Visiting for Genealogy Research
If you wish to search our records yourself, you are welcome to visit the Swenson Center.
Appointment
Research at the Swenson Center is by appointment. Please contact us to schedule your visit, to be sure that we have space to accommodate you and staffing to assist you on the day you wish to come.
While doing research at the Center, we will help you by pointing you in the right direction and by helping you read the Swedish handwriting. Be sure to read the rest of this page and tell us what records you hope to look at while here.
Our subscriptions to ArkivDigital and SVAR, which include parish record databases & images, are available for public use by special appointment only on Tuesday & Wednesday mornings when a volunteer can be here to assist you one-on-one.
Ask us about a *virtual* appointment with our Tuesday morning volunteer.
Forms
Besides scheduling your time with us, for an in-person visit there are two forms you should fill out in advance, to prepare yourself for your visit and make your time here more efficient. First, we encourage you to read and fill out this Researcher Registration and bring it with you, rather than taking the time to do it here.
We also ask that you organize your information onto our Genealogy Visitor Research Form and bring it with you, being sure to fill in the "Information you are Seeking" lines. Having your information in this format will help us to make better use of our time. Bring that form in addition to the Researcher Registration Form. For a virtual visit this visitor research form is the only form we ask for, and we would like it beforehand.
Note: if you are in Sweden and looking for immigrants who came to the U.S., see our För Svenskar page.
Resources
For a comprehensive list of our most-used genealogical sources, see our Resources for Swedish-American Genealogy page. Please look at this page carefully, including the "Using Parish Records Subscriptions" section, and be sure to request the use of our subscriptions on days that they are available and be aware of their usage fees.
Consider also that we have over 20,000 books that may be useful to your research. Our books are cataloged and titles are searchable online in the Augustana Library's Catalog, ALiCat. Learn more on our Library page.
Search the library catalog for pertinent keywords such as name of settlement, name of church, or name of parish in Sweden, and email us any resulting book titles and call numbers before your visit so that we may retrieve them from our stacks before you arrive, saving you time. Important: Please note both the Location and the Call Number when requesting a book.
Fees
The Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing resources for the study of Swedish immigration to North America. For that reason, the fee for non-members conducting genealogy research in person at the Swenson Center is $10 per day ($5 per half day). We also charge a nominal hourly usage fee for our Swedish subscription genealogy sites, discounted for members, to help us pay for them.
The on-site genealogy research fee is waived for Swenson Center members. Consider becoming an annual supporter today! We look forward to your visit!