Herding Cats Genealogy
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Leave a legacy...write down
the history of your family.

Picture
Picture
Picture

Sweden Household Examination Records

7/9/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo by Max Muselmann on Unsplash
​One of the treasures for those of you with Swedish ancestors is the Sweden Household Examination Records. The pastor of the parish originally kept these records to track the family’s that lived in the parish as well as to track and evaluate their religious knowledge. For the genealogist, these records are great substitutes for census records. Let’s look.
In the Sweden Household Examination Records, the family historian can find all those details that we love including the list of all people living at a particular farm or location, their complete birthdates, marriage dates and death date if they passed during the time of the record. Much like a census record, the Sweden Household Examination Records, generally cover ten-year periods in time with a few variations. Within that timeframe, it is possible to understand events that happened to the family beyond births of children. For example, if one of the children left for America, that information is included in the record.
 
I found the records to be relatively straightforward to read. I would recommend finding your family for every record that is available. You can even go back a generation or two if you are careful to review the family members, birth dates, and farm names and locations. These are quite amazing records. Like our census records here in the states, there are occasionally errors. Once you have those key dates for your ancestors, take the time to find collaborating documents in the births, deaths, and marriages of the church records. You can find church records at Riksarkivet, the National Archives of Sweden.
 
Sweden Household Examination Records (Husförhörslängder) • FamilySearch provides additional details about these records, their history, and common terms.
 
You can find the Sweden Household Examination Records at
  • FamilySearch
  • Ancestry ($)
  • MyHeritage ($)
  • ArikDigital ($)
  • Riksarkivet
 The Riksakivet site is free and has older Sweden Household Examination Records than FamilySearch, Ancestry or MyHeritage. The nice feature of this site is that you can choose English from the Other Languages tab and more easily navigate the site. The records themselves are in Swedish and older handwriting so you’ll still need to decipher some of those abbreviations and unfamiliar words. FamilySearch has two helpful guides:
Sweden: Household Examination Vocabulary • FamilySearch
Swedenish_Par_Reg_and_Exam_headings.pdf (familysearch.org)
 
It would be challenging to find your family in these records if you didn’t know the town that they were from. The good news is that the free FamilySearch Sweden Household Examination Records and MyHeritage Sweden Household Examination Records are searchable. I would encourage you to search by a variety of spellings including abbreviations of the last name. Sometimes the indexes were rather creative. As an example, Hansensdatter might appear as Hansens. Or Hanssensdr. Or Hanssensdatter. And if you do know the village or general area, try searching for other members of the family, not just the head person. Women are listed by their maiden names.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    With a lifelong passion for genealogy and history, the author enjoys the opportunity to share genealogy tidbits, inspiring others to research and write their family story.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Herding Cats GENEALOgY ©2018-2023
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact