Category Archives: Military Records

Military Service Cards (Stamkort) Search Index

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The digitized conscription service cards (stamkort) for Swedish men who enrolled in the military from 1902 to 1941 were previously published in ArkivDigital and have been available for some time. Up until now, it has taken some time and effort to find the military service card for a desired person. There are nearly two million cards and these are spread out in a large number of archives which in turn used different methods for organizing the cards.

The military service card includes the name of the conscript, birth date, birth place and enrollment number. Additional information included in the service card are the branch of the service the recruit served in, service time (including basic and additional military training as well as emergency preparation service during World War II), promotions, record of punishments if any and even sometimes the conscript’s home address and civil occupation.

 

The draft registration age changed in 1914 from age 21 years to 20, which means that the military service cards that are online cover men born approximately between the years 1881 to 1921.

 

Now, these military service cards have been indexed by name in ArkivDigital making it simple to find the desired card.  Select new index search and then select the military service cards index. Fill in the name and or birth information, select the desired post in the result list and click on the link which opens the image of the military service card. How much simpler can it be!

draft registration recordÖstergötlands inskrivningsområde (Io 4), Inskrivningsområdesexpeditionen (E, H) D2b:58 (1912) Image 50 (AID: v807027.b50, NAD: SE/KrA/0473/B04001Ö)

The above record shows a search for Karl Sigvard Gustavsson born on the 2nd of December 1912 in the parish of Horn, resulting in the above index record. Click on the link and you will see the image of the military service card. On the card, you will find notes about his military service from his enrollment in 1932 to his discharge in 1959.

To access the military service cards index, one must have an All-in-one subscription and the register is only available in our web version of our software. You can find our web version by going to: https://app.arkivdigital.se.

 

Click here to read the original blog in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

Swedish-Norwegian partnership – a benefit for genealogists

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ArkivDigital and the Norwegian Genealogical Society have entered  into a partnership with the goal to make it easier for their subscribers and members to access more historical records and other interesting source materials by sharing images.

The first exchange of source material images has recently been completed.

The Norwegian Genealogical Society members can now access the following collections: J.A. Nordströms extensive collection of family histories and local history studies, records from Bohuslän, mainly the parish records on the islands of Tjörn and Orust along with Magnell’s collections of court book extracts from Gillberg and Jösse district courts in Värmland. Furthermore, members can also view documents relating to the prisoners of war from the Great Northern War, some Norwegian church books from Kansas and Minnesota, and a tax register in Jämtland from 1645.

In return, ArkivDigital’s subscribers now have access to a number of published Norwegian works mainly from the 1800’s and early 1900’s, for example Politietidende 1886–1900 and 1916, which includes information of all those wanted by the police in Norway as well as information about arrests and released prisoners, several years’ copies of the Military Calendar (Militaircalender) and the Norwegian State Calendar (Norges Statskalender) along with death lists within Norway. Even arrest records from the Akershus fortress, prisons: Kongsvinger kretsfengsel and Elverum hjelpfengsel, have been made available to ArkivDigital’s subscribers.

In the future, more images of other records from Norway, Sweden and the United States will be published within the framework of this partnership agreement.

ArkivDigital and the Norwegian Genealogical Society are pleased that this partnership has been established and we are convinced that it will benefit family researchers in both countries.

View original article in Swedish by clicking here.

ArkivDigital

ArkivDigital Visits Burbank, California

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We will be an exhibitor at the 48th Annual Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2017 in Burbank, California, June 8-11.  Kathy Meade of ArkivDigital will be giving a presentation on Swedish Military Research on Friday, June 9th at 4 PM.

If you plan to attend the conference, please stop by our booth #311 for answers to your questions about ArkivDigital and Swedish research. Click here to learn more about Jamboree 2017.

Click here for information about North American events.

ArkivDigital

Swedish Military Blogs

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We receive many questions about Swedish military research at conferences and trade shows in North America. Many North Americans discover that one of their ancestors was in the Swedish military serving in the infantry, cavalry or as a båtsman in the Swedish Navy and wish to discover more about their ancestor’s military service.

ArkivDigital’s online library includes many military records from the 1600’s to the 20th century. In our blog, you will find articles about some of the military records in ArkivDigital as well as a few tutorials in how to research your Swedish military ancestor. Today we present a summary of the Swedish military blogs you can find in our English blog.

military recordsGeneralmönsterrullor – Värmlands regemente (S) 216 (1851-1855) Image 2300 (AID: v46609a.b2300, NAD: SE/KrA/0023) Link.

  • Military Rolls (1620-1723)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/military-rolls-rullor-1620-1723/ (Link)
  • Researching in the General Muster Rolls
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/research-soldiers-in-the-general-muster-rolls-example-jan-fras/ (Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/statistical-digest-of-the-swedish-army-system-grill/ (Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/general-muster-rolls/ (Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/general-muster-roll-column-headings/ (Link)
  • Naval (Flottan)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/navy-flottan-documents-an-overview/(Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/boatman-rolls-batsmansrullor-a-unique-source/ (Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/naval-ship-muster-rolls-skeppsmonsterrullor/ (Link)
  • Military Pension Records
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/soldier-pension-documents-pensioner-olof-ceder/ (Link)
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/more-military-pension-documents-in-arkivdigital/ (Link)
  • Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers’ Service Records
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/armys-pension-funds-list-of-qualifications-armens-pensionskassas-meritband/ (Link)
  • Great Northern War Documents
    http://blog.arkivdigital.net/swedish-soldiers-captured-at-poltava-what-can-one-discover-about-them/ (Link)

ArkivDigital

February Events in North America

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This month is a busy and an exciting month. We will be exhibiting and leading workshops at RootsTech 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the largest genealogy conference in North America and then later in the month we will visit the Swedish American Museum in Chicago.

RootsTech 2017 February 8-11
We are now in Salt Lake City preparing for the largest genealogy conference in North America which begins tomorrow, Wednesday, February 8th and lasts through Saturday, February 11th. It is estimated that more than 25,000 from around the world will attend this event. If you are attending RootsTech, please attend one of our computer workshops and visit our exhibit booth. Workshops and presentation times are listed below:

ArkivDigital Hands-on Computer Workshops
Wednesday, February 8th 3 PM
Friday, February 10th 11 AM

Demo Theater Presentation in Vendor Hall
Saturday, February 11th 2:40 PM

More information about RootsTech 2017

Swedish American Museum of Chicago February 25, 2017
Kathy Meade of ArkivDigital will be the presenter for the monthly meeting of the Swedish American Genealogical Society at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday, February 25th.

The title of the presentation is “Introduction to Swedish Military Research Records”. There will be a demonstration showing how to search for military records using ArkivDigital.

For more information and registration, click here.

ArkivDigital

Military rolls (rullor) 1620-1723

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Often in researching our Swedish ancestors, we discover an ancestor who was a cavalryman (ryttare) or soldier (soldat). Or even possibly an officer. We want to know more about our ancestor’s military life. The general muster rolls (generalmönsterrullorna) are an important source for military research. These begin in the late 1600’s and continue until the end of the 1800’s. You can find the general muster rolls in ArkivDigital by entering rullor in the search box. There you will see some earlier rolls of military records. There is an archive named “Rullor 1620-1723” In this archive, there are hundreds of volumes. So far, we have photographed the documents 1620-1659 and then some individual volumes after that. There is an ongoing project at the  Military Archives of Sweden to digitize these documents.

Below are some tips for searching in these records.

If your ancestor is an ordinary cavalryman or soldier, a little more searching is required before you find the correct source. Knowing that a cavalryman belonged to a cavalry regiment and a soldier belonged to an infantry regiment is a good start. That way you know which type of regiment to search. They are often grouped by the name of the regiment after county/province (län/landskap). If you have more information about him for example the name of his commander one can find some helps via a name register. If your ancestor was an officer, you can look for him directly in the name register (personregister).

In the series or archive “Rullor 1620-1723”, you will find 15 volumes called Personregister at the top of the volume list. If you hold your mouse over (i) or click once on the volume, you will get more information on which names are included in the volume. Let us say that we are searching for Lars Jakobsson who we know was a second lieutenant (fänrik) in the 1640’s, we will find a name register card for him.

registerlarsskooRullor 1620-1723 PersonReg:6 (1620-1699) Image 3015 (AID: v793063.b3015, NAD: SE/KrA/0022) Link.

The references point to the year and volume. In addition, we get references to other volumes where we can find more information about his military career. Thus in these records, we have a good summary of the military careers of all the Swedish military officers for most of the 1600’s. If in the upper right hand corner stands the number “1”, that means that there are more register cards for this person, something to think about.

The card shows us that Lars Jakobsson Skoo was a second lieutenant in the Åbo regiment. Since Finland was part of Sweden at this time, records for the Finnish regiments are included in this material. He changes regiments and becomes a second lieutenant in the Björnborg regiment and if one looks at the next card, we see that he becomes a lieutenant (löjtnant). References at the top are for the year 1641 and volume 12. The next step is to search in the volume list for the 12th volume in the year 1641 or volume 1641:12.

search rullor

Check in the beginning of the volume to see if there is a register of regiments and companies.  After some searching, we find the right regiment and company and even Lars Jacobsson.

larsjohansson1641Rullor 1620-1723 1641:12 (1641-1641) Image 130 / page 8 (AID: v751076.b130.s8, NAD: SE/KrA/0022) Link.

To the right of his name is written, Gamble Ryttmästaren Jacob Nilssons son, hafuer tient i Tyssland för een gemen Ryttare, under Sal: Johan Muncks Comp. (Old calvary captain Jacob Nilsson’s son, who served in Germany as a regular cavalryman, in Sal: Johan Munck’s Company).

The officers are always listed first followed by the regular soldiers. In this case, on the right side you can see a list of soldiers. If your ancestor was a private or regular soldier, this is where you would look.

Read original article in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

Russians who worked on the Göta Canal

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Gota canal russiansGöta kanalbolag EII:8 (1813-1813) Image 67 / page 60 (AID: v89674.b67.s60, NAD: SE/VALA/02660) Link.

We previously published a blog about the Göta Canal Company’s archive in ArkivDigital. (Link to blog entry.)  In that blog, we pointed out a list of Russians in the pioneer company (pionjärkompaniet) who signed up to work on the canal so that they could return to Russia. You can find more information about these Russians who helped build the canal in several archival sources.

Approximately 60,000 men worked on building the canal between 1810 and 1832. The majority of these were Swedish soldiers from sixteen different regiments along with two naval companies. In addition a company of Russian deserters (pionjärkompaniet) also worked on the canal.

In the volume Göta kanalbolag EII: 8 on pages 58-65, you will find an inspection roll for the pioneer company (pionjärkompaniet). The roll was created at the mustering at Forsviks bruk on the 29th of May 1813. Above is an image of a page from the roll. The record shows the name, age and height of each person in the company. Occasionally in the remarks column are notes indicating if the person was ill or given special orders.

Even in the church books, you can find information about these Russians.The image below is a birth record from 1814 in the Bällefors C: 5 volume. In this birth book, you can find a number of children with Russian fathers.

ballefors birthBällefors (R) C:5 (1807-1852) Image 32 (AID: v28848.b32, NAD: SE/GLA/13073) Link.

Read blog entry in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

Saltpeter Collector (Salpetersjudare) Important job for manufacturing gunpowder

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saltpeter1Krigskollegium Artilleridepartementet F2a:2 (1764-1804) Image 212 (AID: v50440.b212, NAD: SE/KrA/0003) Link.

Occasionally at conferences in North America, a customer has asked,” I have an ancestor who was a salpetersjudare?  What is that occupation?” It is a saltpeter collector or sometimes referred to as saltpeter maker.

As the Swedish army increasingly used rifles and cannons, there was a great need for gunpowder. Gunpowder consisted of 75% saltpeter. Large concentrations of saltpeter were found in the soil under farm buildings and stables. Since saltpeter was so important in the production of gunpowder, it came to be that the soil under many farm buildings was declared to be royal property. In the beginning the farmers collected and delivered the saltpeter themselves, but soon a new profession was created, saltpeter collectors.

The saltpeter collectors traveled around to the farms and dug up the floors of the barns or stables and collected the soil and then boiled and seethed it for about six or seven days. Then the pure saltpeter was transported to the gunpowder factory where gunpowder was produced.

In the series Krigskollegium Artilleridepartementet, there are three volumes with muster rolls for the saltpeter collectors or makers (salpetersjudarna) from 1693 – 1805. These muster rolls are organized in the same way as the ones for cavalrymen and soldiers.

To search for these archives enter the search words: Krigskollegium Artilleridepartementet in the search box.

The image at the top of the page is the muster roll for the saltpeter collectors of Skåne and Blekinge counties. The mustering was held on the 29th of April 1778.

salpeter2Krigskollegium Artilleridepartementet F2a:1 (1693-1757) Image 92 (AID: v50439.b92, NAD: SE/KrA/0003) Link.

Sometimes you will find more information about a person who was a saltpeter collector. In the above image you see in the third row Anders Erichsson from Lerdala parish in Skaraborg county. He was born in 1699 and became a saltpeter collector in 1721. On the right side there is a note giving more information about him.

Siuk af et hug i wänstra knäet och bewitnades af des Cammerater at wara oduglig. Recommenderas till afskied, medan han och intet kunnat giöra något arbete för åhr 1726.

Disabled by a stab in the left knee and testimony by his comrades stated that he was unfit. Recommended for discharge, meanwhile he wasn’t able to work in 1726.

Read blog entry in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

7 million images have been added during 2015!

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Produktkatalog

Estate Inventories (Bouppteckningar)
During the year, our major project to photograph all of Sweden’s estate inventories for the period 1901-1960, continued. We have added many estate inventories for various years in different counties.  You can read a status update of our estate inventory project in this blog entry.

Court Records
We have now completed projects for photographing the prison lists for all of Sweden from the Office of the Chancellor of Justice and also the Supreme Court protocols. The prison lists from the Office of Chancellor of Justice are available for the period 1750-1825 and the Supreme Court protocols are available for the period 1694-1800.

Documents concerning World War II
A number of records concerning Sweden during the Second World War had been added:

  • Spy and espionage documents from “Stockholms rådhusrätt 1850-1947, Avdelning 5, Avdelningen för spionmål”.
  • Air crashes from ”Flygstaben: Centralexpeditionen”.
  • “Beredskapsverket” which consists of the Swedish military defense readiness official military history work. The main material is found in “Beredskapsverket, Avdelning 1”. In “Beredskapsverket, Avdelning 13”, are documents concerning the operations Save Denmark (Rädda Danmark) and Save Norway (Rädda Norge).
  • Documents from the C-byrån, which covered secret intelligence outside Sweden’s borders.

Older military records
Military pension documents from several archives have been added, which we have described in two blogs:

Before the general muster rolls began in the 1680’s, the collection “Rullor 1620-1723” was the primary source for military research. During 2015, we have added the volumes for the years 1620-1647 to ArkivDigital’s online archive.

Records outside of Sweden
The biggest project outside of Sweden during the year was the photographing of the Swedish American congregation church books in Kansas. Most of the volumes are now online but it won’t be until the beginning of next year before the project is complete. An overview of the Kansas collection is found in this blog entry.

During the spring, church books from several Swedish congregations outside of Sweden became available in ArkivDigital.

Concerning other records outside of Sweden, we want to also mention that we have begun to add documents from the seamen homes in Åland,Finland: Mariehamn seaman house and Vårdö seaman house. This project will be completed in the beginning of 2016.

Read blog entry in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

Navy (flottan) documents – an overview

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boatmandec1Rullor flottan 1635-1915 Ib:70 (1810-1810) Image 250 (AID: v390213.b250, NAD: SE/KrA/0503036) Link.

ArkivDigital has photographed many documents which include information about naval (flottan) employees. This blog gives a short overview of the sources that are available in ArkivDigital.

To research a person who served in the Navy (flottan), one begins by looking at what is available in the archive, Rullor flottan 1635-1915. The seamen (båtsmännen) have their own series of records, Rullor båtsmanskompanier (volumes IV: 1-79). In this series, you will find different types of records regarding the seamen including the general muster rolls. The seamen muster rolls are organized in the same manner as the muster rolls for soldiers. (Link to blog about general muster rolls.) In these muster rolls, one can follow a sailor’s career from enlistment to discharge.

In the archive, Rullor flottan 1635-1915, there are many other types of records. The archive is divided into a number of diverse record series such as: rolls for companies in Karlskrona, Stockholm and Göteborg (Rullor Karlskrona, Stockholm och Göteborg), rolls for non-commissioned officers (Underofficersrullor), rolls for the company of young sailor boys (Rullor skeppsgossekompanier), rolls of seaman companies (Rullor matroskompanier), rolls of the companies in Finland (Finska rullor), rolls for navigators and civil workers in the pilot service (Lotsrullor) as well as a large number of various rolls for officers and crew at the Stockholm station.

botsman1201secondRullor flottan 1635-1915 XII:16 (1791-1791) Image 113 (AID: v398912.b113, NAD: SE/KrA/0503036) Link.

In the archive, Rullor flottan 1635-1915, one not only finds information about the seamen but much more. The archive includes records series for various workgroups such as carpenters and other tradesmen. One workgroup that has its own series is the pilots (lotsarna) or navigators in the piloting service The image above is from a lotsrulla from the year 1791.

In addition to the archive, Rullor flottan 1635-1915, there are a number of other archives and records that provide information about the Navy (flottan).  Below is a list of the most important sources found in ArkivDigital.

Seaman Records (Båtsmansrullor): In the late 1800’s, a little book was created for each seaman and these books contain much more detailed information than the general muster rolls thus allowing one to easily follow the seaman’s career. You can find the boatman rolls in ArkivDigital in the various archives for Karlskrona Station and Stockholm Station in the military archive. Read more here. These records are now completely available in ArkivDigital.

Naval Ship Muster Rolls (Skeppsmönsterrullor): The Naval Ship Muster Rolls (Skeppsmönsterrullor) offer information about a ship’s sailings as well as who served on the vessel. These records are found in the following archive, Flottans arkiv: Amiralitetskollegiets med efterföljares kontor, Arméns flotta, loggböcker, rullor m.m.: Sjöexpeditioner, skeppsmönsterrullor 1689-1873.  Read more here.

Service Records (Meritförteckningar): In the archive, Meritförteckningar flottan, you can find detailed information both about officers and non-commissioned officers. You can follow each person’s military career including information such as education, promotions, peace time activities together with completed expeditions and other trips.

Pension documents (Pensionshandlingar): In the archive, Flottans pensionskassa, you will find records for the personnel who received a pension (gratial).  Read more here.

Read blog entry in Swedish.

ArkivDigital