My ancestors do mainly come from the western parts of the Province of Orebro (or Örebro in Swedish). I myself have grown up in the same region and it is therefore natural for me to focus on that area in my genealogy research.

I will start right now to build an English section of my web site as a complement to the main section that of course is in Swedish. The idea is to give information about the area I focus on which may be useful to people who are not familiar with Sweden or this specific part of Sweden. As part of the service I am offering a couple of links to useful maps of Sweden.

This section in English will not in any way be a translation or a summary of the pages in Swedish. However, I will try to give some information that will facilitate the reading of the tables of my and my wife's ancestors as well as other tables in Swedish.

If you just look for a reasonably detailed map of Sweden for orientation purposes it might be a good idea to click the Map of Sweden (76kB) offered by Swedish Information Service at the Consulate General in New York (also in link section). You also have a more detailed map (269kB) showing the name of the provinces (län). Please note the file size; it will take some time to download if you do not have a high-speed modem.

If you want to get the approximate location of a city, town or parish I suggest that you use the searchable map from The National Atlas of Sweden (also in link section). Go directly from the homepage to the English section (in the upper right corner) and then click The Swedish Gazetteer in the third paragraph of the English section.

When you enter the name of the place you have to be careful not to misspell the name because the system is quite intolerant to misspellings. You have to use the correct Swedish spelling, using Å, Ä and Ö (A with a circle, A with two dots and O with two dots, respectively). If you do not have those fonts on your keyboard I suggest that you put a questionmark (?) instead.

In many cases there are several places bearing the same name. That goes also for the parishes so you have to check the alternatives closely when more than one is offered. As far as my own research is concerned you may crosscheck the province (county) for each parish in the Sockenöversikt (Parish Overview). After the name of the parish you have a letter indicating to which province (county) it belongs.

The Swedish Land Survey Agency (Lantmäteriverket in Swedish) offers a clickable map of Sweden. It can be used to find out where the provinces (or counties, or län in Swedish) are situated if you know the name of the province (you have a list on your right hand side of the map). If you dont know the name of the province you will find out by clicking on the map. Clicking on the list of names of provinces or clicking directly on the map will cause a more detailed map with names to pop up.

To find the map click Lantmäteriverket and then the right-hand circle in the second row marked "Kartprover". On the next page you have to click the link marked "Länskartor".

I have decided to try a voluntary limited look-up service in the region that I focus on in my own research, i. e. the area some 15-45 kilometers (app. 10-30 miles) southwest of Örebro (roughly what is called Västernärke - around and west of Fjugesta). The type of questions I think of in the first place is about places and their geographical location but also where information is to be found. The questions may of course be put in English, e-mail ulf.persson@telia.com

Updated 1999-04-09