|
Theme: Geography: |
Administrative Divisions |
a *** SweGGate StarGuide *** ®
| Län | Landsting | Härad | Fögderi | Kommun |
| Köping | Municipalsamhälle | Socken | Guide | |
|
QUICK FACTS on ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS of Sweden
|
| Section | Facts |
| Län | The largest
administrative division. Originally form the word förläning
(a loan, usually from the king and often connected to a
noble title). Fixed regions decided in 1634 becoming
regions representing the national government. Present day
borders have been mainly unchanged since 1718 England: county. US: if one state were Sweden then län corresponds to a county. Today 21 län after some changes 1997-8, 24 before that. Often referred to by a 1-2 letter code or a number. Map1 . Map2 . Table of all län with corresponding landskap (province). Map of all län in 1906 Significance to the genealogist: Mainly to locate a place in modern geography. Some archives are organized by län. |
| Landsting | Defined by a
geographical area including several kommuner It is
a form of local government, mainly for coordination of
medical care and culture development. They have their own
taxation rights by national law to finance these services.
Most landsting closely match a län. Significance to the genealogist: They have no general genealogical interest except maybe you can find old medical records. |
| Härad | IN
RURAL AREAS Area of jurisdiction of one district (assize) court. The division is ancient (> 1000 years) and was the area using one place for matters of justice and government. The size is commonly that of a few to two dozen parishes. The place where justice was done was called a tingsplats and the event a ting. The name of the division is härad in the southern and middle part of Sweden. In Uppland and some parts of middle Sweden they are called hundare but in Dalarna and northwards tingslag. Please note that a few large härader were sub-divided into 2-3 areas, each with its own tingsplats. The records are kept separately for each tingsplats. Later a formal court (häradsrätt) was created with about 7-9 lay members (nämndeman) presided over by a häradshövding (district court judge). The oldest nämndeman in a härad / tingslag had the honorary title häradsdomare (still a layman despite the "domare" title). IN TOWNS / CITIES Larger towns /cities had their own courts, named rådhusrätt (rådhus = city hall, rätt (here = court) MODERN ORGANIZATION These courts were replaced by tingsrätt in 1971 but the areas were in most cases unchanged, but in modern language called a domkrets. Significance to the genealogist: |
| Fögderi | In early times the name
of a district defined for the combined functions of a kronofogde
- a national government official with powers as chief of
police, public prosecutor, distrainor etc. This office was
in 1917 split up leaving only the distrainor function. The
district definition was, and still is, also used for tax
collection purposes. Significance to the genealogist: Very little. Most of the legal cases ended up in court so you will look in the dombok (above) |
| Kommun | Area for local
government (plur =kommuner) (from Latin communis
= community). The best English word is commune
to mark that it has no exact counterpart. England:
similar to municipality, borough. USA: similar to
township. The kommuner were created in 1862 based on the older divisions socken. Thus created were some 2400 rural kommuner plus small towns and cities. In 1952 the number was reduced to 816 through fusions. Another set of fusions in 1974 resulted in 277 kommuner The kommun handles all local rule within a national ("federal") framework of laws. It collects taxes and provides all local commodities like basic education, social service, fire fighting etc. The kommun "parliament" is the kommunfullmäktige and the minutes of their meetings are called kommunalfullmäktigeprotokoll (protokoll = minutes). At the beginning the assembly was named kommunalstämma. Some genealogists provide the present day kommun name together with the församling (parish) name for localization purpose. It is easier to find one kommun among 277 than a parish among 2400. Most genealogists add the län alpha code in parentheses after the socken name. Also several socknar carry the same name but are located in different kommuner. Do not read this as necessarily belonging to that kommun in older times (before 1974 and 1952). Several changes have been made in the last 3 decades - see details here. Maps: Kommun. Maps of a specific kommun: go to each kommun site (Navigate from SweGGate "Regions" |
| Köping | Area of local government. Originally köpunger, ancient Nordic language for a meadow where trading took place (plural köpingar). The term is used for a district, usually a small town or large village, which constitutes its own kommun and has some, but not all, of the city privileges (mostly concerning trade rules). The importance of these trade distinctions was greatly reduced when the laws of free trade were passed in 1864 allowing craftsmen to do business outside cities and köpingar as well. |
| Municipal- samhälle | Administrative term.
Denotes a larger village that has been granted special
privileges by the national government, primarily concerning
management of certain services like fire protection, public
health ordinance. They are always part of a kommun. To your genealogy search it makes a difference |
| Socken | Old local government
body, based on naturally occurring groupings from the
middle ages (500 - 1500 AD). Those are the basis of all
other divisions of later times. The word is derived from
ancient Nordic sokn = find (a common place). The
common goal was both administrative coordination and
religious affinity. The divisions stabilized from 1521 on
by directives from King Gustav Wasa. There was a close connection between worldly and
religious life until separated 1862 with the creation of kommuner,
replacing the civil functions of the socken and
the församling
separately handling the religious rule. The
geographical area is therefore in most cases identical to
that of the församling . Decisions were made at
the sockenstämma (Community council
meeting). The minutes from those (sockenstämmoprotokoll)
often provide valuable clues and colour to a family history
and sometimes new members of the tree. In English the translation "parish" is most often used but you must keep in mind that socken is not a religious entity. I recommend you use the Swedish words socken and församling depending on context in your records and explain them in footnotes (/Hae) The term socken is still used to describe a geographical area but after 1862 it has no ruling functions (cf above). Each socken / församling has been assigned a unique ID number by the SCB. Over time the borders may have changed so a farm or village may have been "moved" to another socken / församling: In some rare cases the socken does not have the same land area as the corresponding församling. The area defined for land survey purposes is then named jordebokssocken, jordebok = land survey records. Maps: Unfortunately there are very few maps showing the borders of a socken / församling. |
| Rote | The word has many different meanings In genealogy it is almost always a group of one or a few farms. This division was used to assign responsibility for various purposes. Plural rotar. Rotar for different purposes may overlap or be identical, i.e. a soldatrote may include the same farms as the corresponding skolrote. Examples: soldatrote: drafting / paying for soldiers. cf indelningsverket. When you see the word rote without further specification this is the most common interpretation. båtsmansrote: same as soldatrote, recruiting a båtsman. stamrote: The largest or "leading" farm within each rote. Used mainly for soldatrote. hjälprote: husförshörsrote: the farms having husförhör together. Hosting of the event was rotated within the rote farms. skolrote: school district, the area served by one school / school master. sharing poor support etc. rote for social support: a poor person could be assigned a rote for their support. cf rotehjon. In many of the HFL:s you will find the currently defined rotar. |
| Topic | Comments | |
| I need | I know | Do this |
| corresponding landskap | län name | Select from Table of all län |
| corresponding län | landskap name | Select from Table of all provinces |
| län map | län name | Select from Table of all län |
| landskap map | landskap name | Select from Table of all provinces |
| Kommun tips | ||
| I need | I know | Do this |
| all kommuner within | län name | Go to Sveriges kommuner och landsting |
| all kommuner within | landskap name | Go to SweGGate Landskap site |
| location, address, info | kommun name | Alpha list ALL kommuner in Sweden. >Go> |
| Socken, församling tips | ||
| I need | I know | Do this |
| all socknar within | kommun name | Use "By Kommun" link |
| alpha code - num code | län name | Table of all län |
| location, info | socken / församling name | Use "By Name" link |
| How to use some map sites | Geography guides | |
Page produced by F Haeffner. Want
improvements of this page ? .. Mail me 
 |
Home | |
|
Facts Main |
| Last updated by | F Hae | 2005-07-17 11:18 | © Fredrik Haeffner, 2001-5 |