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Photos from old Sweden

Here we have collected some photos from old Sweden. Do you have Swedish ancestors and want to learn more? Send a free request to our Swedish professional genealogist!

Small coastal town Lysekil in Bohusläns county. Located on the Swedish west coast. Photo taken sometime between 1850-1868.
Photo of a wedding party 1876. Location was near the small city Söderhamn in Gävleborgs county.
Being poor has never been easy. Brita Lisa Kalling was born 1823 in the Swedish parish Gränna, on the eastern shore of lake Vättern. When she died of chronic bronchitis 1895 she lived with one of her children in Gränna’s poorhouse. She had lived there since 1860. A listing in the parish book says “fined for drunkenness” and “had several (3) illegitimate children”. The drunkenness was supposed to have happened in 1866 but the listing in the church records followed her through her life. Photo was taken around 1893-1895.
On May 21, 1857, 4-year-old boy Thure Philip Hornvall died in the schoolhouse in Hellingsfall, Hannäs parish in Östergötland. The cause of death was pneumonia. His parents were organist Johan Fredrik Hornvall and Ulrika Kindmark.
Thure Philips grave cross is located at Hannäs church ruin along with 5 other gravestones. The church was demolished during the 1870s when a new church was built a few miles north. An archaeological excavation of the church ruin found over 100 coins, of which the oldest were from the 13th century. The newest ones were from 1867. Now Thure Philip Hornvall is resting at the church ruin and his grave cross remind us of life in old Sweden.
Small coastal town Lysekil in Bohusläns county. Located on the Swedish west coast. Photo taken sometime between 1850-1868.
A Swedish mock wedding staged for entertainment in Delsbo, Hälsingland. Bridal couple was siblings Erik and Märta Ehn. The wedding was staged but even then it is a beutiful photo from around 1904-1906. 
A poor Swedish student in the city Uppsala, province Uppland. Year unknown, photo belongs to “Upplandsmuseet” in Sweden. Photographer R. Hammarlund.
Tingstad church, located in the Swedish province Östergötland. The church was built 800 years ago and has shifted shape through the years. The tower was built 1769. A beautiful church on a beautiful day!
Payday! Four Swedish gentlemen drinking at the restaurang “Teaterkällaren“ in the city Kalmar, located in the province Småland. Photo from 1900.
Colourized photo taken on the farm “Bo” in Lugnås parish, located in the Swedish province Västergötland. Original photo from around 1895-1905.
Swedish former soldier Sven Peter Skog (born 1856) and Hanna Maria Jonsdotter (born 1862). They were living in the former soldier cottage Kvarntorpet under Attarp in Svinhult parish, Östergötland. Sven Peter came to the cottage as early as 1876 as a soldier. Hanna Maria moved to the cottage when they married in 1880. Five children were born in the cottage between 1880-1898. One of them, Elsa Josefina Albertina died in 1905, only 15 years old, of heart disease. Sven Peter Skog died in 1926. His wife Hanna Maria lived until 1951. Original photo taken by August Christian Hultgren (1869 – 1961). This version of the photo is colorized.
Postal rower Gerda Nilsson lived on the island Flatholmen outside Tjörn in Bohuslän. She became a widow in 1936, at the age of 53, when her husband fisherman Oskar Nilsson died of cancer. In order to support herself, she rowed out the mail to Flatholmen and distributed it to the population of about 130 permanent residents, all dependent on fishing and sea freight. Gerda Nilsson also had a small post office at home. Rowing in to Tjörn to pick up mail, and sometimes even goods and passengers, was carried out 3-4 times a week. Gerda was born in 1883 and died at Flatholmen in 1964. The photo was taken in 1953 by Gösta Skoglund and was given in 2008 as a gift to Bohuslän’s museum. This version of the photo has been colorized, the original is black and white and in higher resolution.
A gathering in the open air outside a farm. Photo from Götene parish in the province Västergötland. Photo from 1890. The photo has been colorized.
Anna Håkansdotter was born 1835 in Norra Backa in Gunnarskog’s parish in Värmlands county, Sweden. In 1855 she married Jöns Andersson. In the picture from about 1904 she stands outside her home – a cottage that was located under Älgkärr in Hidinge parish, Örebro county. To the cottage under Älgkärr, the family came 1883 from Bogen parish in Värmland. They then lived in the cottage with their 5 youngest children and Jöns Andersson worked as a tailor and a farmworker. Jöns Anderson died in the cottage in November 1905 of a breast disease. He was then 83 years old. In 1910 Anna moved from the cottage and she died 1911 from old age weakness. The photo was taken by Countess Martina Kalling.
Swedish fisherman from the province Bohuslän, located on the Swedish west coast. He sure does look like a real fisherman. Photo taken around 1880-1930.
A fishing team at the quay in Marstrand, Bohuslän, Sweden. They look very proud when posing. But fishing used to be associated with great risks. When you look at the death books in parishes along the coast, it is not uncommon to find several that has drown when their ship was lost at sea. In the past, death was always present because so many died as children, but on the coast there was an extra dimension when death also often occured at sea. The photo is from 1895-1910.
Swedish Lucia in Lima, located in the beautiful province Dalarna. Photo from 1906.  
Carta Marina 1572

Carta Marina 1572

Poster with map Carta Marina printed on it. Carta Marina is the earliest reasonably accurate map of the Nordic and Baltic countries. The author of the map, Olaus Magnus (1490–1557) put twelve years of work on the map before it was printed in Venice in 1539. In 1572 Antonio Lafreri published a reduced copy of the Carta marina in Rome and it is that colorful version on the poster.

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Colorized photo of a bride in the province Hälsingland, Sweden. Photo taken sometime around 1870 - 1899.
Colorized photo of a bride in the province Hälsingland, Sweden. Photo taken sometime around 1870 – 1899.
Anders Magnus and Kristina Sofia Andersson in front of the fireplace a christmas in the 1920s in the cottage Dalaryd in Svinhult parish, Östergötlands county, Sweden. They had lived in the cottage since the end of 1913 and Anders Magnus was a farm worker. In 1926 they moved to the cottage Sjöhult and there Kristina died in 1935, 81 years old. Shortly after, Anders Magnus moved to the nursing home in Svinhult. There he died in 1936 at the age of 86. The photo from the cottage Dalaryd is a sharp contrast to what it looks like in our homes now during christmas. Photo taken by August Christian Hultgren (1869-1961). 
Worker Anders Larsson was according to household examination records born 1802 in Skaraborgs county, Sweden. When the photo was taken around 1860-1870 was he working in the city Skara. He died 1890, 88 years old, as a pauper in Skara poorhouse. Probably had a hard life. 
Historical map of Swedish province Scania 1700s

Historical map of Swedish province Scania 1700s

Poster showing Swedish province Scania (Skåne) 1700s.

Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (Swedish) is the southernmost of the historical provinces (landskap) of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne County, created in 1997. Like the other former provinces of Sweden, Scania still features in colloquial speech and in cultural references, and can therefore not be regarded as an archaic concept. Within Scania there are 33 municipalities that are autonomous within the Skåne Regional Council. Scania’s largest city, Malmö, is the third-largest city in Sweden, as well as the fifth-largest in Scandinavia.

To the north, Scania borders the former provinces of Halland and Småland, to the northeast Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea, and to the west Öresund. Since 2000, a road and railway bridge, the Öresund Bridge bridges the Sound and connects Scania with Denmark. Scania forms part of the transnational Øresund Region.

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Workers standing around one of the towers at Skara Cathedral when it was renovated 1886-1894. Maybe one of your ancestors have visited the cathedral! The cathedral was inaugurated around 1150, but recent discoveries prove the existence of a church on the site as early as the 11th century. The photo was taken 1891. Skara is located in Skaraborgs county in the province Västergötland.
Old woman standing in front of a small cottage in Klevshult in Åkers parish. Located in the province Småland. Notice the bicycle that is parked beside the cottage. The old world meets the new world.
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