Category: Emigration and Immigration

Finding Olof

One crazy trick to find your ancestors’ arriving passenger records.

Meet the “Sloopers”

How the first large group of Norwegian immigrants came. Much as in other countries, religious freedom sparked the first major wave of Scandinavian immigration to America after the Revolution—although economic opportunity and hardship back home soon became more important factors.

Finding Emigrants from Norway

Plenty of resources can help you trace ancestors’ journeys. Norway’s emigration records are skimpy prior to 1867, when the police began keeping these files, which are mostly available on FHL microfilm. Most Norwegian emigrants in the peak years of “America fever” left from the ports of Oslo (Kristiana), Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger. Passenger lists for major Norwegian ports, as well as many other emigration-related records, such as passports, can be searched using the National Archives of Norway’s Digitalarkivet site.

The Rise and Fall of New Sweden

Swedes arrived in America much earlier than you might think. Jealous of the Dutch colonial outposts in America, the Swedish government set out to establish its own New Sweden. It hired Peter Minuit, who had led the founding of New Netherland for the Dutch before being dismissed in an internal dispute, and set up the Swedish West India Company. In March 1638, two ships under Minuit’s command, the Kalmar Nyckeland Fogel Grip, arrived at the site of today’s Wilmington, Delaware, with 50 colonists. They named the settlement Fort Christina, after the young Swedish queen, and Reverend Reorus Porkillus established the first Lutheran congregation in America there.

Police Escort?

Emigration from Denmark was facilitated by the inauguration of steamship service to the United States, cutting the arduous voyage to 10 days. One source claims that a single ship, the Frederick VIII, transported more than half a million Danes and other Scandinavians to America. To protect people from being conned by unscrupulous emigration agents, the Copenhagen police were given oversight of all overseas tickets.