Thursday, July 05, 2007

Southern Swedish Parish Records


Demografisk Database of Southern Sweden (DDSS)known in it's infancy stage as the Scania Demographic Database (SDD - begun in 1983) began in 1996. It includes records covering the provinces of Skåne, Blekinge and Halland are currently being updated and the site indicates that they are hoping to have all of the church birth, marriage, and death records online and available for searching for free. The database covers the years between 1650-1900. Although the images are not available to view on this site, the vital information is provided in a nice extracted format which is easily read and is free to search.

Currently 70 people are working full time on the databases. The databases are being updated approximately twice a year in order to make the collection complete. Each entry in the database includes references to the original documents which can usually be found at SVAR. SVAR is the Swedish Archive website which is a department of the National Archives in Sweden. The originals can be viewed but require a subscription to the site.

If you would like to search the Southern Swedish Records Database, click here and you will be redirected to this database site. One other nice thing about this website is that it is available in English, Swedish (Svenska), German, and Polish languages. A couple of the features are in Swedish only, but they are indicated on the first page. Another helpful feature provided at this site is a Swedish to English Dictionary of the common terms one would find in performing a genealogical search. The site welcomes genealogists to contribute to this dictionary by sending words that they would like translated to the person over the glossary page of this site.

Enjoy your searching. Remember the journey is part of the fun when searching for family.

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