Did you know..

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

That by one calculation all people on earth are related to one another, being no more distant than 51st cousin.

That for 99.9% of the millions of years that man has been a species life expectancy was been less than 25 years.

That about 1/3 of the present-day Swedish nobility has ancestral roots outside of Sweden.

That in 1608 Archbishop of Sweden Olaus Martini (1557-1609) instructed the Swedish clergy to keep records of all betrothals, marriages, and baptisms. Although it was many years before this actually came to pass, the archbishop's decree paved the way toward Swedish church records of great genealogical value.

From Tidningen, 2006.

June

[Karen Norwillo Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Karen Norwillo]

June,
I've always been so impressed by the records kept in both Sweden and Finland. After trying to research my husband's ancestry in Poland and Lithuania, I can tell you it's very difficult. The archival records in Vilnius, LT are not computerized, if available they are extremely expensive, and responses can take 6 months or more. I spent a sizable amount to get records, then the expense of translation, as most of the era were in Cyrillic. I thank heaven daily for all the records available on my ancestors, as well as the wonderful people here on Finlander.
Karen

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Did you know..

Karen,

I, too, have heard that the Scandinavian countries kept the best records. I read that a CD will be available in Sweden, the Emibas, which allows searches for people leaving parishes and will cover between 1845 through 1930. What a boon that will be. Wonder if Finland will come up with something similar. Sweden already has the CD Emigranten which covers most of the emigration from Sweden from ca 1869 through 1930 and covers about 1.6 million people who left Sweden.

June