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Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
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Message Board Post:
I'm sorry to say I could not find her on either the Emibas CD I mentioned before or on
the Emigrant CD, which is extracted mainly from reports to the police authorities in the
Swedish ports of departure (it also has some records of Swedes leaving from Copenhagen,
Denmark and Hamburg, Germany). The Emibas CD is estimated to be about 75% complete for
the years of heaviest emigration from Sweden (1840-1930). Many Swedes left via ports in
Norway, Denmark and Germany, and most of these would not be on the Emigrant CD.
Do you happen to know of a church she might have belonged to here in the U.S.?
Swedish-American church records usually are quite detailed and include the parish of birth
and/or the parish the person lived in at the time of emigration. The Swenson Center in
Rock Island, Illinois has a large collection of such records on microfilm. See their web
site (
http://www.augustana.edu/swenson/) for details on what records they have, but the
records themselves are not online.
The parish name is the key to Swedish research, since most of the main genealogical
records were kept by the parish priests. I could not find a parish named Vensborg or
Vänsborg - in fact I could not find any place with such a name on the Svenska Ortnamn
(Swedish Place Names) CD or on the Rosenberg CD, which has Swedish place names from the
1870-1880 time frame. Svenska Ortnamn has place names from the 1990s, so many places
(farms, villages, etc.) that no longer exist do not show up there. Rosenberg is helpful
for older names, but I do not think it is as comprehensive as Svenska Ortnamn. I think
smaller farms and villages are not included in Rosenberg.
Good luck in your search -
Mark Johnson
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin