Tag Archives: death and burial records

Use the filter feature to quickly find a volume

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Earlier this year, we published a blog on how to quickly find a volume within an archive using the filter feature. (See earlier blog.) This is a very helpful tool especially when you are searching in an archive with many volumes.

To illustrate this feature, we will look for an 1801 death book in Sankta Katarina or Katarina parish in Stockholm city.

Our first step is to search for the Sankta Katarina parish archive.

  • Go to Archive search.
  • Enter Sankta Katarina in the search box under Archive holder
  • Open the archive

search for katarina

When you open the archive, you will see that there are 767 volumes for the parish. You can now use the filter function versus scrolling through the volume list to quickly find the volume.

katarina volume list

You can then filter by type of source and year.

katarina filter

By selecting the source, death and burial records, and entering 1801 in the from and to year fields, we have narrowed the volume list to one volume.

katrina death

Click here for a more detailed explanation of the filter feature in English.

Click here for a more detailed explanation in Swedish.

ArkivDigital

Find the right volume quickly

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Now comes another great tool that makes it easier to find a church record or other document in ArkivDigital. You can now filter and quickly display, for example, all birth records or all church records containing the year 1835. You can find the filter function above the volume list. Below you see examples of how you can use the filter function.

1

Click on the row Filter and you get 4 different options that you can combine.

2

Here we show Hamneda church archives and in the field Search in volume information you can search the information that is recorded for a volume. It can be for example, duplicate or as we see below, the name of a block.

On the second row you can search in Year from and Year to. This means that you can search for all documents that, for example, contain 1835. Then you enter 1835 in both fields.

3

On the third row you can choose to show only specific types of source. Below you will only see the Birth and Christening records. You can select several different types of source at the same time.

4

You can of course also combine and, for example, show Birth and Christening records for 1835. Here are two volumes that come up. An original book and a rough copy, both containing 1835.

5

In the cities there are usually several different household records for the same time period and it is then in the volume information which blocks are included in the respective volume. Below we have searched for Hamburg to find the block “Stadt Hamburg”, located in Malmö St. Petri’s parish. We quickly see that it is 14 volumes. Keep in mind that the blocks can be found in more volumes where the block name is not printed in the volume information.

6

You can combine the way you want. We conclude with an example where we look at the archive Göta Hovrätt – Advokatfiskalen Kronobergs län, which is where you find the so-called renovated court records. We show Sunnerbo in the volume information and the volumes covering the years 1695-1712. Instead of looking through 259 volumes, you can quickly see which 15 volumes it is.

7

Closes the filter function by pressing x at the top right of the filter function.

Another new feature is that you can sort the columns Archives Volume, Type of source, From and To.

8

This is done by clicking on the column heading, a click is sorted from the bottom up and another click from the top down.

Below we have sorted From and shows all the volumes from the oldest start year and forward in time.

9

Of course you can combine both filter function and sorting. As a final example, we have chosen to display Birth and Chrisening records and Death and Burial records, and sorted by showing From (starting year for the volume) from the oldest at the top.

10

If you want to remove the sorting, click Reset sorting and to close the filter function, click x at the top right of the filter box.

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Swedish American Church Book Record Types

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ArkivDigital’s online library includes many Swedish American church books from Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and a few from Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Below are the types of records that you will find in the various congregations However, the type of records that were kept and preserved varies by congregation.

  1. Congregation records or church registers (Församlingsböcker)
  2. Birth and christening records (Födelse- och dopböcker)
  3. Marriage records (Vigselböcker)
  4. Death and burial records (Död- och begravningsböcker)
  5. Catechetical records (Konfirmationsbok)
  6. Protocols (Protokoll)
  7. Accountings (Räkenskaper)
  8. Member reception records (Intagna medlemmar)
  9. Member dismissal records (Utträdda medlemmar)
  10. Anniversary documents (Jubileumsskrift)

Congregation Books (Församlingsböcker)
The congregation records or church registers include similar information to the Swedish household or congregation records. The type of information you may find includes:  the names of the household members, birth date, birth place, baptismal date, marriage dates of the head of the household, arrival date in America and arrival date in the congregation. Some of these books have alphabetical name indexes. These records are very helpful in identifying where a person came from in Sweden.

Omaha Congregation RecordCongregation book from Omaha Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nebraska, USA (NE) Vol:1 (1868-1890) Image 74 / page 69 (AID: v883292.b74.s69, NAD: ) Link.

Birth and Christening Records (Födelse- och dopböcker)
The birth and christening records are somewhat similar to the Swedish birth and christening records. The contents do vary by congregation but they usually contain the child’s name, birth date, baptismal date, names of parents and names of baptismal witnesses.  Most of the time the mother’s married name and not maiden name is presented. These records are organized in chronological order often by baptismal date. Occasionally, there is a cross reference to the family in the church register or congregation record.

omaha birthsRecords of baptisms from Omaha Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nebraska, USA (NE) Vol:4 (1894-1916) Image 21 / page 35 (AID: v883294.b21.s35, NAD: ) Link.

Marriage Records (Vigselböcker)
The marriage records are an important source because it is the one source where the female’s maiden name is shown. The contents in the marriage record usually include the names of the groom and bride, date of the marriage and the places where the bride and groom are from. These records are organized in chronological order.

omaha marriageRecords of Marriages from Omaha Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nebraska, USA (NE) Vol:4 (1894-1916) Image 59 / page 173 (AID: v883294.b59.s173, NAD: ) Link.

Death and Burial Records (Död- och begravningsböcker)
The death and burial records sometimes called “Records of Funerals” show the deceased’s name, death date, burial date, age, sometimes names of nearest relatives and cause of death. Unfortunately, abbreviations may be used in names such as “P. A. Swanson” versus the complete name and married women are often noted as “Mrs. Charles Eklund”.  These are organized in chronological order usually by the funeral date. Occasionally, there is a cross reference to the family in the church register or congregation record.

omaha burialsRecords of Funerals from Omaha Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nebraska, USA (NE) Vol:4 (1894-1916) Image 98 / page 291 (AID: v883294.b98.s291, NAD: ) Link.

Catechetical (Konfirmationsbok)
The catechetical records provide names of the persons confirmed. Most of the time, these are only list of names but occasionally, the birth date and the names of the parents of the confirmed will be shown.

Protocols (Protokoll)
The protocols are administrative records for the parish. They contain minutes of administrative meetings and decisions relating to parish matters.

Accountings (Räkenskaper)
The account books will include records of financial transactions such as cash books, bookkeeping records and real estate transactions.

Member reception records (Intagna medlemmar)
These records record new members of the parish usually stating the name of the person, date of admission and the place where the person came from.

Member dismissal records (Utträdda medlemmar)
These records record the names of members who leave the parish. Usually, you will find the name of the person, departure date and where the person is going to.

omaha dismissalRecords of Dismissals of Members from Omaha Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nebraska, USA (NE) Vol:4 (1894-1916) Image 85 / page 247 (AID: v883294.b85.s247, NAD: ) Link.

Church anniversary document (Jubileumsskrift)
In many congregation archives you will find a church anniversary document celebrating a number of years in existence such as 25 years, 50 years, 75 years or 100 years. These documents usually present a short history of the church or a church organization such as a singing group or other group within the church. Sometimes in addition to the history of the church, biographical information and photos of members of the church are included.

Other documents (Övriga handlingar)
You may find other documents dependent upon the parish such as church school records, tomb or cemetery records, historical notes, church constitution, and attachments to migration records, newspaper clippings and other types of documents.

More information about Swedish American church books:
Searching for a parish of origin in the Kansas church books.

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