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Review of Your Swedish Roots
By Gary Shea
Wisconsin
Your Swedish Roots: A Step By Step Handbook (Ancestry, Provo
UT, 2004) by Per Clemensson and Kjell Andersson. 8-3/4 by 11-1/4. Hardbound, 222
pages. US$24.95.
Here is the up-to-the-moment book on doing Swedish genealogy. This book is the
first one in written in English by Per Clemensson and Kjell Andersson, experts
on this topic and authors of many on the subject in Swedish.
The earlier definitive work on Swedish genealogy (there is only one), Cradled
in Sweden (Everton Publishing, Provo UT, Revised Edition 1995), by Carl-Erik
Johansson (1917-2000) is pre-Internet and even pre-CD. There are other differences
between the two books. As one grows as a Swedish researcher, it makes sense to
own and use both. Cradled in Sweden is a reference work - it is not easy
to read. It contains the detailed information that is sometimes handled in Your
Swedish Roots by directing readers to web sites.
For a newcomer, Your Swedish Roots is an excellent and inviting resource.
While not ignoring the complexities of Swedish research, this book, by introducing
approaches to finding the place of origin in Sweden and laying out thoughtfully
chosen case studies, guides the reader through the processes.
The book is rich with knowledge. It can pretty much be read straight through and
referred to later on. Its strengths include many images that take one back to
the ancestral lands, and logical comprehensive treatment of primary records. There
are plenty of photographs and drawings of farmhouses, churches, and the ships
that transported so many Swedish emigrants to America. Transcriptions of Old Swedish
and translations into English accompany reproductions of birth, marriage, death,
and household examination records. Preprinted forms were used even several hundred
years ago. I personally have struggled with the headings on many such forms and
was pleased to find example translations and explanations.
For Americans of Swedish decent the details about life in Sweden are illuminating.
One picture shows a pre-1900 bride in a black dress, "practical since she
could use it for other occasions."
Drang and Piga are terms denoting an individual's occupation
and social status that appear it seems in most Swedish marriage records. In Your
Swedish Roots, these are general terms meaning young man and young woman,
respectively. In Cradled in Sweden they come out as farm hand and maidservant.
I accept both sets of definitions even though the former has the hint of political
correctness.
The authors stress flexibility. Even though a parish is named in a record, it
may not be the parish where the individual was born and raised. In the 1879 passenger
list of the Steamship Orlando, Gustav Adolf Rapp's birthplace is incorrectly given
as Carlsborg parish in Skaraborgs province. The authors show other records that
refute that information: Gustav was born in Ransberg parish.
This book is blatantly welcoming. Its final chapters (14 through 17) are devoted
to researching in Sweden, traveling in Sweden and "meeting the Swedish family."
Chapter 17 is a smorgasbord covering all of Sweden's provinces. It was the only
part of the book I could not breeze through, being more reference material than
prose.
Helpful appendices include a dictionary of Swedish words in frequent use in parish
records, abbreviations used in the records, and a list of genealogical societies
in Sweden.
Per Clemensson and Kjell Andersson are responsible for good work. They open the
door for many Swedish-Americans interested in family history. There is room for
a sequel or two with additional case studies. These might go further back in time
with records of the 1600s and 1700s or feature some examples very rich in historical
detail. Tongue in cheek - a few titles come to mind: Your Swedish Rootsson,
Mor Your Swedish Roots, and Mormor Your Swedish Roots.
Books about Sweden in English are pretty hard to come by. In my own small collection
of rare finds, Your Swedish Roots finds a welcome spot next to The
Soul of the North (2000) by Neil Kent and This Land of Sweden (1946)
by Prince William.
An example of a birth record, a primary record, depicted in the book.
An example of one of the many photographs of Sweden that appear in the book.
This one ties in with a case study of the Rapp family.
Gary Shea is a freelance writer residing in Bayside, Wisconsin. He has pursued
genealogical research since 1996 and is a Director of the Irish Genealogical
Society of Wisconsin. His family history web site can be accessed at http://home.att.net/~g-and-y.
©2005 Gary Shea. Permission granted to Genline, AB by author for electronic
publication and limited printed use.
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