Celebrating the New Year

 

New Year celebrations are known in the late Swedish peasant society as well as in our time. They waked in the new year and fired shots with rifles. If you wanted to know how the coming year would turn out, this was a good time to predict it.

Celebrating the new year is something most people do.

The celebration at midnight is the first calendar party of the year. New Year's Eve is named after Sylvester after Pope Silvester, who died on December 31, 335. In traditions outside the West and at different times in history, as is well known, the new year is placed at other times. In Sweden, December 25 was New Year's Day until the 16th century, but was celebrated in some places until the 18th century.

Just like Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve was charged with magical power. Then it was appropriate to predict how the coming year would turn out in terms of harvest, marriage and possible deaths. The young girl who wanted to see into the future would bow three times for the new moon and read a verse of the following wording:

Good day, New Years new

Tell me whose bread I'll bake

Whose bed am I going to make?

Whose child am I going to give birth to?

(from "The Great Christmas Book" by Jan-Öjwind Swahn)

From Västergötland are told about girls who went out at 12 o'clock (midnight) and swept a small distance from the front stairs to the yard. The next day the intended fiance would come to the farm.

The techniques for telling fortunes were many, but telling fortunes in coffee grounds or tin was often used. From Småland is told about the farmer who interpreted the New Year's (the new moon) so that as many days as the New Year's were hidden by clouds, as many days the grain would lie in the ground.

Wake for the new year

A wake for the New Year is a late tradition and a bourgeois phenomenon which over time has spread to all classes of society. The New Year's ring, which in our time has taken on such a large role, was spread via radio from the 1920s. However, there was a New Year's ring at Skansen as early as 1893, on the initiative of Artur Hazelius.

During the post-war period, the New Year celebrations have grown and increasingly received luxury emphasis. The model is high-class parties from the past. Food and clothing play a big role at New Year's. We like to dress up, drink sparkling wine and eat exclusive food. In Västra Vingåker parish in Södermanland, the young people wished each other a happy new year after the morning's church visit with the following words:

I wish you a happy new year

That you get a beautiful fiancée

I wish you a happy new year

That you get a beautiful fiancé

For dinner it was then pork roast with brown beans and for dessert fruit soup. For supper fish and porridge left over from New Year's Eve.

Unlike Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve is a more public celebration. Family is not at the center as much as friends and our social networks. Celebrating New Year with bangs and fireworks goes back to the custom of kicking off the new year with shots. New Year's greetings - congratulations - have been known since 15th century Germany.

Weather signs and happiness

New Year's card depicting a love couple, a man and a woman tenderly holding each other. They stand outdoors in a wintry landscape dressed in elegant clothes from the 1910s cut. An angel with halo and pink ankle-clad clothing keeps his hands protective above them. The text "Happy New Year" in gold print in the lower corner.

New Year's Eve, like Christmas Eve, was a time to make predictions about the coming year. “Dear New Year's New! Whose shirt should I sew, whose cake should I bake, whose wife should I become? ”, Is a rhyme that helps the young girls to predict who will be the beloved. The game philippine, where the person who first utters "philippine" when seen after the new year may wish for something, can be said to be a remnant of these predictions.

In our time, many make a New Year's promise in connection with the stroke of midnight. The tradition comes from the United States, where people talk about New Year's resolutions. The word New Year's promise began to be used in the 1940s, but the phenomenon was known under other names as early as the 20th century in Sweden. In the peasant society, the custom of making New Year's vows was unknown.

Happy new year everyone!

//Daniel

Five years in the service of genealogy

Most of you has probably heard the story of how it comes that I started with genealogy, that it was thanks to an article about Swedish soldiers and that I went on from there. Some might even remember that I already had some papers with a small family tree that my mom had got from a cousin of hers and that I made a copy by hand. I was intrested in genealogy about 25 years before I even started with it and of course I was already intrested in history so everything fitted me like a glove.

It has now been 5 years since I became interested in looking a little at the family and seriously start with genealogy. What happened here during these years? Have I found anything fun? Have I found anything boring? Have I found anything strange? This blog has already answered a few of these questions and that was a bit the reason why I started it too. Over the years, I have received some questions about the family and things that I have tried to answer and it eventually became this blog just to make it easier for everyone to sit down and relax when you go through it all. It was just a little over a year ago, I actually started the English version of this blog for the American relatives so that they too could see how things were with everything here in Sweden at the time that the ancestors still lived here. Over the years, they have been helped a lot with the research here in Sweden as it is far from everyone who knows so much Swedish that they understand what is written in all the papers they find. It's fun for me too, of course, as I get to learn more about who emigrated to the United States and what happened to them and all that. You also get to know a lot of people who you would never have gotten to know otherwise and who then of course have common interests through genealogy.

Even though it has been five years since the start of my genealogy journey through the ages, it has not actually diminished in the way you might think, but it often becomes something genealogy-related you do during the weeks and you do not immediately think that it is genealogy you doing. It may sound a little strange, but when you have done it for a long time, you do not really think about it the way you did in the beginning.

One thing that comes with the years is that you learn a lot about different things. To the uninitiated, the priests' handwriting can sometimes look like pure Greek, while for someone else it is fully readable. Of course, it can be difficult sometimes for me still because not all priests wrote very well.

Even though I have still only scratched the surface a bit on the whole, there are still some stories that have come out that I did not know anything about before and it is always nice. There are many stories left about the family for me to dig out, but it will probably take many more years and I will probably never really be completely finished!

//Daniel

The Mad Trapper of Rat River or the Demented trapper

That you encounter some mystery when doing genealogy is nothing new. Either it can be a father who is unknown or it is something else that is elusive. It is part of genealogy itself that a small mystery emerges that usually takes a little longer to solve than anything else.

For those of you who are a little more sensitive, this post may not be the best and this is just a little warning sign so you should know that there are things in the text and pictures that can be a little sensitive for some.

Aklavik

Map of Canada with Aklavik highlighted.

We are now going back to the summer of 1931 and to the Northwest Territory in Canada when a man appeared out of nowhere on the river Peel and the small village of Aklavik. The village is located in the middle of the wilderness in the northwestern part of the territory. He would shop for necessities and seemed to have plenty of money.

Edgar Millen who belonged to RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), who used to keep track of people in the area, especially newcomers, met the man and started asking questions about his activities there but got very few answers from the man who somehow got (a little wrong ) the name Albert Johnson and that name stuck after that. Johnson was clean-shaven, had light blue eyes and Millen thought Johnson seemed to have a Scandinavian accent. Because there was very little information from Johnson, Millen said that he thought Johnson should get a hunting license to catch animals. Albert Johnson stayed for a few days in Aklavik (may have been up to two weeks as the information varies). While he was there, he kept to himself and did not talk to anyone. Johnson ventured out on the waterways of the Mackenzie River Delta and ended up on a beach on the Rat River where he built a small 2.4 x 3 meter cabin. Johnson had not obtained a license that Millen had advised him to, which was a bit odd for someone who lived out in the bush. During this time, many of these areas were invaded by outsiders who had gone there due to the Great Depression because they wanted to try to survive in some way.

Rat River

Albert Johnsons destoyed cabin.

In December 1931, local First Nations Trappers complained to the Mounted Police that Johnson had tampered with their snares and, among other things, hung the snares on trees. This led to Constable Alfred King and Special Constable Joe Bernard walking the 97 kilometers from Aklavik to Johnson's cabin on the Rat River on December 26 to talk to him about the allegations. Both constables had extensive experience of the wilderness. As they approached the cottage they saw smoke coming from the chimney so they went to it to talk but Johnson refused, and did not even seem to notice them. King looked in through the window of the cottage and then Johnson covered it with a sack. In the end, the two constables decided to return to Aklavik to obtain a house search order.

King and Bernard returned five days later with two other men. Johnson still refused to speak and in the end King decided to try to open the door by force. As soon as he started, Johnson shot him through the wooden door. A short firefight broke out and the team managed to get King back to Aklavik where he finally recovered from the gunshot wound he had received. Johnson had thus gone from being suspected of destroying snares for other hunters to attempted murder.

A posse was formed consisting of 9 men, 42 dogs and 9.1 kilos of dynamite which they would use to blow up Johnson's cabin if necessary. After surrounding the cottage, they started lighting the dynamite sticks but it didn't really work because it was too cold. They then started to try to thaw the dynamite inside the coats and in the end they threw all the dynamite that ended up on the cottage roof, which caused the cottage to collapse from the bang. After the bang, they started rushing towards the cottage. Johnson then opened fire from a 1.5 meter hole he had dug under the cottage. No one was hit by the shots from Johnson and after a 15 hour standoff (at 4 o'clock in the morning) in minus 40 degrees Celcius, the posse decided to retreat to Aklavik to get further assistance. The report from the RCMP contradicts a bit that the cottage would have collapsed after the dynamite but it would hardly have been damaged and that it was later that it was deliberately destroyed to prevent Johnson from returning.

Some of the cops involved in chasing "The Mad Trapper". From left to right: Constable A.W. King (wounded), Mr Hutchinson, Corporal Hall, unknown, Mr Mellville, Corporal R. S. Wild, Constable E. "Newt" Millen (killed), unknown.

The hunt

Supplies are loaded into "Wop" May's aircraft in Aklavik.

By this time the news had reached the rest of the world via radio and the newspapers began to call him the Mad Trapper of Rat River. After being delayed due to a snowstorm, the reinforced posse returned to Johnson's cabin on January 14 only to find that Johnson had left. The posse set out to try to find him, and 16 days later, on January 30, they caught up with him and managed to surround Johnson, who was hiding in a grove of trees. During the firefight that broke out, Johnson managed to shoot Constable Edgar Millen through the heart. Here they heard a laugh from Johnson who otherwise hadn't said anything during the meetings he had with the pursuers. Millen was the only one who had spoken to Johnson during their first meeting in Aklavik six months earlier. Millen would have a tributary of the Rat River named after him, called Millen Creek. A memorial is located in that area. Once again, the posse withdrew even though they thought they had him, but Johnson managed to climb an almost vertical cliff under cover of darkness. The posse continued to grow with local Inuit and Gwich'ins who were better suited to move in the lands as they were. It was clear that Johnson would leave Yokon but the RCMP had blocked both passes at the Richardson Mountains, but this did not stop Johnson who climbed up a 2100 meter mountain peak and disappeared again.

Wilfrid "Wop" May.

In sheer desperation, the RCMP hired a pilot named Wilfrid "Wop" May from Canadian Airways. "Wop" May had been a pilot during the First World War and the last to be chased by the Red Baron before he was shot down. "Wop" arrived in the new ski-equipped Bellanca monoplane on February 5th. The prolonged hunt for Johnson made the supplies ran short all the time and they needed a pair of eagle eyes from the air that could assist them. "Wop" May discovered that Johnson had crossed the Richardson chain and saw footprints on the other side of the mountain range. Nine days later, on February 14, he came up with the tactics that Johnson used. He discovered footprints running from the center of the frozen ice on the Eagle River toward the riverbank. Johnson had followed the tracks of reindeer in the middle of the river where the reindeer had a better view to detect predators and the like. Walking in their hoof tracks had hidden his own and allowed him to walk faster in the already trampled snow without having to use snowshoes. It was only when he was going to rest for the night that he went to the river bank for protection and it was these tracks that "Wop" discovered. May used the radio to announce the discovery to the RCMP and they resumed the hunt. For the next two days, "Wop" May had to stay on the ground due to fog. On February 17, they had come on the right tracj and caught up with Johnson. When they came out of a bend in the river, they discovered Johnson in the middle of the ice of the river just a few hundred meters in front of them. Johnson tried to run to the river bank but did not wear his snowshoes and could not cope in the deep snow.

One last firefight

Aerial view of RCMP and Albert Johnson hunting, Northwest Territories. Johnson, "The Mad Trapper," is on the ice in the middle while his pursuers are on the beach near the trees on the right.

Now that it had found Johnson again, another firefight began. Because Johnson could not run to the river bank, he threw himself into the snow and hid behind his backpack and started firing. Eames who led the 11 men, including Gardlund, Sittichinli, Riddell and Hersey, came in from the right on the Eagle River and Johnson himself was in the middle of the ice. Eames shouted at Johnson to give up but Johnson ignored this and managed to shoot Hersey but it was not a fatal shot. Via signals from "Wop" May, the posse spread out and caught Johnson in a crossfire. Johnson was shot several times. The bullet that was fatal to Johnson is believed to be one that went through the pelvis and cut off the spine so that Johnson collapsed. Once they realized that Johnson was dead and began to reflect on the hunt for him, 53 days had passed from the first visit to the cottage until Johnson was shot and he had walked about 140 km from his little cottage by Rat River and it had been 33 days since they discovered he had left the cottage.

Posthumous reputation and the identity

"Albert Johnson, The Mad Trapper" as they examined and took pictures of his body.

After Johnson's body had been taken back to Aklavik, they began to examine the body to find out who the man really was. There was nothing that could identify him at all and they had not found anything in his cabin either. With him, in addition to the clothes he wore on his body, Johnson had 2410 Canadian dollars and 10 in US dollars, five pearls of low value and a small amount of gold including dental teeth. They also found a pocket compass, a razor, a knife, fish hooks, nails, a dead squirrel, a dead bird, a large amount of Beecham's pills. The weapons he had were a .22 Winchester rifle, a .30-30 Savage Model 99F and a sawn-off 16-gauge Iver Johnson Champion shotgun. They also took his fingerprints, but neither the Canadian nor the American police had any files that matched Johnson's. His true identity was thus a mystery in itself. Seventy-five years later, in 2007, forensic teams found that his tailbone was not symmetrical, causing his spine to swing left and right slightly. In addition, one foot was longer than the other.

A phantom image of "Johnson" from the search for his identity.

Albert Johnson as he was called was an alias that was realized and after a while the number of people had been reduced to four suspects.

The first person of the suspects was an obscure man named Arthur Nelson. This man had traveled from Dease Lake in British Columbia and up to the Yukon sometime between 1927 and 1931. He had similar weapons to Albert Johnson. The elderly in Kaska Dena and others remembered him under his alias "Mickey Nelson" when he hunted in the Ross River region.

The author Dick North's book "Trackdown" from 1989 developed a theory that Albert Johnson, Arthur Nelson and the criminal John Johnson were one and the same person. John Johnson had been imprisoned several times, including in San Quentin and Folsom Prison and his physical attributes are well documented and similar to those of the "Mad Trapper". North had followed John Johnson's identity back to Norway. "Johnny Johnson" was born as Johan Konrad Jonsen (1898) in Bardu in northern Norway (north of the Arctic Circle). In any case, the "Mad Trappers"'s expensive teeth probably did not belong to the criminal Johnson. DNA tests on John Johnson's nephew Ole Getz also proved that John and the "Mad Trapper" were not the same person.

The Johnston family from Pictou in Nova Scotia long believed that Albert Johnson would have been Owen Albert Johnston, a relative of theirs, who had left Pictou at the beginning of the Great Depression to try to find work in the United States. A final letter from him was published from Revelstoke, British Columbia, in early 1931, but they never heard from him again. According to the radio interview, a relative arranged a DNA test.

The earlier theories were challenged with the release of Mark Fremmelid's book "What became of Sigvald anyway?". He suggested that there were too many circumstances that had been ignored and that it could be Sigvard Pedersen Haaskjold from Norway who was Albert Johnson. Sigvard was known as a self-sufficient man of high class and was 32 in 1927, ie 4½ years before the hunt and shooting of Albert Johnson, which was thought to be between 35 and 40 years. Sigvald had become obsessed with believing that the authorities were still looking for him. This author points to evidence of circumstance in this case.

New technology and DNA

During the excavation of Johnson's grave.

In 2007, a group decided to re-examine the "Mad Trapper", Albert Johnson and his identity. It had thus been 75 years and no one had managed to crack the mystery of Johnson's true identity or where he came from. A forensic team gathered and they dug up the remains near the cemetery in Aklavik and everything was documented in the documentary "The Hunt for the Mad trapper".

Among the things the team found was from isotopic analysis that he may have grown up in Scandinavia but most likely in the American Midwest. He had scoliosis which must have led to chronic back pain, he was about 35 years old, he had been shot several times in the last firefight including his legs, chest and a weakening shot from behind through the pelvis. A spiral fracture on his femur supports the anecdote that a bullet had hit and exploded an ammunition bag on his hip. His dental work was of a very high quality at the time, which indicates that he could afford expensive state-of-the-art work in any major city such as Chicago or New York. DNA samples were also taken for comparison work.

After the examination, his remains were taken back and buried with complete religious rites by both the local priest and the native elders, something he had not received at his original funeral.

While many people had offered convincing clues and anecdotal evidence that they were related to him, the DNA analysis excluded all candidates and his identity is, despite all investigations, still a mystery.

In 2017, it was decided to do a familial DNA test, but technical problems with DNA avoided analysis until an adequate sequence was developed by Othram Inc. in 2021. Further tests of Othram have identified some of his ancestors who lived in the Swedish cities of Hånger, Kävsjö and Kulltorp. and includes Gustaf Magnusson (1776–1853) and Britta Svensdotter (1781–1846). Additional DNA samples and family history are currently being sought from possible descendants to take the investigation further and this is where we are right now.

90 years without a real identity

A sign in Aklavik.

It has thus been 90 years since "Albert Johnson" appeared in Aklavik in northwestern Canada and his identity is still unknown, even though they may be on close. What you can reflect on is that he could hardly have been crazy or anything like that as he was smart enough to escape both the police and trackers for over 40 days. He cunningly survives in arctic climates with about 40 degrees below zero during the day and with temporary self-made shelters and even colder nights. Being able to hunt to get food without using weapons to reduce attention and cook it without fire or smoke bringing the trackers closer and burning around 42 MJ (10,000 kcal) a day was also an achievement in itself. Imagine that you have back pain, how difficult it is for you to perform many everyday tasks. Now imagine what it was like for Johnson when he with his chronic back pain and feet that were different lengths. Getting through difficult terrain in the middle of winter in snow and cold over mountains and with the packing he had to take with him, it could not have been particularly easy. The newspapers in both Canada and the USA wrote about the hunt for him and for some he became a bit of a hero in the wake of the depression as it was after all.

Songs have also been written about him and films based on his story have been released, including Death Hunt from 1981 with Charles Bronson. The facts in these songs and movies may not be quite clear but there is a lot of fiction in them.

That I started to get interested in "the Mad Trapper" is because I read a bit quickly in a newspaper (as usual) and saw that the solution to the mystery had come a little closer plus the fact that I myself have some old relatives in the areas where Johnson's ancestors came from and those things usually trigger an old genealogist's imagination. As it looks at the moment, there is no family connection between me and Johnson but you never know, one day something may appear that allows you to enroll him in the family tree as well. Everyone deserves an identity, right!?

// Daniel

The power of the Church in everyday life

Few people deny that the church has had an influence on everyday life over the centuries. But what power did the Church have over the people?

In the middle of the 19th century, the church and the priests had great power. Everyone who lived in Sweden must belong to the Evangelical Lutheran State Church. All books printed in the country must pass state censorship. What was not in accordance with Lutheran doctrine was not to be spread.

"Salvation Army", detail from a painting by Gustaf Cederström (1845-1933). The Salvation Army was a revival movement with international roots that spread to Sweden during the 19th century.

The great power of the Church

The church was still the great gathering place for the parishioners. It was obvious that most people in a home would be present at the mass. Of course, many went to church because they were sincere believers, others went to church because that was where they heard the news. The church had the same function as newspapers have for us. Important events from the home area and the rest of the kingdom were read out by the priest. In addition, you could meet people before and after the service to gossip or settle business and marriages.

The Church could also impose penalties for minor offenses. Outside the church was the so-called the stock. There the convict was strapped in and had to be ashamed in front of the churchgoers, who had permission to spit on the convict. A person could end up in the stock if he missed too many church visits.

Another punishment was to sit on the fornication stool inside the church. Among other things, unfaithful people were allowed to sit and be ashamed. In 1683, a "whore" on Gotland was forced to sit on a stool in fifteen churches before she was forgiven. It was common with such shameful punishments in old Sweden. In some places, the unmarried mother had to mark her affiliation with a so-called shameful punishment. In some parts of Sweden she had to wear a special hat called "horluva" (somthing like whorecap in English).

House interrogation

House interrogation was a kind of religious interrogation that the priest performed on his parishioners. The priest came to the various homes and interrogated all the chapters of Luther's little catechism, which was the textbook of the faith of the church and the state. The purpose of these interrogations was to check that no one was trying to come up with new ideas that went against the right belief. During these interrogations, the priest kept notes of what each one could do and who was literate.

The house interrogations were also a kind of popular party. They went to meet acquaintances and eat good food.

Priests

The priest was the most important person in the parish. It was the priest who was responsible for teaching in the parish. If the priest was careful and diligent, many in the congregation could read. It was not until 1842 that we received our first primary school charter. It decided that all children should go to school, and that each parish must arrange for teachers and schoolhouses. The priest also taught new methods of farming to the peasants.

The revival

In 1726, the so-called the Conventical poster in Sweden was introduced. The poster banned all individual religious meetings not organized by the church. The Swedish state church was very afraid that new religious ideas would spread in Sweden. Those who broke the poster were sentenced to high fines or long prison terms. One person received e.g. 44 years in prison for breaking the poster.

The Conventical poster was not repealed until 1858. During the 19th century, people began to gather in homes to worship with each other. The service consisted of reading aloud from the Bible and some devotional book. They were called readers by other villagers because they were so eager to read the Bible. They called themselves awakened or saved. They believed that most people slept in their sinful lives. They needed to be "awakened" to gain a new personal faith. It was believed that God had raised them from sinful life and saved them from eternal damnation.

At revival meetings, they could experience a warm fellowship with like-minded friends. Despite this, many of the readers also went to the high mass within the Swedish state church.

Laestadianism and Schartauanism below may be two examples of typical Swedish revival movements that arose during the 19th century.

Laestadianism

Lars Levi Laestadius (1800-1861) worked as a priest in Pajala and Karesuando in the middle of the 19th century. He founded a religious movement, Laestadianism, which still exists in northern Sweden.

During the 19th century, alcohol abuse was very widespread in Sweden. Laestadius went hard against the spirit that he called "devil piss". He was an expert in giving sermons and the visitors crouched on the benches before his violent attack on alcohol. Laestadius' harsh attack on spirits quickly yielded results and the superiority waned in Karesuando.

Pastor Pastor Laestadius preaches to some Sami. Part from a painting made by Auguste François Biard (1799-1882).

Laestadius condemned card games, swearing, dancing and sexual promiscuity. All this led to hell, according to Laestadius. What is typical of the Laestadians are the strong emotional expressions. When one has confessed his sins, the church is forgiven. You often dance and jump in joy to experience God's forgiveness. This expression of joy, which is similar to ecstasy, is called liikutuksia. It is a Finnish word meaning movement. Many laestadians distance themselves from luxury and pleasure. The really strict take away from film, theater, TV, colorful clothes and curtains. Curtains are called "the devil's underpants". The Laestadians are found mainly in northern Sweden and Finland. There are also Laestadians in the USA, among immigrants from the Nordic countries. In total, there are about 20,000 laestadians in Sweden.

Schartauanisms

Schartauanism is a movement that is mainly found in the diocese of Gothenburg. In this part of Sweden, more people visit the church than anywhere else. It is mainly due to a single priest, and his name was Henrik Schartau (1757-1825).

Schartau was a popular priest in Lund, even though his sermons were considered serious. Schartau believed that man on his way to salvation passed certain definite stages. Schartau firmly distanced himself from all religious association life. The important thing was Sunday's Mass and the priest's sermons. Reading the Bible is very important for the members of this movement. The movement that arose is usually called "Schartauanism", but those who can be counted there call themselves "old church".

Many of Schartau's disciples came as priests to the diocese of Gothenburg, where the bishop disapproved of their ideas. To get rid of them, they were sent out on services in the Bohuslän archipelago. It turned out that Schartau's strict Christianity suited the fishermen of the islands because it came to characterize life in Bohuslän and still lives on. The cartel priests disapprove of novelties in the worship service and most of them oppose female priests.

The Free Churches today

The free churches emerged during the 19th century and even today you can see the different chapels in many communities.

The free churches had their heyday during the 1930s. Since then, the number of members has steadily decreased. Today, the Free Church movement has almost 500,000 members and about 700,000 participate in the Free Churches' activities.

//Daniel

A poor farmhand

The farm-worker

The farmhand Alfred from Emil in Lönneberga.

Most people in Sweden will probably think of Alfred in Emil in Lönneberga or Robert Nilsson in Willhelm Moberg's Emigrant Series when they hear the word farmhand. Of course, the image of Alfred and Robert Nilsson as a farmhand is a bit embellished, but there are great features of how the farmhand felt at the time in these two series.

A farmhand, a service servant or Lego servant (tjänstehjon and legohjon in Swedish) as it was also called had conditions that were regulated by the Lego servant Statue between 1664 and 1926 (with certain changes over the centuries) which in practice meant a general duty to seek and find a master who wanted to hire. Of course, there were a few exceptions for the wealthy, for young people up to 21, if their work was needed on their parents' farm and for people who were unable to work. An employment as a farmhand with a farmer was valid (after 1833) between 1 November and 24 October with mutual right of termination on 24 August. Service as a farmhand (as well as a maid), was the vocational training available to those who did not learn a craft as an apprentice.

The contract statue from 1877 from the law of the Kingdom of Sweden states, among other things.

Section 10 § servant shall in his relationship be godly, faithful, diligent, obedient, sober and moral and shall not shy away from the work and chores that the master reasonably undertakes. If the servant is negligent, stubborn, or indecent and cannot be corrected, or if it turns out to be unfaithful, ignorant or otherwise incompetent in the service, it may be separated from it by loss of the entire salary, and receive such a grade as it deserves; also compensated for the master's damage, which he performs in court.

Section 52 § If a servant deviates from service earlier than service time is out or it has done all the work, the master has the power to collect it again by force, and becomes a service servant in the service until the day of moving, and loses half the salary and the damage.

In today's situation, it would have been the employer who would have been prosecuted if he had fetched a worker by force.

Maybe sort out the concepts a bit too?

Service servant (or Lego servant) in agriculture were called farmhand and maid respectively. The Lego servant Statue regulated the service servant's obligations and rights towards the master in Sweden.

Dependent tenant (Inhyseshjon in Swedish) were work incapacitated and unmediated people, usually the elderly or people with disabilities, who were placed by the parish's poor care, "housed", with a family for compensation. It was a solution in places where there were no poor houses or other public institutions for the poor. The dependent tenant was placed with the family that demanded the lowest payment to house the tenant.

Rotehjon (or pauper) were the most unfortunate, they were not allowed to remain as pauper in any family but were referred to rotation throughout the parish. For shorter periods, they were allowed to stay in each place, where they received the necessary food, accommodation and care. Rotehjon did not even get peace and rest when they lay on the deathbed. It was considered bad luck to have a dying rotehjon in the home, so they were sent around between different homes when they were dying.

My grandfather's grandfather had a dependent tenant during the 1880s and also my grandfather's father had a couple a bit in the early 20th century. How did it happen, you may be wondering? After all, they were footsoldiers and they had many children. Sometime during the second half of the 19th century (probably during the 1870s) a new soldier's croft was built for the Lantz soldiers at 123 Håkentorp (the croft was demolished when the house that stands there today was built), but the old soldier's (it is now in Götarps Brunn) croft was not moved immediately but had to stand. For a soldier who was not always in such a good position moneywise, it was good if they could get a little extra money to house a person or two.

Were there any servants in the family then? Yes, there were a few actually and some of them moved to America. Everything was not as romantic as many people think today, but it was a struggle from morning to evening for the servants.

The maids

The farmhand Alfred and the maid Lina from Emil in Lönnerberga.

For many women, there was not much of a  choice than to become a maid.

Maids who worked in agriculture belonged to the farm's servant and were the female equivalent of the farm's male farm boys. On small farms, the maid often did both housework and farm work, but on larger farms, mainly the southern parts of Sweden, there could be a number of maids who only did farm work, such as milking, while special maids did housework.

Maids who worked as maidservant in the home were called pigor in Swedish but also called jungfru or tjänarinna, were either subordinate to an employed housekeeper or housewife, or also directly subordinate to the family, then often under the wife's directive. The word "maid" was given a low status. For domestic girls in the cities, the word was replaced by a servant girl around 1919, while a childrens maid increasingly became a nanny.

In noble manors it was customary for both maids and maidens to have their weddings paid for by the employers, who also held them in the manor party room, a custom which was reflected in the fact that a noblewoman who was the court mistress also had her wedding paid for by her royal employer and the wedding held at the Royal Palace. The daughters then dressed the bride, and the employer family often attended the festivities. This was part of the informal charity that the nobility was considered to have to show towards their servants and corresponded to the financial responsibility that could be taken for elderly "faithful servants", and was repeated in the other celebrations that a noble family traditionally held for their servants during various holidays like midsummer, when they themselves participated in the dance to illustrate a form of family relationship within the household.

A maid did not earn much in cash because most of it was paid in kind. On average, a maid in the countryside earned half or two-thirds of what a farmhand earned. It was not considered that women needed money as much as men. In the cities, the maids earned more, which was one of the reasons why the maids moved to the cities.

Just like the servants, the maids obeyed under the Lego servant statue. It was written on the employer's terms. He managed the time of the servants. On the so-called maid Saturday when the maid was to be free, she had to negotiate with her master, and for a week in the autumn around Mikaelsmäss at the end of September, the servants had a week to look for a new and perhaps better place to work.

When you look more closely at how they lived in the past, today we have a hard time understanding how they could cope with the conditions that prevailed at that time. It is difficult to get acquainted with their everyday life. People usually talk about humane things but may not always understand that what they consider to be humane today may not be humane in a hundred years or that it may have been unthinkable a hundred years ago. Society is changing and many times for the better.

//Daniel

The Törestorp family

 

Törestorps Mellangård as it looks today.

After being in Törestorp and looking at the farm there plus talking a bit with the people who lived there now, I thought it might be fun to write a little more about the part of the family that once lived there. After all, my grandmother's family lived in Törestorp for about 150 years, between the early 17th century and the middle of the 18th century.

Since I already wrote about the first in the family at Törestorps mellangård in my previous post, I thought I would continue from there:

Lars Assarsson owns and manages half of the tax home Stackebo, Gnosjö. He bought the farm from his father Assar Arvidsson in 1619.

The use of the farm seems to have been relatively extensive and from the cattle lengths in 1638 it appears that they had 2 oxen, 10 cows, 4 heifers, 6 old sheep and 12 young sheep, 1 piece of rice, 6 old goats and 14 young goats and 1 old pig. The seed consisted of 5 barrels.

In 1634, Lars Assarson and his brother Filip Assarsson sell a sister plot in Törestorp Mellangård to sister Elin Assarsdotter for 58 daler "good common coin". Probably, however, Lars Assarsson still has one and a half sister lots in Törestorp Mellangård.

Lars Assarsson is sometimes a committee member at so-called district councils. Lars also appears as a signer of the mantle length, which means that he was probably the church's sixman (prefect in todays language).

At the autumn session of 1664, Lars Assarsson, together with the parish priest Bergerus Colliander in Åsenhöga, requested that the shepherd or forest ranger and some committee members inspect some "harmful" oaks in their fields.

The barn to Törestorps Mellangård what it looks like today.

Jöns Larsson, Approximately 1610 - 1677, Homeowner in Törestorp Mellangård, Glazier, committee member, Member of Parliament.

1656

According to the court book (Västbo renovated court book (9b), VT1656) Jöns [Larsson] glazier in Törestorp buys the following parts in Mellangården:

- 1 sister lot by Lars Filipsson, Kallset, Jöns Filipsson, Målskog and Marit Filipsdotter, Högshult, which makes up 1/9 of the entire farm.

- 1 sister lot by Jöns Larsson and Lars Jönsson, Bränneshylte, for 16 rdr

- 1 sister lot by Karin Arvidsdotter in Gynnås (through her husband Per Jonsson), for 15 rdr

- 1 lot by Ingrid Arvidsdotter, for 15 rdr

- 1 part by Arvid Arvidsson in Hästhult, for 30 dlr. The purchase has been blamed by Arvid on the previous thing, but a settlement has been made where Arvid gets another 4 rdr.

Assar's son is Lars Assarsson in Stackebo and his son is the above-mentioned Jöns Larsson in Törestorp, which is explicitly stated at the autumn session 1665 (Västbo AI: 4) "... in Thörestorp, sent his son Lars Assarsson, who is in wittnes' writings most emphatically introduced men now dead ... "

See: Göta Hovrätt - Advokatfiskalen Jönköpings län EVIIAAAC: 10 (1659-1665) Bild 810 (AID: v190286.b810, NAD: SE / VALA / 0382503)

Assar Jönsson 1640 - 1724, Glazier, sixman. Became at most 84 years old.

Olof Assarsson, 1678 - 1762, dies at Törestorps Östergård

This is where the family's regime in Törestorp dies out. During this time, not only the middle farm has been in the possession of the family but also the east and the western farms.

Being able to follow several generations in one place can often be very fun, although it is also fun to see them spread out in the different parts of the landscape. From what I have seen, the different genera are usually concentrated within a certain region. Of course, people came in from other areas that I wrote about in previous posts and that I will certainly write about in the future as well.

You who belong to the different families can of course contact me if you have stories that you have heard about different relatives so that they can be preserved for future generations. They would probably be happy to read about the family even then.

//Daniel

Going back in time part 3 The second coming

During the summer of 2018 it was time for a journey back in time again. It was time for a few other places and other parts of the family this time.

Västra Lägret or Western Camp

Exhibition of a soldier's cabin at the Miliseum

The first place you ended up at after a small coffee with a relative (a cousin of my mom) in the morning was Västra Lägret (Western Camp) in Skillingaryd. From the 1680s onwards, it has been a military training ground. Several generations of footsoldiers and other soldiers in the family have practiced in this very place when they were not out in the field and fighting, of course. It is still sometimes used as a training ground for the military, even though it may not be the same as before. There is now also a military history museum which they have shortened to the Miliseum.

My great-great-great-grandfather Jonas was 203 centimeters tall and I am barely 170 centimmeters tall and I had to bend down to get into the croft that he used to live in as a soldier!

The inside of a soldiers cabin.

In addition to the practice field, there are also some buildings from bygone times. Barracks, exhibition hall, croft and other buildings are today in the area and many of the buildings were built during the second half of the 19th century. From the beginning, the soldiers were allowed to sleep in tents in the area before the barracks were built and they ate out in the open. It's a little special to go where even your ancestors once went.

Because we had stopped at a cousin of my mother before we went to Västra Lägret, we were late and we went straight to an aunt of mine (on my fathers side) from the Miliseum to have lunch, which was also very nice.

After lunch with my aunt, the journey continued.

Törestorps Mellangård (or Törestors Middlefarm)

The house as it looks now in Törestorp.

Törestorp's middlefarm belonged to the family on my grandmother's side (fathers mothers side) once upon a time.

The first in the family to live here was a man named Assar Arvidsson and he was born in 1555 in Stackebo outside of Gnosjö. It is not really clear when he moved here for the first time but it may have been during the early 17th century so his son seems to have been born right here in 1610. The family lives in 1613 in Törestorp Mellangård, Kulltorp, but is in 1614 and 1615 in Målskog, Kulltorp, to live in Törestorp Mellangård again in 1616. The family also owns Stackebo, Gnosjö. I will return to Stackebo in particular a little bit later.

Exactly how they came to own Mellangården is a long story, but I will try to summarize it here:

In his capacity as Knight Chief, Assar Arvidsson is the commander of a fänika. Throughout the 16th century, Fänikan is the highest unit of infantry and consists of up to 500 people. At the beginning of the 17th century, the fänika became smaller and then got the name company.

Assar Arvidsson participates in the wars in Ingermanland and Livonia. He probably also took part in the battle of Stångebro in 1598.

During a stay in Livonia, Assar Arvidsson is accused of killing Peter Götarsson. He frees himself from this accusation through a twelve-man oath, which is taken at a court in Brödrahalla 1604-10-12 (Västbo 6, Laga ting 1604-10-12).

The restoration of the castle in Jönköping is something Charles IX shows great interest in, as this is an important part of the defense against Denmark. In 1610, the captains Assar Arvidsson and Håkan Assmundsson were ordered by the king to participate with their footsoldiers in "completing the building at Jönköping Castle". Both captains are told to be on site, to ensure that the footsoldiers perform the work "on purposely" and that they "do not commit any negligence".

In 1611, Assar Arvidsson was dismissed from his post as captain by Charles IX. It is stated that Assar "for age and long service" can no longer perform his "office". Conditions for dismissal, however, are that in the "commenced feud period" against the Danes, if necessary, he gathers the common people in Västbo and adjacent districts and "most of what is possible for him" prevents the Danes.

In connection with the dismissal, Assar Arvidsson receives "for his long and faithful service" during his lifetime freedom from all annual taxes "certain and uncertain" for his farm. The royal letter explicitly forbids "bailiffs or scribes at the same place who are now or will come in the future can make him an obstacle or a acquisition".

During the war, the Danes attack Jönköping but are forced in 1612 to retreat along the Nissastigen during very difficult ravages for the population. More than 200 farms are burned. The defense in Västbo is probably organized by Assar Arvidsson.

In a royal letter issued by Charles IX and dated in Värnamo 1613-01-17, he is granted Törestorp Mellangård, Kulltorp, by a letter. This is probably a confirmation of the right he already received at the dismissal of 1611.

In 1619 he sold Stackebo, Gnosjö, to his son Lars Assarsson.

1613 Assar Arvidsson receives a royal deed of grant at Törestorp Mellangården.

In order to move forward in time in this family line, it is only in the 18th century that the history of Törestorps Mellangård ends for the family. It is in the 1740s that the last person to die in this family who lives right on Mellangården, but that is not the end for the family in Törestorp. In the 1760s, the last ones die in Törestorp, but then it is not in Mellangården but then it is in Östergården. Västergården in Törestorp was also owned by the family for some time.

By this time, the family had had time to spread out a bit, including to Christergården in Kärda, Södra Unnaryd and Kvarnabo. For a cousin of mine, it is certainly fun to hear that Kvarnabo has belonged to the family once upon a time when she lives right there now with her husband. On 21 December 1723, Anna Olofsdotter was born in Törestorps Östergård. I do not know at the time of writing if she married or if she had children or something like that but I know that she died on May 7, 1798 in Kvarnabo. One thing that is funny in the story is that my cousin's husband's grandfather was born in Kvarnabo!

Stackarp and Stackebo

Now we are going further back in time than the family in Törestorp. We are going to the earliest born in the family on my grandmother's side (fathers mothers side) and the earliest born that I have found in any family line. The first indications I got about this man, he would have been born in 1529, ie 6 years after Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. His name was Arvid. At this time the documentation of born, dead, married and such was not specially developed here in Sweden but it would develop more and more during 160 years until the 1680s when it was established that the priests would document those who lived in the parishes, but in some places it could take a while into the 18th century before everything started in any seriousness.

Arvid was born and raised in Stackarp which was "next door" to Tyngels village in Kulltorp. In 1619 he is said to remember more than 90 years back in time, which indicates that he was born in the middle of the 1520s. Another interpretation is that he might be 90 years old but this is debatable.

Arvid has been a board member in Västbo district court for over 40 years and is documented as such at least from 1589.

Arvid or his wife has an inheritance in Beckhult, Källeryd, and possibly also in Österskog, Kulltorp.

In 1619 there is a dispute where Mrs. Brita in Aggarp and Erik Månsson to Herrestad had a croft built, Lövön, under Herrestad, despite the fact that Lövön traditionally belongs to Västbo. In connection with this dispute, Arvid testifies:

"... that the time he was a boy and a farmhand who lived in Tyngel would have his sister then he followed them in Tyngel into Lövön, and peeled bast, and it happened with the praise of all of them, as in the village of Tyngel. were, item that he never other of his old parents, heard or perceived oats than Lövön of the heath high and ancient times, oats listened and lay to Tyngels village, where up he made his oath of bliss on the law book ". (Västbo: 6, ST1619, No. 8)

To peel bast is to take the bark from trees and the like that you could sell and make money on during this time.

Arvid is also a member of parliament.

I searched for Stackarp for a month and a half but could not find it even though I asked around in local associations, facebook groups and looked elsewhere. It can be very difficult sometimes to find places that are 500 years old but it is never impossible. It will just take a little longer to find it!

View from Stackebo.

After he had lived outside Tyngel, Arvid moved to Stackebo outside Gnosjö and this is where he became a Member of Parliament.

Exactly when Arvid moves to Stackebo outside Gnosjö I do not know but one guess is that he moves there in the early 1550s.

Bårebo

For a while, my grandmother's parents (my mothers mothers) lived in Bårebo. They had married on December 30, 1905 in Byarum and first lived together in Svenshult in Åsenhöga Parish before moving to Bårebo just a short distance from Gnosjö on August 1, 1906. On August 30 of the same year, their eldest child and first daughter was born. Alva. After having been employed by the manufacturer Boreus in Gnosjö for several years, he bought Svenshult in Åsenhöga, where he and his family moved in 1914. Now they also had their son Herbert with them, who was born on March 3, 1910. On May 11, 1917, their third and last child was born and this time it was in Svenshult that the child was born. The name of the daughter became Kerstin Pettersson and this particular person eventually became my grandmother (mothers mother).

Svenshult

Svenshult now.

Svenshult was not in the family as long as the other places but it is still worth mentioning and being there because my grandmother was born there and also my mother lived there for a while.

Johan and Axia, as my grandmother's parents were called, did not have it easy, especially not my grandmother's mother.

Johan was involved in an accident where he received a severe blow to the head and after that, he wasn't quite himself.

The year was 1922 and Johan was going to the mill in Gnosjö to grind when the horse started to gallop and then ran on to a tree so Johan cracked his skull and didn't become quite the same after that. The 12-year-old son Herbert then took over the chores on the farm.

Hagen

The house in Hagen as it looks today. Before 1875 it was called Svenstorp and was just a croft instead of a homestead.

From the beginning, it was not actually called "Hagen" but it was actually called Svenstorp. For several generations, my grandmother's father's family lived in this very place when it was called Svenstorp and it was also called that when my grandmother's father, Johan was born in 1872. In 1875, Johan's father Peter bought a piece of land around the croft that they had and then created a homestead. At this time, the homestead like Hagen was mentioned only a couple of times in the church books and then moved on to be a part of Svenshult. Nowadays it says Hagen when you look at maps and such. Exactly when that part of the family came to Svenstorp / Hagen I do not know but as it looks like they lived there already in the 1760s, which means that they have lived next door to my great-great-great-great-grandfather, ie the first footsoldier at Bygget who belonged to my family.

The cabin Sjöarydet

The sign for the cabin Sjöarydet with a view of lake Skärvsjö.

The first footsoldier at Bygget in Åsenhöga Parish, also called the soldier's croft 123 Håkentorp, because it belonged to Håkentorp's rote, which belonged to the family I come from, died on July 2, 1790 from chest fever. Chest fever was pneumonia. At this time, the symptoms of the disease were described more than the disease itself. The cabin Sjöaryd was later given the name of the Missionary Parish. The last person to live in this cabin left it in 1870 and the missionary congregation started in 1884. Assar Zachrisson Moberg, who died here in 1790, was born in 1722 in Knekttorpet 102 Sneppabo.

At this time, they rarely stayed on the site after retiring as soldiers but were allowed to move elsewhere. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that they could remain on the site, but only if there was an extra house where they could be accommodated. Then they were called housemen and women. The housing people were those who did not get a place in the poorhouse or if there was no poorhouse nearby. Even though the soldiers received money after retiring after 30 years in the service, they often ended up in back cabins or poor cabins after serving in the military. Often they could get a croft where they could support themselves, but it was usually to small so they could barely make ends meet. They simply had to do day to day jobs for the rest of their lives to make everything go together.

Soldiers cabin 102 Sneppabo

Sneppabo. In this field was soldiers cabin 102 Sneppabo. Some distance between the stone and the forest edge was the cabin.

The last stop of the day was a field. Once upon a time, this was actually a soldier's cabin called Sneppabo. According to the church records it was in Åkers Parish even though it was close to Skillingaryd. When I sat down with the planning for where we were going to stop and looked at different maps from different time periods, I found several different spellings here. In addition to Sneppabo, there was also the spelling Snäppabo but also Snippabo. One may wonder if the latter spelling may have had a slightly different meaning than what it has today (today Snippa is slang for a womans bodypart)!?

It was here that the first footsoldier in the family at Bygget, was born. The building was not called Bygget from the beginning as I wrote in another post, but it was actually called Lerbacken from the beginning. The story behind this is that from the beginning there was a farm in this place, but since it was not profitable, the government closed it down in the 1670s. When they started the new Allotment System in 1682, they thought that this could be a good place to place a soldiers croft because there was already land that had been cultivated there. I think I have already written about this before here in the blog.

His name was Assar Zachrisson from the beginning when he was born here on August 29, 1722, but he got the soldiers name Moberg when he started as a footsoldier.

I have previously written about Hemmershult in Fryele and here is the connection itself. Assar's father was named Zachris Assarsson and was later given the military name Hagman. 1717 - 1743Fo 1698, in Norway 1718 - 1719, bears at GM 1741 the name Hagman, but is ill at the galley command so, commanded in the galley Düker 1742, corporal at no. 93 Mjölhult 23 Feb 1743. Zachris was from that line that were from Hemmershult in Fryele.

At Snäppabo, it all ended for this time. Because we went with my aunt from Rösberga, we went there to change cars so we could get home again. It was a trip of a total of between 400 and 450 km with stops at some relatives who are always nice to meet!

You relatives that we have met this time and who have had a little extra to talk about through this trip that my mother and I have made this year must not forget that this is only a small part of what is in the family. We will be back again with more information and more places to look.

No one mentioned, no one forgotten!

//Daniel

From Lerbacken to Bygget, from farm to croft

It has happened that I have written a little bit about Bygget here in the blog in various contexts. Now I thought I would write a little more in detail about Bygget and its history but also about the relatives who once lived and worked on the site.

What do you say? We're starting from the beginning, right?

Until the end of the 1670s, Bygget was a farm, but it was not called Bygget at this time, it was actually called Lerbacken. Nobody really knows where the name Lerbacken comes from today. There is speculation, of course, but nothing that can be said with certainty to be correct. During the end of the 1670s, the authorities removed Lerbacken as a farm as it was not considered viable, so no tax was received. During the beginning of the 1680s, there were major changes within the old Allotment System and the new Allotment System was formed. You could say that the old Allotment System was too old and you needed a safe way to get soldiers and with that the younger Allotment System was formed where each soldier would have a croft to live in and a small plot where he could sow a few crops. In addition to the field patch, there would also be a small pasture for the animals. What kind of animal the soldier had was different between the parishes and the counties but most often it was either a cow, a goat or a pig. There could also be some chickens.

Småland soldier's croft.

When the Younger Allotment System was underway, they looked for a place in Åsenhöga Parish that was suitable for a soldier's croft and then Håkentorp's soldier's rote (Rote was when a farm or two or even up to 5 small farms had to take care of a soldiers croft and take care of the building and a few other things) was formed. Lerbacken was a natural place to have a croft as it was already a cultivated place. During the rest of the 17th century, the place is still called Lerbacken, but then came the first change in the name and it became Nybygget (Newbuilding), probably because they built new on the site. The new building was shortened a little later simply to Bygget (Building or buildingsite).

Who then settled on Lerkullen / Bygget after it became a soldier's croft? From the time the Younger Allotment System was established in 1682, it took until 1686 before a soldier was appointed at Lerbacken. It was a Måns Persson who was a soldier between 1686 and 1692.

The second soldier was Pähr Jönsson. I have found out quite a bit about Pähr's life.

He was probably born in Hestra around 1668 (do not know if it was north or south). On 6/11 1692 he married Ingrid Andersdotter from Valebo in Åsenhöga Parish. In the same year he became a Allotment System soldier for no. 123 Håkentorp. 1694-11-03 the first son Nils is born and 1697-06-29 the son Anders is born. In the same year, 1697, he accompanied his company, the Lieutenant Colonel's company, to the garrison in Wismar. Jönköping's regiment then exists as one of the troops in Wismar. 1700 the companies are changed and Pähr is transferred to Gustaf Ernst Rothlieb's company and is named there as no. 44 Pär from Håkentorp. Until June 1702, there are archives from the troops in Wismar and Pär is still on duty. It has now been 5 years since he left home.

During the summer of 1700, the regiment participated in the campaign in Holstein. After that they were in the garrison in Wismar. Between July and August 1702, the regiment marched from Pomerania to western Poland where they were united with the Swedish main army under Charles XII. The regiment participated i.a. in the siege of Thorn during May to October 1703. During the winter of 1703/04 they lay in winter quarters in Prussia. During the summer of 1704, they rejoined the main army. From 1707 until Poltava, they were always part of the main army. They witnessed the battle of Malatize on August 31, 1708 when the regiment was attacked by two Russian dragoon regiments while setting up camp. They bravely defended themselves and managed to hold out until reinforcements came to the rescue. However, the regiment lost many people in this battle. Even in the Battle of Wiprek on January 7, 1709, the regiment lost many soldiers. At the Battle of Poltava on June 28, 1709, the regiment was formed only by a battalion of about 300 men. The battle was the end of the regiment, two-thirds of the crew, including all but one officer, were wounded or killed. Pähr was one of the soldiers who survived all battles and so did Poltava and went into captivity in 1709.

After the peace of 1721, he returned home on April 16, 1722. He stands as the 8th soldier in the roll over returning prisoners of war. The small group of returning soldiers consisted of only four men. Between February 1722 and January 1725, only 49 prisoners belonging to Jönköping's regiment returned home from captivity. If I remember correctly, the regiment consisted from the beginning of 1200 men. About Pähr it says in the prisoner of war roll: Kväst in the right leg, dismissal with maintenance, 54 years, 30 years of service. Kväst is that he is injured in the right leg and has thus limped from captivity to the boat that took them to Stockholm where they landed as it says in the roll. I have not yet found any signs that he was taken back to Åsenhöga parish and saw Ingrid Andersdotter or any of their sons again. 1724-09-03 the eldest son Nils has his first child Märit and 1726-12-22 the son Anders is born. Pähr is not a godfather. Pährs grandson Anders later also became a soldier named Kullman. At least half of Åsenhöga can count Pär as their ancestor.

Others that took over 123 Håkentorp: 1709-1713 Anders Andersson

Participated in the battle of Helsingborg, probably disappeared, possibly a prisoner of war in Germany 1713 or 14

1716 -1718 Nils Larsson, died during the retreat from Norway 1718.

These two were unmarried and Pär Jönsson's wife Ingrid Andersdotter lived there. Ingrid Andersdotter at Lerbacken is mentioned in the church accounts in 1718.

1719-23 Tore Persson Moberg 40 years, after that the rote is vacant.

1730-39 Johan Torsson

1740-42 Lars Moberg. Married. Commanded to the galley Dyker 1741-42, died in Finland, probably dysentery 8/10 1742.

After Lars Moberg had died, a man named Assar Zachrisson came and took over. He was recruited on January 17, 1743 and he too was given the name Moberg but was not related to Lars. Assar was born in Åkers Parish, more precisely in Soldattorp 102 Sneppabo under Grytås rote on August 29, 1722. This is where we get into my family. Assar Zachrisson Moberg was my great - great - great - great-grandfather. According to the General Pattern Roll, Assar was 170 cm tall. It was not long after he had been recruited that he had to go into battle. On May 20, 1743, he took part in the battle of Korpoström in what is today Finland and they fought against the Russians in what has come to be known as the Hattars' Russian War (Hattarna was a Swedish government party that ruled Sweden at this time). The battle was over in just a few hours and it was the Russians who had won.

1750 it says that the hometown was Bygget after having been Lerbacken before, but there are slightly different descriptions in different church books about when the name was changed.

1751 is the peace command in Kristianstad in Skåne and so also the following year, 1752.

In 1756, the so-called Seven Years' War was started between the great powers Prussia and Great Britain-Hanover on the one hand and Austria, France and Russia on the other. Denmark and Sweden were initially outside the war. It was on Danish initiative that the Swedish parliament pushed through a Nordic act of neutrality, which was intended to keep both Denmark and Sweden out of the war. The two dominant parliamentary parties, the Hat Party and the Cap Party, had agreed that peace should be maintained. By invoking a 108-year clause written after the Thirty Years' War in 1648, by the Austrian Empress Maria Teresia, Sweden was eventually drawn into the war and on September 13, 1757, 20,000 men withdrew from Sweden (including Assar Moberg) against Pomerania.

The Swedish army was not very good at this time as most of the soldiers lacked training and combat experience. On February 6, 1759, Assar was in Stralsund in Pomerania and on November 17, the same year, he was in Wolgast in Pomerania. On November 20, 1761, he had come to Grebox in Pomerania. He witnessed the entire Pomeranian War, which ended in May 1762.

In 1766 there will be a peace command in Kristianstad again and in 1774 another peace command and then through a camp in Skåne.

The second of November, 1785, he is removed from his duties. He requests and receives dismissal and additional maintenance. Assar is then 63 years old and has served for 42 years.

Assar had several children just like so many other soldiers but the sons he had died early so there was no one to hand over the croft to. Not right then at least. It was so that his youngest daughter Walborg was pregnant but she was not married, which did not looked at kindly at this time. The father of the child was named Jonas Svensson and he took his responsibility and married Walborg on the 4th of December 1785. Exactly where Jonas comes from has not emerged from any sources. It only says in the General Pattern rolls that he is "Smålänning" (from the lanscape of Småland). Many have searched but no one has yet found him anywhere before he shows up and marries Walborg. Jonas, who was 203 cm tall, would be the new soldier at Bygget. On December 8, 1785, 4 days after he had married Walborg, he was accepted as a soldier and his soldiers name becomes Lantz. During the Russian War (1788 - 1790) he injured himself and ended up in 1789 at Kristinestad Hospital in Finland. Jonas continues as a soldier despite the injury.

General pattern roll from 1807 with Jonas Lantz.

After Jonas had participated in the Russian war, he had to go to Stralsund, where his father-in-law Assar had fought in the 1750s and 1760s. During a general muster in Stralsund in 1807, he was promoted to Vice Corporal. It is thus during a burning war that he is promoted. This war that takes place has a number of different names, the Pomeranian War which took place between 1805 and 1807 but also the Swedish-French War which took place between 1805 and 1810. It is also called the First Napoleonic War and the German War. The war against France raged until January 6, 1810 when peace in Paris occurred and France was declared the winner.

Jonas retires as a soldier on December 19, 1812. He dies on February 14, 1825.

The son that Walborg was pregnant with when she married Jonas was born on March 28, 1786 and he was named Johannes. Johannes was slightly shorter than his father, who was 203 cm, and he was "only" 184 cm or 5 feet 11 1/2 inches as it was written at this time. Even though Johannes was the eldest son, he did not take over Bygget after his father as Jonas was still a soldier when Johannes was recruited on January 20, 1806. Johannes was instead allowed to take over croft 125 Ingarp which is not more than a few kilometers from Bygget. He was also involved with some things during his time as a soldier. He was in Skåne 1808 and 1809, on Gotland and in Västerbotten (Ratan) 1809, work command in Malmö 1807 and 1810, at garrison in Karlshamn 1811-12, whereupon in 1811 "got a hernia in the left groin while helping with the transport of banknotes from a ship" ; in Germany and Norway 1813-14, work command at Göta canal 1816, 1820, 1828 and 1832, at Vanäs fortress 1825; dismissal with registration for maintenance at the General Muster 1834, served excellently well, war merits and received damage have justified maintenance before achieved 30 years of service, 48 years, 28 years of service.

A little curiosity that may be a little interesting is what he did after his service as a soldier. Two crofts have belonged to the farms in Trollsebo. Under Västergården, Trollenäs, also called Laxabo. Certainly no more than one family has lived here. In the 1830s, Johannes Lax and his wife Stina came from the soldier's croft in Ingarp. Lax had after well-done military service, i.a. had he been in France against Napoleon, requested and dismissed. At Trollenäs he built a cottage and barn, as well as cultivated fields on a rocky and miserable land. It is said that Lax used to invite the youth of the area to help him with the cultivation. As payment, the young people received food and spirits and, presumably, stories from Lax's Soldier era. In 1844, the parish's "elder" looked at the cultivation that Lax had accomplished from the entrance of the croft until now. For his cultivation he received 241 riksdaler and a mention in the parish protocols. Lax was born in 1786 and died in 1876. When he was buried in Åsenhöga cemetery, the parish soldiers formed a hedge and saluted at the grave. The widow remained until 1893.

Since Johannes got his own croft and another soldiers name, the question is who took over Bygget after Jonas Svensson Lantz? The answer to that question is Sven Jonasson, Jonas and Walborg's fifth child. Sven, who was born on October 27, 1796 (10 years younger than his brother Johannes), was only 16 and a half when he was recruited on March 3, 1813. He gets the soldiers name Lantz as his father. Sven Lantz belonged to those who were with the then Crown Prince Karl Johan (Bernadotte) during the battle of Leipzig in 1813. After that, they had to march down to Brussels before it was time to head home. Before it was time to go home, they had to take a walk up to Oslo to persuade the Norwegians to at least half become Swedes. One of Lantz's group of friends was named Lars Fhyr, he later changed his last name to Löv. He served for 131 Hyltan. He was born on the croft Björkekullen, which was not far from Bygget. They are said to have known each other during childhood and adolescence.

He was commissioned to work at Göta Canal 1815, 1816, 1820, 1828, 1832, at Trollhätte Canal 1840, at Vanäs Fortress 1826 which is today called Karlsborg Fortress, dismissed with registration for maintenance at General Mönstringen 1850, served excellently well, 54 years, 38 years of service . Sven is thus the one who has served the longest at Bygget after his grandfather Assar Moberg who served for 42 years. Sven was 5 ft 9½ h or 176 cm.

Now it was time for a new change of soldier at Bygget. The eldest son, whose name was Johannes, just like his uncle, had already on 13 November 1841 been accepted as a soldier at 134 Törestorp. The place where the croft was located was named Flinkabo after a soldier who lived there in the 18th century. Johannes was not so short but was 6ft 1h tall or about 185 cm. He was commanded at the city garrison in Malmö 1844, in Skåne 1848, in Schleswig 1850 (Germany, near the border to Denmark), on Gotland 1854, at Karlsten fortress 1858, at a camp in Skåne 1860, died 17 Dec 1871, 51 years, 30 years of service . In addition to being a soldier, he had been a tailor. In the 1850s, there was a wolf in Åsenhöga Parish and it is said that during a search it was Johannes who shot the "last" wolf.

Who then took over Bygget when the eldest son had another croft and the soldiers name Ros? Well, it was actually the youngest son and 8th in the group of children which consisted of 9 children. His name was Jonas, just like his grandfather, and Jonas also got the soldiers name Lantz, just as his father and grandfather had before him. Jonas was slightly shorter than his brother Johannes and was only 180 cm. In 1854 he was commanded on Gotland just like his brother. 10 years later, ie 1864, more precisely on the 14th of May Jonas is promoted to Corporal and on the fourth of July 1878 he is promoted to Distinction Corporal, which was the highest non-commissioned officer at this time and can be compared to Furir (Sergeant after 2009). Distinction corporal was originally a rank of honor, but over time it changed and eventually became a rank of its own. Jonas was a tailor just like his brother Johannes.

Being a corporal was then as now a group commander. A corporal in the 19th century was a group commander for a parish approximately where there were about 10 - 12 soldiers. One of the tasks was to teach the soldiers to shoot, which made Bygget a gathering place for the parish's soldiers for a while. Jonas was one of the soldiers who saluted at Johannes Lax's grave (Johannes was Jonas' grandfather's brother). On June 25, 1881 (a Saturday and Midsummer's Day), Jonas resigned and received it with a report for maintenance. He had served excellently well during his 31 years as a soldier. He was then 50 years old.

Bygget as it looked in the early 1920s.

It was now time to hand over to the next man and as we have become accustomed to it being one of the younger abilities in the family who took over before did not happen this time. It was the eldest son (not the oldest in the group of children though, but second in the order), Sven Gerhard who got the honor to take over. He was not 20 years old (born September 24, 1861). He was part of the General muster at Västra Lägret in Skillingaryd when his father asked for resignation and at the same time Gerhard was also accepted. In the military, he was called Sven Lantz as his grandfather, but in everyday life it was Gerhard that he was called. Of Gerhard's brothers, no one else became a soldier. Three of his siblings emigrated to the United States in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Gerhard was not a tailor to the profession like his father, but he had been trained as a carpenter at Mäster Malm in Törestorp, where he started as a 15-year-old.

Bygget during the 1930s. Nisse on the left and his brother Oskar (Leonard) on the right.

Gerhard would be the last soldier at Bygget and the era with the Allotment System soldiers would end. 1901 was the last year when the Allotment System existed and conscription was introduced, but there were actually some old soldiers left after the Allotment System ended but not at Bygget. On April 7, 1896, Gerhard was fired due to illness. The era was thus over and there had been soldier at Lerbacken / Bygget for 210 years. What kind of illness Gerhard had at this time is not clear from the documents. There were many old soldiers who got the chance to buy out the crofts they had had during their time as soldiers and six years after Gerhard had been fired, the contract was written and the croft was thus his and his wife Emelie's. There were changes at Bygget after this. In 1907, Gerhard built his own workshop so that he could work a little better with his furniture. In 1910 it was the barn's turn so that it became a little bigger than the one that had been there when he was a soldier. After this, no major changes took place until 1927, when the croft that Gerhard had been a soldier in during the 15 years was demolished and now a two-storey house was built a little behind where the croft had stood. When the house received electricity is not clear at the time of writing, but in 1931 electricity was drawn into the workshop. Gerhard was now 70 years old and it was noticed in the local press. He still worked as a carpenter but it would end in 1934 when he was 73 years old. It was the youngest son Nils "Nisse" Lantz who would take over now and continue to operate at Bygget as a carpenter and he did so far into the 1970s. Nisse died in 1983, 80 years old.

Bygget 2018.

During the late 1990s, Bygget was sold by the last Lantz descendants who lived at Bygget and then one and the same family had lived here for over 250 years and there had been various activities here for centuries. There are many who usually try to follow the history of a house to see who has lived in it and to see how it has changed over time. The first memory I have from Bygget was when I was six years old. It was my grandfather's brother Oskar or Leonard who some knew him as when he turned 90 and it was 1980. You who have read this blog before know that I have visited Bygget a few times in recent years and of course it has changed since the beginning of the 80's, even though the house looks the same and that it is the same color as then, it is all around that it has changed.

It has actually been fun to find out a little about who has lived in one and the same place through the centuries and find out what they have done. You understand the history of the place in a completely different way and you find out a lot about Swedish history and much more. Of course, there is still a lot to learn about the places, but it may be at a later time and maybe a new post here in the blog about it.

//Daniel