>>I have traced my own ancestry back to the mid-1600's due to the strict church records kept by the Lutheran Church in Sweden. It is not as accurate as the study of DNA
Probably more accurate in some ways because of the limitations of genetic studies. They only follow the outer branches of your family tree, while your document research filled in all the detail in the middle. A combo of the two would be great fun.
Wow till the mid-1600s, that is impressive. I think my very limited research goes back 4 generations at most. Sadly on my mom's side we have very little information as she was orphaned at a very early age.
It has been a lot of fun...time-consuming, but fun. Sweden is probably the easiest country to trace records in. The church records were very strict since the reformation and everyone had to report everything that went on in the family to the church for census keeping. It was the state law and you were punished if you did not.
This has been a boon to genealogists today and a lot of Swedes have their family history going back to the 1600's right at their finger-tips. A few lucky families have been able to trace back to the 1400's if their own families kept the records and handed them down. This is especially true if families stayed in the immediate area for all of this time.
I am sure that most of the information is accurate as everything was so strictly managed. It would be interesting to couple the findings with DNA studies. I have found dozens of distant cousins through my searches. They are always interested in learning about a branch of the family tree that emigrated to America.