The Working Group
The group that conducted the study on Estonian Swedes buried on Gotland consists of Monica Ahlström, Christopher Thiele and Eva Österlin, all three with ancestry from Vormsi and connections to Gotland.
The working group also cooperates with the Genealogy and Archive teams within the Cultural Association of Estonian Swedes – Svenska Odlingens Vänner (SOV).
Grave inventory through archival research
• Since 2018, the population registers on Gotland for the years 1925-1949 had been under review to find Estonian Swedes who were registered on Gotland during the period.
• For the period 1925-1942 (labor migrants) 225 people were found and for the period 1943-1949 (refugee status) 375 people were found. That is, a total of 600 Estonian Swedes enrolled on Gotland. The first with refugee status was entered on Gotland in 1943. The result is entered in the genealogy database Our Ancestry.
• Church records in the digital service Saaga at the Estonian National Archives have also been used to confirm who Estonian Swedes are and to find certain other information.
• To identify the Estonian Swedes who died on Gotland, “Sveriges Dödbok 8” has been used.
• In order to find out which cemetery the person is buried in, the working group has sometimes had to follow the places a person has lived in during his or her life in the National Archives’ population register. This is because a person is not always buried in the last place where they have been registered. “Buried in Sweden 2” and obituaries in newspapers have also been other tools for finding burial sites.
• The working group and also family members, relatives and friends, have visited about 60 cemeteries on Gotland and read the texts on gravestones and memorial plates. Sometimes the working group has contacted the congregation to find certain burial sites. Once these have been found, they have been photographed.
• Church burial lists/maps in both digital format and on paper have been used to help identify burial sites and to obtain grave numbers.
• The information about the current cemetery, grave number, photo and grave maps has then been entered into the family database Our Ancestry.
Mini-project
The working group also started a project in collaboration with the Estonian-Swedish Cultural Association (SOV) called ‘From Ai to Oi’. In standard Swedish translation, the project title would be “From island to island” in each dialect. The project was funded by Leader Gute as a mini-project under the initiative Gotlands kyrkokårdar berättar (Gotland’s cemeteries tell us) and it ran from 2021 to 2022.
• From Ai to Oi produced a brochure “Estonian Swedes buried on Gotland” with a list of graves and information about the Estonian Swedes. The brochure was printed in 500 copies. These brochures are distributed among churches, museums and associations related to Estonian Swedes.
• 60 aluminium signs with QR codes for the Gotland cemeteries where Estonian Swedes are buried were printed. The QR code found in both brochure and on sign leads to this website.
• Hans Enkel’s grave in Öja has been restored and washed.
Web page
• The working group has, together with SOV:s genealogy team, linked the genealogy database Our Ancestry to a separate website for Estonian Swedes buried on Gotland. On the website there are the texts from the brochure, grave list with links to the persons’ pages in the genealogy database Our ancestry where you will find more information about each person. The church’s cemetery maps are also published on the website so that visitors to the cemeteries can find the grave in question.
• In the project, the genealogy database Our Ancestry has also been supplemented with data about the Estonian Swedes on Gotland collected by the working group.
• The website is translated into Estonian by Piret Roberg and into English by Christopher Thiele.
Sources
Topotek Estonian Swedes
•Photographs
National Archives of Estonia through Saaga
• Seamen’s archive (photos)
• Passport archive
• Birth (metric) books
• Congregation ledgers
The National Archives in Sweden through Arkiv Digital or the National Archives’ digital research room
• The Church of Sweden’s move-in ledgers on Gotland, both digitally and visits to the Regional State Archives in Visby
• Church of Sweden church ledgers on Gotland
• Swedish population (data extracts from population censuses)
Other sources
• Index cards of arrivals in Sweden from 1943 through the genealogy database Our Ancestry
• Sveriges Dödbok 8 with data for the period 1830-2020 published by the Swedish Genealogical Association
• Buried in Sweden 2 published by the Swedish Genealogical Association
• The churches’ respective cemetery maps on Gotland both digitally and on paper
• Physical grave inventory with photographing of graves
• Private photos
• Obituaries in Kustbon and newspapers
