Category Archives: Military Records

Additions to the Military Service Cards (Stamkort) Index

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In August 2018, we added the searchable name index, military service cards, to ArkivDigital. This index consists of nearly two million index entries for persons who enrolled in the military service from 1902 to 1941 (persons born between 1881 and-1921). The index makes it much easier to find draft registration cards from the various archives which used different methods for organizing these cards.

We have now added more entries to the military service cards index. It now includes persons who enrolled in the years from 1942 to 1950 (persons born in the years 1922-1931). Approximately 400,000 additional draft registration cards are now searchable by name.

military service index May

The conscription military card gives details about the enlistee from enlistment (at 20 or 21 years) till he became 47 years or left the military. It is not only information recorded at the time of enrollment but also data referring emergency preparations activities during World War II and additional training exercises. You can find more information about these military service cards by clicking here.

In order to access the military service card index, one must have an All-in-one subscription.

ArkivDigital.

Search by name in the Swedish historical records!

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One common question that one hears from Swedish-Americans new to Swedish records, “Are the records searchable by name?” Today, we can say that increasingly more and more Swedish records such as the church books, estate inventories and other record types are searchable by name.  One of ArkivDigital’s primary goals is to make Swedish research easier and one method is name searchable indexes.

search population of 1860 to 1947Searching in the Population of 1860 to 1947 Index

Today, we will review the name searchable indexes that are available in ArkivDigital’s All-in-one subscription.

Church Books

  • Household/Congregations Books (Population of Sweden 1860-1947) – All of the household/congregation books for all of Sweden have been indexed by name for the years from 1860 to 1947. For more information, click here.
  • Birth, marriage and death book indexes – (Birth index- parts of Sweden, Marriage Index- parts of Sweden, Death index- parts of Sweden) Searchable name indexes for birth, marriage and death books for all of the parishes within Kronoberg county and some parishes in nearby counties, around 60 parishes in Södermanland county as well as Nederluleå parish in Norrbotten county. Most of these indexes are from the earliest times (1600’s) up to the second half of the nineteenth century. The end year varies by parish. For some parishes, the end year is 1920. This is an ongoing project and the goal is to index by name the birth, marriage and death books for all of Sweden. Click here for more information.

Estate Inventories (Inventory of estate)

  • Name searchable indexes exist for estate inventories from the following counties: Gotland, Gävleborg, Göteborg och Bohus, Jämtland, Jönköping, Kalmar, Kronoberg, Norrbotten, Stockholm, Uppsala, Värmland, Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Älvsborg and Östergötland. This is an ongoing project. For a complete list of the district and city courts that have been indexed, click here.

Swedish Census Indexes

  • ArkivDigital has searchable name indexes for the years 1950, 1960, 1975 and 1985. Click here for additional information.
    • Population of Sweden 1950
    • Population of Sweden 1960
    • Population of Sweden 1975
    • Population of Sweden 1985

Military records (Military Service Cards)

  • The Military Service Cards index is a name searchable index of all draft registration and service cards for those who served in the Swedish military between 1902 and 1941. Click here for more information.

Swedes in U.S. 1940 Census

  • The Swedes in U.S. 1940 Census index includes all the persons in the 1940 U.S. Census who stated that their birth place was Sweden. Click here for more information.

Other indexes

  • Portrait Collection – Collection of photographs from three Stockholm photography studios from the 1920’s to 1970’s. Click here for more information.
  • Agriculture Census 1944 - Index to 1944 year’s agriculture statistics done by Statistics Sweden (SCB). Click here for more information.

To access the name searchable indexes within ArkivDigital’s All-in-one subscription:

  • Access the web version by going to https://app.arkivdigital.se/
  • Select “Index Search”.
  • Select the desired index under “Index source”.

search by name

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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