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Theme: Emigration  Guide: Emigration research .1.

2: Finding Emigration data

This page deals with the emigration process, i.e. leaving Sweden.

The quickest way to find data about port and date of exit, dob and place / parish they left is to use the "Emigranten" CD.

INFO ON THE CD NEED TO KNOW INFO QUALITY How to get the CD or Info How to get additional info how to make a "look-up" request

INFORMATION ON THE CD:
(Info from the producer's website but their info is confusing so this may not be 100% accurate). Producer's website. (deplorable language - contradictory facts - read with caution /Hae).
The CD was first issued in 1996 and version 2 in 2002. Ed 2 is extended and has an "American" version.

Three databases:

EmiHamn Emigration police registrations at the port of exit. 1.3 million emigrants.
Göteborg 1869 - 1930
Malmö 1874 - 1928 or 1930
Stockholm 1869 - 1930
Norrköping 1859 - 1919
Helsingborg 1899 - 1930
Kalmar 1880 - 1893
EmiBas Gbg Abt 37 000 emigrants from Göteborg only, i.e. all emigrants from mid 1700 until 1950.. More data than above, taken from church records instead. Some parishes missing
EmiSjö Abt 20 000 seamen belonging to some Sjömanshus (Sailor's registration) (Göteborg, Lysekil and other registers) who were noted as disembarked, fugitive or dead in a port outside Europe in 1812 - 1930.
Included in the 2002 edition only Emigration from Malmö, police registers for 1887.
Finns travelling through Göteborg in 1880 - 1895.
Emigration 1930 - 1950 ??
Passport lists from Navy pension fund archive 1817-1850
Emigrants 1851-60 from SCB
Passport registrations until 1860
Passenger lists of Svenska Amerika Linjen 1915 - 1950.
Members of Vasa Order

EmiHamn register, detailed content description:

Key, Swedish Key, English Comments
Förnamn Given name(s)  
Efternamn Surname(s)  
Ålder, Kön Age, Gender år = years, M = man = male, K = kvinna = female.
Församling, Län Parish, County Parish they left from. County given as a 1-2 letter code. Check here for codes.
Titel/Anm Title/Remark Check glossaries for translations ("SweGGate Dictionary" or general "Dictionaries")
Utresehamn Port of Exit Name of Swedish port. Göteborg = Gothenburg, west coast. Malmö and Helsingborg in the south-west, Stockholm and Norrköping, middle-eastern Sweden.
Utvandrdag Exit date Note format "yyyy mm dd"
Destination Destination May be a country or a city/port. Remember that many trips to the USA started on a "feeder ship" Sweden - England and then on to an ocean liner. Some people also changed their final destination once they landed.
Källkod "Source code" Index telling the source of the info in this record. The emigration logs at harbours are numbered by Book:Page:Ticket/Contract # so a Källkod of 50:100:3000 means Book # 50, page 100 in that book and the travel contract (ticket) number is # 3000.
Medåkande Fellows Travelling with family members (yes/no)

YOU NEED TO KNOW:

  • the names of the person - or have a small number of spelling alternatives
  • year of birth and / or name of the parish they left are usually needed for narrowing the search
  • year of emigration is very useful.
  • names of other persons travelling together may be valuable for confirmation (e.g. family members)
  • the more common the person's surname is the more data you need to know to select the correct person

QUALITY OF INFORMATION (EmiHamn register):

Generally speaking there are many errors. The source of the information on the CD are the (emigration) passenger lists. The info could have been read from a flyttningsbevis or given verbally by the traveller. A word of caution is required since the correctness may vary. Many travellers spoke a different dialect spelling may be wrong - one can not expect the registrar to know all the thousands of parish names and many travellers could not write. Some may even have lied about the age of their children to get a cheaper fare. Several errors may have occurred in the transcription process too.
The database is however extremely valuable since it is searchable so the best way to use it is probably to make a fairly wide search to find possible matches and the work on each of those to confirm of reject.

How to get the CD or Info from it
The previous version is out of stock. A new version was published in 2001. Buying info above.
You can also ask for a "lookup" on one of the Sweden mailing lists.
How to get additional info
For more excerpts from these records (not all recorded info is on the CD) you can write to
Landsarkivet i Göteborg
Box 190 35
SE-400 12
Email: landsarkivet@landsarkivet-goteborg.ra.se
If you provide name and källkod they can send you a copy of the complete registration for free. 
The källkod enables them to do a "simple" lookup. Without that they will have to do a more extensive search which takes more time and you usually have to pay for that, depending on how much time it takes.
In general the Landsarkiv institutions provide one lookup taking max 1/2 hour for free. Even if you have to pay something it may well be worth it. Landsarkiven are reputable state institutions and charge moderate fees.
Some hints on how to make a successful "look-up" request
  • Use a short, tabular format like the table above. On each line write the additional info you have and your source indicating "fact" or "guess"
  • State the Names of the person(s) as you know them and whether the spelling is from Sweden or elsewhere.
    Also give known spelling variants or name changes (and if so: when). The person doing the lookup can usually figure out the "standard" variations.
  • If you don't know the parish or county try to find at least some reference to a place or region in Sweden. Always state whether this is the place of birth or last known address !
  • The more concise and precise your request is the better chances that someone will try to do the look-up and the better matches you will get.
  • Please give some additional info if you have it since when several near matches are found some additional info might help selecting the right one. Names of family is especially helpful if they travelled together.
  • A short "thank you" mail is always appreciated as well as your opinion on the "match" with your other data. A simple "thank you" should be sent directly to the person who did the look-up, but if you have comments then other people on the list who looked for your person might appreciate the additional info.
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Last updated by F Hae 2005-05-30 11:46 © Fredrik Haeffner, 2001-5