fit.  FTP is active on the web server, but requires login for security purposes.  Look for more on this later.

BTW, I have changed a few spellings of names, and even one date we had on record already, as the actual hand-written archives clearly did not agree completely with the database information as shown from SVAR.  I have asked SVAR to review them again and update the database(s) accordingly.

An example is here on this parish birth record:
 
It seems clear to me that the name is Lana Cathrina, not Lena Katrina, yet we see on this parish marriage record how the record keeper wrote it:

I am of course using the birth record as a clear indication of the correct name.

After extensive research (going through these parish archives), these are surely the records, yet they do slightly differ.  Other clues lead me to assure myself that I have retrieved the correct records, i.e., the additional information provided with the records, such as ages and places of birth.

In any event, I see a clear hierarchy to my work now:

Hey, Chuck and Steve’s Grand-Kids, Lana is your Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother (8th).  She was born on Sept. 24th, 1817 in Torp Soldattorp, Öggestorps, Jönköping, Sweden.

AND, her parents are noted above in her parish baptism record.  Her father was Niclas Johansson and her mother was Britta Persdotter, making them your Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents!! (9th)

More to follow!  Great stuff, huh?

SVAR RIKSARKIVET is the National Archives of Sweden.

Above, the handwritten cover for a Parish Record from Barnarp, Jonkoping, Sweden began in 1624. (SVAR)

Almost all images on this blog are clickable.

I have begun, with help from family members, to search these archives for provenance, a documentable trail of our Family Heritage in Sweden.  I have begun with Carl and Emma Svensson, Phillip’s parents.  Today, I found the parish record for their marriage:

 
An actual scan of the parish record book, noting Karl and Emma’s Marriage on 1-29-1895. (SVAR)

Emma Kristina and Karl Simon Svensson (Philip’s parents)

This post is to show progress on this very important project.  Once I complete the records search for each individual (as we go up the family tree), I will add a specific page here for them which may include a record of birth, a record of marriage, and a record of death, all I can find.  There may be other records such as tax and census records that may indicate where they lived and what they did for work at times during their lives.

We are lucky to have our heritage from Sweden.  They were the first record keepers in Europe, have had little war or catastrophe, and have done a great job of keeping these records both accurate and available.  Many of these records have been manually entered into searchable databases, making searching for basic information easy.  They have scanned almost all parish record books back to the early 1600’s and even have the full tax census ordered in 1571!  The census recorded who was living in every household in Sweden, their dates and locations of birth, etc.  Cross-referencing this data will and has lead me to find actual records of our ancestors in Sweden.

I am glad to get this project moving forward and hope all will enjoy it.

FYI, I now have database matched records that go SIX generations before Philip (to date) to document and post and expect I will be able to go back several more!

Look for these posts as they become available.

The project is continuing on plan.  I am currently organizing my work.  The tasks are daunting, but the work is light, so I shall continue…

See next post.