Sweden in 1700

Before I go on to my seventh great-grandparents, I am going to pause and share a bit of information about what was happening in the world where our ancestors were living at the start of the 1700s.

As I did my initial research - the names and dates - I was puzzled by the fact that so many of our "Swedish" ancestors actually came from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bohemia, Germany, etc. But when I looked into the history of Sweden, I began to understand.

I started to do a bunch of research so I could write it up for everyone, but then I realized that Wikipedia had done it all for me. Unfortunately, I can't make a link work, but if you Google "History of Sweden" the Wikipedia article should come up.

I suggest that, at the minimum, you read the introduction and then scroll down to  Early Modern and read at least through "The Great Northern War: 1700." However, it is all very interesting. You will probably want to refer back to it as I get to earlier generations.

YouTube also has some documentaries under "History of Sweden." I appreciated the one about The Thirty Years War, which was 1618 through 1648, because it explains a lot that will come up in these posts in the near future.

It looks like this coming generation lived in three areas of Sweden, all in the south. Orebro is 200 km west of Stockholm. Jonkoping is 200 km south of Orebro. And Alvsborg County (Province) is just west of Jonkoping.