Clerical Surveys/Household Examinations/Husförhöslängd

The Household Examinations are one of the best resources for Swedish Family History.  They are a perpetual census.  The parish priest would usually update them in the fall of each year.  Searching them can range from easy to hard.  Once you know the farm name you want to look at you have to find it.  On www.genline.com some Husförhöslängd have the farms and villages listed so can see what images go with which farm/village.  When this is not done, you want to find a village index with in the record.

The example I am using is Våxtorp.  Here we find the following household examinations.  (I have indicated whether or not there is a village index.)

• 1760-1763 no village index
• 1766-1769 no village index
• 1772-1781 no village index
• 1780-1783 no village index
• 1785-1790 no village index
• 1790-1793 no village index
• 1794-1796 no village index
• 1799 village index
• 1799-1802 no village index
• 1801-1803 no village index
• 1807-1814 index
• 1823-1826 index
• 1826-1831 index
• 1831-1840 index
• 1840-1848 index
• 1848-1856 no index
• 1850-1861 no index
• 1857-1861 index
• 1861-1869 index
• 1869-1877 index in back

Usually the index is towards the beginning of the record.  This may have been created by the priest or added later by an archivist.  It is also handy that the villages usually follow the same order in each list.

In 1826-1831 we find a typed list

This will make searching other Husförhösländer easier.  The farm and village names are clear and easy to read.  However, you may have a village index like the 1799 or 1807-1814.

1799

1807-1814

And here we see poor image quality.

1814-1823

1823-1826

1857-1861

1861-1869

1869-1877

If we did not have the typed example this village index is very clear and easy to read. 

You can use the indexes that are easier to read to help familiarize yourself with the Gothic handwriting used by the priests.  It will also help you with the spelling of the farm or village you are interested in.

Tax Lists

Yesterday, I spent a good deal of time playing with Danish Tax Records for Aalborghus Amt.  I learned the basics about Danish Tax Records from the following article:  http://www.progenealogists.com/denmark/articles/danadv.htm  Mr. Horlacher provides a great overview of the basics of tax record research.  I have had a blast using the tax records.  They present a great puzzle to solve.

I have been looking at records for Hjørring/Thisted/Ålborg.  The three records that cover the time period I need are the Kontributionsregnskaber, Ekstraskatteregnskaber, and Konsumtions- familie og folkeskatsregnskaber. 

The Kontributionsregnskaber is mostly statistical information but there are some lists included.  Here is an example from 1742 for Jetsmark, Hjørring, Denmark. 

This is the title of the tax list added by an archivist.

This “list” is has many parts.  Several are letters from the officials.  However I did luck out with this part:

This is the sub-title within the tax list.

It was a small list of the major tax payers.  While this list is certainly not a list of everybody in the parish, it is at least a list of some people.  There is very little genealogical information given here but sometimes this may be the only record source available for your area in a particular time.

Here we see Jetsmark Sogn.  The first farm/community mentioned is Kaasbye.

Those listed are:
Olluf Thomasen and Niels Nielsen
Jesper Pedersen
Anders Andersen
Poul Jensen
Mikkel Christensen

Why?

I have started this blog to record the successes, failures, frustrations, insights, highlights, tips, techniques, random knowledge, little known facts, well known strategies, skills, and other miscellaneous stuff about Scandinavian Family History.  I have a great family even if they are buried in unmarked graves, left off censuses, tax lists, and church records.  So to you min forfædre I dedicate this work.