Record Atlas
3 eras · 1686–2026 · 142 places

Sweden

Stockholm, Skåne, Småland, Dalarna, Norrland. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1686–1860 Sweden Riksarkivet — Digitala forskarsalen · FamilySearch

The church law of 1686 is why Swedish research works. It required every parish to keep births, marriages and deaths AND the husförhörslängd — the clerical survey, a household-by-household record of who lived where, re-made every few years, with literacy and moves noted. No other country in Europe has anything like it at that date.
1860–1947 Sweden Riksarkivet — Digitala forskarsalen · FamilySearch

The great emigration: roughly a fifth of the population left, most for America, and the parish out-migration books record where each of them said they were going. That line is usually the only bridge between a Swedish parish and an American county.
1947–2026 Sweden Riksarkivet — Digitala forskarsalen

Civil registration passed from the church to the state in 1991; the parish books run to that date. Riksarkivet's own images are partly free and partly behind a subscription, which is why this ground is not coloured as open.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1686–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

142 places on this ground

59 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

All record regions · The map