Portrait Photographs on ArkivDigital

It seems that every time I log on to ArkivDigital–and I do so daily–there is great new material available.  Now the web version with the All-In-One subscription includes a quarter of a million portrait photographs, dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, from three professional photographers in Stockholm.  As you will imagine the majority of the photos are probably of individuals from the Stockholm area but I have found many photos of people living elsewhere.

You find the “Portrait Collection” among the other index options in the Index Search.

Note that you should plan on doing very broad searches as there may be very little information about the photos.

Norwegian Wedding

Martin Roe Eidhammer whose great blog Norwegian Genealogy and Then Some  had a post which featured a wonderful video of a traditional wedding in rural Hardanger.  It is narrated in English and really gives you a sense of a traditional wedding. It was filmed in 1954. While certainly not identical to 19th Century weddings, it is very interesting and gives a nice flavor of traditional weddings in rural Norway.

Estate Inventory Indexes On ArkivDigital

ArkivDigital is at it again! Now they have added a search capability to help you locate your ancestor’s bouppteckningar (Estate Inventory). For those who have not used bouppteckningar before, they are great for confirming relationships and they give just about the most complete picture of your ancestor’s life-at least from a material perspective. These very detailed inventories are wonderful resources.  The problem has always been that they are in these large collections, which usually need to be searched page-by-page. It can be difficult to locate “your” inventory.  (Yes, some indexes do exist, but they were few and far between.) The problem is exacerbated by the fact that although almost everyone was supposed to have an estate inventory conducted–at least after the law created the requirement in 1734–many people did not have inventories done and even for those who did, it is clear that not all these inventories survive.  Also, while it was common to have the estate inventoried almost immediately after death, in some circumstances it could be many months or I have seen examples of several years before it was done.  And even then, there are possibly multiple courts where the record could exist. Bottom line, they could be difficult to find.

Select “New Index Search” > then select “Inventory of estate” under “Index Source” and you will be given options to enter name, date range for the inventory, and location of the inventory. I would start with a broad search and then narrow it down, as location and dates can be unexpectedly broad.

ArkivDigital released this capability as a work in progress. Currently, indexes are available for Gotlands, Jönköpings, Kalmars, Kronobergs, Stockholms, Uppsalas and Östergötlands Counties. They are planning on continuing to add to these indexes.

Note: In addition to listing every animal, spoon, book, item of clothing, and work-tool the decedent owned, you can frequently find the signatures of surviving relatives at the end of a bouppteckningar! Happy Hunting!

SwedGen Tour 2017

Once again this year, a group of Swedish genealogists will make a trip to the U.S. to present spectacular Swedish genealogical presentations.  This year they are making three stops: on 23 September 2017 at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin; 30 September 2017 at the Swenson Swedish Immigration Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; and finally 7-8 October 2017 at the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, Kansas.

If you are ANYWHERE in the neighborhood you really have to attend.  These are professional Swedish researchers and they provide one-on-one assistance, in addition to lectures. If you plan on attending you must sign up however. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!