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Swedish Court & Civil Records

In addition to the parish records, these city and regional archives also contain many other interesting documents, such as the inventories of the estates of deceased persons, bouppteckningar, which are somewhat similar to our probate court records. Here are also the records of the courts and the court decisions, domböcker, as well as minor documents, småprotokoll, consisting of the transfer of real estate, the records of marriage settlements, mortgages and guardianships. Renovationer, or copies of domböcker and småprotokoll, are found in the archives of the respective courts. For Svea Court of Appeal (Svea hovrätt), the earlier records are kept in the National Archives (Riksarkivet), whereas for Gota Court of Appeal (Göta hovrätt), they are still in the archives of Göta hovrätt in Jönköping. The earlier records of the Court of Appeal for Skåne and Blekinge are deposited in Landsarkivet in Lund.

The regional archives (landsarkiven) also contain the civil records of the härad or län, which are of special interest to the genealogist. The primary source here is the mantalslängd, or census, which was made annually. Although incomplete for earlier years, it can be quite useful. Here are also the jordeböcker, the lists of real property, with the names of the owners and also certain fiscal and tax information. Since some of these records go back to approximately 1630, they antedate the parish registers.

A copy of every mantalslängd and jordebok was also sent to the Cameral Archives (Kammarakivet) in Stockholm, which thus becomes a center for all information contained in these documents. Because the material in these records is mostly of a fiscal character, it is more difficult to use and is, by its very nature, an auxiliary source to the parish registers. The material contained in this archive antedates even the formation of the län in 1630, and may in some instances go back as far as 1540, thus holding out the hope of tracing your family back for more than 400 years.