How to search Disbyt

How to search DISBYT

To get the most out of DISBYT, read this information carefully:

1. How to search

You must enter a surname. If you have an unusual surname, that might be enough, but it is preferable to add the first name as well. Parish or county may also be useful.

Swedish characters for Windows-users
While pressing the Alt-key press the following numbers on the numerical keyboard (with Num lock on):

Å=Alt+143     å=Alt+134
Ä=Alt+142     ä=Alt+132
Ö=Alt+153     ö=Alt+148

Differences between Swedish and foreign ways of spelling Swedish surnames
In the 19th century, women rarely used the -sson ending, but the -sdotter (=-daughter) ending. If you are looking for a woman, it would be a good idea to look for Andersdotter (and not Andersson).

Also, please remember that the surname changed with each generation. If the father was called Johan Andersson, his sons were called Johansson, e.g. the son Nils was called: Nils Johansson. Johans daughters were called: Johansdotter, e.g. Karin Johansdotter.

You may use ? instead of a single character and * instead of several characters. However, the first three characters of the surname should be ordinary characters in order not to slow down the search too much. You may for example write Lund??ist to search for Lundkvist as well as Lundquist and Lundqvist. If you are using wild cards (? or *), there will be no standardization of the name.

Given names
If a person had more than one given name, you can search for all names at once. If you don´t find anything, you may try to search with the first given name only. As with surnames ending with -sson or -sdotter, given names are standardized to standard spelling. If you are unsure of what the standard spelling of name may be, you can try to write just the first letter and a star, for example A* which will find both Anna, Annika and so forth.

Parish
If you enter a parish name, it must be a parish name or the name of a town. You will not find any villages or farms. The spelling must be correct too. If you are in search of a name including Å, Ä or Ö, you may write A and O. If you are looking for Österåker, you can write Osteraker.

County
Normally, the search isn't limited to a county, but you search the whole country. If you know the county, you may select it from the pull down menu.

Time period
You may enter one or two years to limit the search in time.

Number of hits
You may select the number of hits shown per page, but the default value of 25 hits per page is a good value.
If you have submitted your file to the database, you may enter your own number to omit it from the search result.

2. How to contact

If you want to contact a fellow researcher, you may contact her or him by mail or e-mail. Remember, always tell them where you have found the information.

It's a good idea to include detailed information and also an ancestor chart or a descendant chart, showing what you are interested in.

3. How to respond

Please answer all questions that you get, even if you haven't any information. An e-mail could be enough.

All responses should be provided free of charge, unless you have decided otherwise.

Good luck!