Scandinavian immigrants typically belonged to a village hall or other organization back in the old country, and they brought this tradition to America, too. These new social clubs included the Sons of Norway, the Danish Brotherhood, and the Swedish Vasa Order.
Scandinavian church records in the US can jump-start your research. When they settled in the US, Scandinavian immigrants founded churches and other religious institutions—mostly but not entirely Lutheran….
How do you type those unfamiliar Scandinavian characters in search boxes online or in your genealogy software? Here’s a quick guide.
Old newspapers published in America and back in Scandinavia can yield clues about your Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian ancestors. And there’s no need to squint at or scroll microfilm, as more of these sources are going online.
While reviewing the last time I wrote about Danish genealogy for Family Tree Magazine in preparation for my article on that topic in the October-November 2019 issue, I was struck by how many Danish records are now online. Originally, my article referenced the various records available on microfilm. Now, however, most of those resources have been digitized and many of them are even searchable. In fact, when I was researching my cousin’s Danish ancestors, I was able to go back hundreds of years without ever having to squint at old-fashioned microfilm. Let’s take a quick tour of some of the key records you can click on…
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.
The only non-English-speaking Union regiment in the Civil War, the 15th Wisconsin Volunteers, was formed by Scandinavian immigrants. It was organized and commanded by Norwegian Hans Christian Heg from Muskego, and included both Norwegians and Swedes.
What’s with those funny letters? All written Scandinavian languages employ extra letters beyond the 26 of our alphabet.
