Sweden Death and Burial Records

Unlike in the United States where graves may be hundreds of years old, the Swedes believe they are more practical with respect to death. In Sweden, a corpse is buried for a maximum of twenty years. At the conclusion of the time period, unless someone is paying for perpetual care, the body is exhumed and the bones are discarded. The gravesite is then made ready to be reused by someone else. In most Swedish parishes today (2006), birth dates on tombstone date from 1870 or later. Few, if any, graves exist for persons born prior to 1870.

Infant mortality in pre-1900 Sweden stood at about 40-50%. It was commonplace among families of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to name a newborn for a deceased older sibling. However, before deciding that this is what actually happened, make a diligent effort to find the death record of the older sibling. Perhaps, some parents just enjoyed the sound of certain names and assigned the same given name(s) to multiple children. In a family with five sons each named “Olof”, the parents, and hopefully the intended child, knew who was wanted when his name was called.

In a Swedish Church Record of death you can expect to find:

The name of the deceased
The date of burial and/or death
The residence of the deceased
The age of the deceased (usually estimated)
Sometimes, the cause of death
Some death records include obituaries that contain a summary of the deceased's life

Tips

Ages at death are highly suspect
Causes of death are suspect because of uncertain diagnosis
The interval between death and burial could be an extended time
Do NOT assume because two children in a family have the same given name(s) that the older child died