SweGGate Theme Church Records: Read HFL

SweGGate Guide to Church Records:
How to Read: Husförhörslängder

1 General

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Chapters:
General guide (below)	Right hand side page	Special Notes & Special Pages	Examples


General guide
General	Volumes	Order of Records	Page Nbrs	Place Index
Page Title	Columns		Left Page	Right Page


Topic	Comments
General description	The layout varies greatly from place to place and time to time but the description below is accurate for most of them. Many notes are abridged to save space and ink. Often home-made abbreviations were used. Places in or close to the parish were almost always abridged to a few letters not using standards. To find those study the ortsregister / byaregister to see all names in the parish. Use your imagination and try to think like the people who wrote the note! "What everyone knows needs no specification"
Volumes	Husförhörslängder are commonly pre-printed, folio format bound books. Each book, called a volume, usually covers either 5 or 10 years. When the volume was started the priest or klockare copied every person from the previous volume into the new one. To make room for new people 1-2 pages were intentionally left blank at the end of each village section. There was also blank space left between the family records for the same reason. It is important to notice the handwriting and order of these original entries since later entries are usually recognized by different ink or handwriting or when the later note is inserted between original notes. Thus you can determine the time order of events. In the SVAR catalogues the code is "AI:" + a serial number for the volume
Order of records	Village -> Farm -> Household -> Family -> Other persons The first sort order is the place of residence in the order village -> farm or in towns township -> housing blocks -> address. For each location people are registered in households. A household registry starts with a family and then all other persons living in the same place / farm, like employees. The head of family is always noted first, then his wife and then children in chronological order. A family member not present at this address at the start of the volume period is not registered. If they moved back home they were added below the other children. In the 18th century books boys are listed before girls so the order of children is not strictly chronological. Since the volume was used for 5-10 years some notes may be inserted between older notes. Observe handwriting and pen-stroke to see the difference. Sometimes a wife / husband is inserted after a son /daughter in the original family set-up. Parents / parents-in-law may be listed after a family and then the family has more children who are noted below the grandparents. Birth year is the clue to which parents they belong. Verify in the birth book. Each person was assigned one line. This accounts for the sometimes rather cluttered appearance where later notes had to be added. The division into different page ranges for each village was made when the book was started and a number of blank pages were reserved for each village. Sometimes they ran out of space for a village and then a new "continuation" page range was reserved at the end of the book. Always check the ortregister (= page index) for multiple page ref:s When people married, one or both persons were usually noted on a new page under the location where they lived. Note ! Reading one volume is not enough to map a family. There may be children born later and older children who have moved out. Always read all volumes where the family appears !
Page numbering	PAGE LAYOUT In early HFL:s the page layout is variable and usually the complete record fits on one page. As records later are extended and more info is recorded the layout usually spans both the left and right hand pages = a "double-page" or spread. The Latin term used for this is *folio*.
	NUMBERING follows the layout so that single page layout counts pages and folio layout counts folios. Each folio has a number in a corner, usually at the top. While most HFL:s number only each folio you will find some numbering each page - always when each page has room for a complete record but sometimes even when folio layout is used. Most other types of church books have complete records on each page and so count pages instead.
	REFERENCING another page/folio commonly uses abbreviations:, "pag." or "fol." "p." or "pag" for [Latin] pagina = page. "f." or "fol" for [Latin] folio = "double-page" / spread.
	MISSING PAGE NUMBERS - separate guide>>
	Note that GenLine has its own serial page numbering with no relation to the actual numbers. Do not confuse those and never use that one in references in your records.
Ortregister = Place index	At the beginning of each volume there is usually a place index - a list of all villages in the parish and the starting page number for each. Also named "Byaregister" or "Orts- och Byaregister" Detail guide here. Important: watch out if you see more than one page ref for one village. (more)
Page title	At the top of the first page of each village you will find the name of the village (sometimes on the following pages too). Immediately after the name you may find the size of the village / farm is given, counted in mantal (abbrev. "mtl") and the land type (kr / kr sk / sk for krono, kronoskatte and skatte respectively). In the volumes for the last years of the 19th century (often only the 1890-95 volume) the names of the individual farms / houses are given as titles either at the top of a page or further down.
Column headings	In the early books these were hand-written and varied a lot. Always read and understand the heading or you might have dates on the wrong event. As pre-printed books become common from the first half of the 19th century the headings become more standardized but may vary at least between dioceses and over time
Left page	The LEFT page commonly has columns for Title, name ("Namn"), birth date ("Född") and place ("plats"), death date ("Död"), moving IN ("Inflyttad" or "Hitflyttad"), vaccination ("Vacc") and sometimes moving OUT ("Utflyttad")
Right page	>> separate guide >>

. Page produced by F Haeffner. Mail me your contribution or request.

Last updated by

F Hae

2005-06-04 12:12

© Fredrik Haeffner, 2001-5