Swedish Demographic Database - Free Search for Limited Time Only

If you have had cause to research genealogy in the Scandinavian countries, you know the many challenges that are faced in tracing your lines. The Swedish Demographic Database (DDB) produced and held at Umeå University in Umeå Sweden, provides seventy individual parish records available for research in the following regions: Sundsvall town, Sundsvall region, Tuna included, Linköping region, Skellefteå region, and some single parishes.

The Swedish DDB states their purpose is to produce and make "...population databases available for research. The primary sources digitized are parish registers from the 18th and 19th century, but also parish statistics from the period 1749-1859 have been recorded and made available in a database. These historical sources have a proven high quality and contain an amazing amount of information about the Swedish population, which is suitable for studies with a longitudinal and broad perspective. However, the DDB is not only working with historical material and producing databases with historical information. In close collaboration with Statistics Sweden DDB is developing a new infrastructure where historical data is being liked with modern population registers."

Currently the site is offering access to the Indiko database for free from now until November 21, 2010.  Please see their comments below.  When the free option expires, the databases can be accessed on a monthly basis. The site is viewable in English and Swedish.  If you would like to search these databases, click the

Swedish DDB link and then click the Indiko database link on the right of the web page under quick links.  After you have clicked that link a pop up window will open that requires you to accept the terms for searching the database. Please note, the pop window must remain open while you are searching the database.  Another smaller window will open asking for your username and password.  You do not have to put any username or password to search the databases for free.  Click the Log-on button.  The search box (requires javascript) will open that looks like the window on the right.  This is where you can actually begin your search for your ancestors.  Have fun searching. 

Preserving Family Pictures

As a follow-up to my previous post regarding Picasa, I wanted to show you the possiblities of Picasa by creating a little video utilizing some of my family pictures.  As you can tell, I love the numerous ways that Picasa allows you to preserve memories.  I hope you enjoy it.

New Features of My Blog

I have placed a few new features on my blog for your convenience.

Across the top of the page, there are tabs for Home, About, Contact me, and Family History Events. 

If you have a question/suggestions, please feel free to utilize the Contact me tab at the top of the page. I will do my best to respond to your question in a timely manner. The Family History Events page will list Family History conferences/events scheduled throughout the year. Please provide as much detail about the conference as possible. If you would like to add an event to the calendar, please use the Contact me tab, and I will add the conference/event to the calendar.

You can subscribe to my blog, and you will be contacted by email when anything new is posted. The subscription box is located at the top of the blog for your convenience; just enter your email address and click subscribe, and you will be notified of updates to the blog.

If you have any suggestions for websites to be added to the search engine, please let me know by responding to this post. Have fun!

Now who was that in the picture?

How many times have you looked at older photos of family or friends and wondered: "Now who was that in the picture?" I have numerous pictures from the past and present that have multiple people in the photos. Wouldn't it be great to be able to label the people in the pictures so that their names will not be forgotten?

I am not the only one that has thought of this idea.  As the digital age continues to explode, it affords the individual with more options for family history work including preservation, research, sharing, and documentation of family history. You only need to go to Dead Fred and see all of the nameless pictures of people to realize how important the documentation of the names of individuals in a photo.  It has been said that if your history is not written down or documented, you or your family will be lost in the memories of others within 2 generations. 

The Apple/Mac platform utilizes I-photo which allows for the labeling and categorization of the photos on my laptop computer.  I liked this platform very much, but I also have a PC so I wanted one that would work across both platforms.  I wanted the flexibility of being able to work on either my macbook or my desktop PC while working on my family history picture archives.  I began searching for a program that would satisfy these requirements.

Over the past month or two, I began utilizing a free program that I think every genealogist will want to have at their finger tips. The new tool that I have begun to utilize is most likely familiar to many of you; it is Picasa.  The newest version of Picasa is free to download and use to assist with the organization of your family photos.  If you have used this before, you know how easy it is to install and the program automatically finds all of the photos on your hard drive. The newest version allows one to perform simple color corrections, remove red eye, and a few other tools to tweak the picture to be at it's best.  Another feature of Picasa is the face recognition program.  The face recognition works fairly well however, it does not always pick up every face in the image.  This is easily corrected as the program allows you manually tag/add individuals in the photo. Once you have labeled the individual the program will begin to search the photos on your hard drive organizing them by individuals.   The program works well in categorizing the faces properly, requiring only a click for you to confirm the identity of in the individual.  Additionally you can geotag each photograph.  I am impressed with the program and the ease of use. I think that you would enjoy using it as well.  To download and/or learn more about this program check out Picasa.