All posts in Swedish Emigration

The story of the Swedish great migration: over a million Swedes who left for America, why they went, how they travelled via Gothenburg, where they settled, and how to trace them.

Why over a million Swedes emigrated: land hunger and poverty, the famine years of the 1860s, America fever, religious dissent, and the pull of cheap American land.

How most Swedish emigrants travelled: through the port of Gothenburg, indirectly via England to Liverpool and across the Atlantic—and the Gothenburg police records that name their parish.

A step-by-step method for finding your Swedish emigrant ancestor and the parish they came from: emigration databases, the Gothenburg police records, moving-out records and more.

What really happened when Swedish immigrants arrived in America: Castle Garden and Ellis Island, the truth about the name-change myth, and how Swedish names were anglicised.

Where Swedish immigrants settled: Minnesota, Illinois and Chicago, the Midwest farm belt and beyond. How chain migration clustered parishes together and helps your research.

Swedish-American churches—the Augustana Lutheran Synod, the Mission Covenant and others—anchored immigrant communities and kept records that can name your ancestor’s Swedish parish.