Vital Records Index Contains Nearly Five Million Records
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Family history enthusiasts who want to know more about their Scandinavian ancestors now have a new research tool thanks to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Vital Records Index for Scandinavia on CD-ROM contains 4.5 million records extracted from original birth, christening and marriage certificates from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Volunteers extracted the information from church records kept from the late 1500s to 1905.
The new database contains approximately 3.5 million birth and christening records and one million marriage records (see chart below).
| Country |
Birth and Christening Records |
Marriage Records |
| Denmark |
1,067,316 |
296,440 |
| Finland |
89,555 |
89,879 |
| Norway |
953,627 |
231,412 |
| Sweden |
1,445,338 |
354,305 |
"You have to remember that the birth and christening records usually included the parents of the child. Marriage records often included the parents of the bride or the groom. With 4.5 million of these vital records, the total number of individuals available in the database could easily be over 10 million. Imagine finding two or three generations of your ancestors from the 19th century or earlier at the click of a button from the convenience of your home," said Paul Nauta, communications manager for the Church's Family and Church History Department.
This automated index is a partial collection of the records available from the countries and time period represented. The records include dates and places of events (marriages, births and christenings), as well as the names of the people involved with the events.
The database also gives source information, which enables users to refer to the original record on microfilm for additional data. Curt B. Witcher, manager of the genealogy department for the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, commented: "This database is a substantial contribution for individuals searching ancestors from that area of the world. It is a marvelous complement to the other very large data files that the Church has published in recent years."
Witcher said the upper Great Plains area of North America — Michigan, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin — probably has the largest concentration of Americans of Scandinavian descent; however, there are pockets of Scandinavian Americans throughout the United States that will find this new database very helpful in their family history pursuits.
The set of seven discs (plus one viewer disc) can be purchased for $16.50 (shipping and handling included) at Church distribution centers worldwide or by calling toll free 800-537-5971 and asking for item number 50108. The discs can also be ordered on the Internet at www.familysearch.org.
System Requirements:
- Pentium® processor (or higher)
- MS Windows® 95 (or higher) or MS Windows NT® 4.0 (or higher) operating system
- 8 MB RAM minimum (16 MB recommended)
- CD-ROM drive (4X minimum recommended)
- VGA monitor with 256 color–capable video card
- 35 MB hard–disk space
