How do I find a Birth record in Sweden or Norway?

Question:

How do I find a Birth record in Sweden or Norway?

My 2 x greatgrandfather was Charles ledin s/o Andrew Ledin, he was Merchant seaman born abt 1857

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The online resources for Sweden are all in Swedish, but I checked one of the better ones for you and sorry, no hits. Are you sure about those first names, though? They are extremely uncommon in Sweden/Norway, especially in those days, and may have been anglified later. Swedish and Norwegian for Charles would be Carl or Karl, and for Andrew, Andreas or Anders. Is this a possibility?

Unfortunately, the surname Ledin is fairly common, at least in Sweden, and the first names Karl, Carl, Andreas and Anders are also very common. So without more information, it'll probably be pretty difficult even if you do figure out the original first names.

Birth records were kept by the parishes in those days, so except for those parish books which have been catalogued for the genealogy databases I mentioned (which is far from all), you'd need to know which parish he was born in and contact them.