Enskifte Historical Maps of Sweden

Sweden Historical Maps of Sweden  Enskifte Historical Maps of Sweden



The Enskifte was another land reform that primarily started in Skåne, then to Skaraborg, and the rest of the kingdom by 1807. It came about due to dissatisfaction with the Storskifte. It began when Rutger Macklean (an owner of an estate called Svaneholm in Skurup parish) decided to restructure the lands on his estate in 1785. Essentially he re-designed the lots with a lantmätare, creating new farm boundaries and housing locations, each farm having 40 acres on one piece of land (instead of splintered fragments) with a large arable meadow for common use. Then he forced the 701 people living and working on the lots to comply with the new design. Of the 701 people involved, 102 chose to terminate their lease and leave the estate. The land reform turned out to be very successful for the Svaneholm estate. This lead to a government ordinance that forced all the estates in Skåne to do a Enskifte. The Enskifte land reform spanned from 1803 – 1827. Although the Enskifte was carried out kingdomwide, it was difficult to do in landscapes outside of Skåne. It was never carried out in Dalarna, Norrland, or Finland.

How to find Enskifte Historical Maps
1. Go to the Historiska kartor section of the Lantmäteriet website at: http://historiskakartor.lantmateriet.se/arken/s/search.html?locale=sv_SE

2. You will see 3 search fields on the left side of the screen, and the word ”Sök”. You can use these fields, but it is easier to use the Advanced Search options. Click on Avancerad sökning

3. Leave the default in the Arkiv:* field as: Lantmäterimyndigheternas arkiv

4. Choose a Län:* (County) from the drop down list.For example: Södermanland. If you're not sure of the County name see a list at: Counties of Sweden

5. Click on the little circle next to Socken/Arkivserie (to sort by Socken instead of Kommun)

6. Choose a Socken (parish) from the Socken /Arkivserie:* dropdown list.

7. Then click on Sök

Note: You can use the fields Traktnamn, Årtal, or Åtgärd if you want. The Åtgärd: drop down list allows you to search for a specific type of map. If you don’t use the fields Traktnamn, Årtal, or Åtgärd then you see a list of everything that is available for the parish.

8. After you click Sök, you will see a hits list.


 * The link to see the map is in the first column to the left.


 * The name of the “type of map” is in the middle column. For help with translation see the Historical Maps of Sweden Word List.


 * The year when the map or documents were made is in the far right column.

You can click on the numbers below the hits list to browse all the hits for this parish, or click on Nästa (Next) or Sista (Last) to move to the next list of hits.