Dear List: Here are my notes, as requested. I don't claim to be an authority, so if there are errors, please let me know. Mantalslängder These are tax registers. They are civil documents, not religious ones. This means they are not subject to the whims or bad habits of individual priests, or to the problems of document storage in old churches. Of course, it's possible to have fires or nibbling mice in government buildings too, so the safety of tax records is not guaranteed. The information you get from them is pretty bare-bones stuff, The king's men don't care what your birthday is or where you were born. Nonetheless, they are still very useful. They started in 1635 and continued till 1938. That doesn't mean you will find them for all years, but you will often find they can cover the gaps in the church records. For example, if you have no birth record for a man who lived at Number 3, find out who occupied it before he did. You will often find obvious family links: e.g., a house occupied in turn by Lars Rasmusson, then Rasmus Larsson, and then Lars Rasmusson probably shows three generations of one family. I find that if I am faced with locating a family in a large hfl and I don't know exactly where they lived, a quick look in the mantalslängd can put me on the right path. A mantalslängd is usually only a few pages long and when you find the head of household, you've also found his house number. Do they cover everyone? Definitely not. The king wanted everyone of working age to pay a tax, but there were whole classes of people who were exempt. The nobility didn't pay, nor did the military. The sick and the poor were also excused from this obligation. There were age limitations as well. Generally, the people who paid tax were between 15 and 63, but you will find exceptions to this. When were they done? It usually took about two-and-a-half months for the commisssioners to collect the information. Before 1724 the information was gathered from January to the middle of March. From 1724 on, they were given a deadline of January 10. This means for the year 1724 they were out in the villages by mid October of 1723. The commissioners naturally got assistance from local people, and you will often see signatures or bomärken from these people appended. How do you read them? They are arranged by household within the parish; e.g., Village A, house numbers 1-20, Village B, house numbers 1-3, etc. After the house number is the name of the head of the household. Often this is the only person whose name is recorded in full. In this section you may find the names of the other people in the household who will be paying taxes--wife, son, daughter, dräng, piga, etc. If you're lucky you will get more than just the first name. If you're unlucky, you won't even get that. Next you will find columns for the categories of people paying tax. The usual scheme is this: Col. 1 head Col. 2 wife Col. 3 son Col. 4 daughter Col. 5 dräng Col. 6. piga Col. 7. total For example columns with 1 -- 2 3 1 1 8 would indicate a householder with no wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, 1 dräng, and 1 piga, for a total of 8 people making the king happy. You might suspect that this householder is a widower or that his wife is over 63--you don't know which. If there are children under 15 they won't be listed. The columns may vary. Sometimes there is a column for mother, son-in-law, inhyses, etc. There are usually column headings at the top that will make it clear, but you may have to go back to an earlier page to find them. You may even have to go back to a parish earlier in the tax book. That's easily done with SVAR but can be a problem with ArkivDigital. Where can you see mantalslängder? With ArkivDigital it's simple. Just bring up the parish arkiv and look for mantalslängder. With SVAR you do more or less the same thing. Find the parish (Geographic Search will do it), then click on "Scanned Documents (tax census)"; in Swedish "skannat material (mantalslängder)" **Remember--- Tax offices all over Sweden collected the same data, BUT there were no printed forms. Each office had its own method of recording the information. You will find differences in how the information appears. AND, we're talking about a span of 300 years or so. Tax policies were remarkably consistent over the years, but they did change. I hope this is useful. Jim Polson

I have been hunting around AD for these records and cannot find any. They are not listed under archive type and I searched 6 parishes my ancestors lived in and nothing.....What am i doing wrong? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Polson" <jimpolson@shaw.ca> To: <sweden@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 10:46 AM Subject: Re: Mantalslängder > Dear List: > > Here are my notes, as requested. I don't claim to be an authority, so > if there are errors, please let me know. > > > Mantalslängder > > These are tax registers. They are civil documents, not religious > ones. This means they are not subject to the whims or bad habits of > individual priests, or to the problems of document storage in old > churches. Of course, it's possible to have fires or nibbling mice in > government buildings too, so the safety of tax records is not > guaranteed. > > The information you get from them is pretty bare-bones stuff, The > king's men don't care what your birthday is or where you were born. > Nonetheless, they are still very useful. > > They started in 1635 and continued till 1938. That doesn't mean you > will find them for all years, but you will often find they can cover > the gaps in the church records. For example, if you have no birth > record for a man who lived at Number 3, find out who occupied it > before he did. You will often find obvious family links: e.g., a > house occupied in turn by Lars Rasmusson, then Rasmus Larsson, and > then Lars Rasmusson probably shows three generations of one family. > > I find that if I am faced with locating a family in a large hfl and I > don't know exactly where they lived, a quick look in the mantalslängd > can put me on the right path. A mantalslängd is usually only a few > pages long and when you find the head of household, you've also found > his house number. > > Do they cover everyone? > > Definitely not. The king wanted everyone of working age to pay a tax, > but there were whole classes of people who were exempt. > The nobility didn't pay, nor did the military. The sick and the poor > were also excused from this obligation. There were age limitations as > well. Generally, the people who paid tax were between 15 and 63, but > you will find exceptions to this. > > When were they done? > > It usually took about two-and-a-half months for the commisssioners to > collect the information. Before 1724 the information was gathered > from January to the middle of March. From 1724 on, they were given a > deadline of January 10. This means for the year 1724 they were > out in the villages by mid October of 1723. The commissioners > naturally got assistance from local people, and you will often see > signatures or bomärken from these people appended. > > How do you read them? > > They are arranged by household within the parish; e.g., Village A, > house numbers 1-20, Village B, house numbers 1-3, etc. > After the house number is the name of the head of the household. > Often this is the only person whose name is recorded in full. > In this section you may find the names of the other people in the > household who will be paying taxes--wife, son, daughter, dräng, piga, > etc. > If you're lucky you will get more than just the first name. If you're > unlucky, you won't even get that. > > Next you will find columns for the categories of people paying tax. > The usual scheme is this: > Col. 1 head > Col. 2 wife > Col. 3 son > Col. 4 daughter > Col. 5 dräng > Col. 6. piga > Col. 7. total > > For example columns with 1 -- 2 3 1 1 8 would indicate a > householder with no wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, 1 dräng, and 1 piga, > for a total of 8 people making the king happy. > You might suspect that this householder is a widower or that his wife > is over 63--you don't know which. If there are children under 15 they > won't be listed. > > The columns may vary. Sometimes there is a column for mother, > son-in-law, inhyses, etc. There are usually column headings at the > top that will make it clear, but you may have to go back to an > earlier page to find them. You may even have to go back to a parish > earlier in the tax book. That's easily done with SVAR but can be a > problem with ArkivDigital. > > Where can you see mantalslängder? > > With ArkivDigital it's simple. Just bring up the parish arkiv and > look for mantalslängder. > > With SVAR you do more or less the same thing. Find the parish > (Geographic Search will do it), then click on "Scanned Documents (tax > census)"; in Swedish "skannat material (mantalslängder)" > > **Remember--- > Tax offices all over Sweden collected the same data, BUT there were > no printed forms. Each office had its own method of > recording the information. You will find differences in how the > information appears. AND, we're talking about a span > of 300 years or so. Tax policies were remarkably consistent over the > years, but they did change. > > I hope this is useful. > > Jim Polson > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SWEDEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message

HI Jim & Lois thank you both for this wonderful information you have shared. I have never thought to look into this & since I have AD I surely will! Tack Diane/NJ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Polson" <jimpolson@shaw.ca> To: <sweden@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 1:46 PM Subject: Re: Mantalslängder > Dear List: > > Here are my notes, as requested. I don't claim to be an authority, so > if there are errors, please let me know. > > > Mantalslängder > > These are tax registers. They are civil documents, not religious > ones. This means they are not subject to the whims or bad habits of > individual priests, or to the problems of document storage in old > churches. Of course, it's possible to have fires or nibbling mice in > government buildings too, so the safety of tax records is not > guaranteed. > > The information you get from them is pretty bare-bones stuff, The > king's men don't care what your birthday is or where you were born. > Nonetheless, they are still very useful. > > They started in 1635 and continued till 1938. That doesn't mean you > will find them for all years, but you will often find they can cover > the gaps in the church records. For example, if you have no birth > record for a man who lived at Number 3, find out who occupied it > before he did. You will often find obvious family links: e.g., a > house occupied in turn by Lars Rasmusson, then Rasmus Larsson, and > then Lars Rasmusson probably shows three generations of one family. > > I find that if I am faced with locating a family in a large hfl and I > don't know exactly where they lived, a quick look in the mantalslängd > can put me on the right path. A mantalslängd is usually only a few > pages long and when you find the head of household, you've also found > his house number. > > Do they cover everyone? > > Definitely not. The king wanted everyone of working age to pay a tax, > but there were whole classes of people who were exempt. > The nobility didn't pay, nor did the military. The sick and the poor > were also excused from this obligation. There were age limitations as > well. Generally, the people who paid tax were between 15 and 63, but > you will find exceptions to this. > > When were they done? > > It usually took about two-and-a-half months for the commisssioners to > collect the information. Before 1724 the information was gathered > from January to the middle of March. From 1724 on, they were given a > deadline of January 10. This means for the year 1724 they were > out in the villages by mid October of 1723. The commissioners > naturally got assistance from local people, and you will often see > signatures or bomärken from these people appended. > > How do you read them? > > They are arranged by household within the parish; e.g., Village A, > house numbers 1-20, Village B, house numbers 1-3, etc. > After the house number is the name of the head of the household. > Often this is the only person whose name is recorded in full. > In this section you may find the names of the other people in the > household who will be paying taxes--wife, son, daughter, dräng, piga, > etc. > If you're lucky you will get more than just the first name. If you're > unlucky, you won't even get that. > > Next you will find columns for the categories of people paying tax. > The usual scheme is this: > Col. 1 head > Col. 2 wife > Col. 3 son > Col. 4 daughter > Col. 5 dräng > Col. 6. piga > Col. 7. total > > For example columns with 1 -- 2 3 1 1 8 would indicate a > householder with no wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, 1 dräng, and 1 piga, > for a total of 8 people making the king happy. > You might suspect that this householder is a widower or that his wife > is over 63--you don't know which. If there are children under 15 they > won't be listed. > > The columns may vary. Sometimes there is a column for mother, > son-in-law, inhyses, etc. There are usually column headings at the > top that will make it clear, but you may have to go back to an > earlier page to find them. You may even have to go back to a parish > earlier in the tax book. That's easily done with SVAR but can be a > problem with ArkivDigital. > > Where can you see mantalslängder? > > With ArkivDigital it's simple. Just bring up the parish arkiv and > look for mantalslängder. > > With SVAR you do more or less the same thing. Find the parish > (Geographic Search will do it), then click on "Scanned Documents (tax > census)"; in Swedish "skannat material (mantalslängder)" > > **Remember--- > Tax offices all over Sweden collected the same data, BUT there were > no printed forms. Each office had its own method of > recording the information. You will find differences in how the > information appears. AND, we're talking about a span > of 300 years or so. Tax policies were remarkably consistent over the > years, but they did change. > > I hope this is useful. > > Jim Polson > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SWEDEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >