Danish Military Levying Rolls: Different Types of Lægdsruller

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Lægdsvæsenet maintained several types of lægdsruller, namely the main rolls, entry rolls, and from 1871, rewritten rolls.

Main Rolls (or Regular Rolls) 

The main rolls are records of all those with military obligations in a lægd in a given year.

In 1861 it was decided that the entire roll keeping process should be revised. That meant effectively eliminating the former head rolls, so from that time forward there would only be entry rolls and rewritten rolls.

Below is an overview of the use of head rolls:

1789-1795 Head rolls (also called extra session rolls) were conducted annually (although, often only from the early 1790's).

1795-1849 Main rolls were conducted every third year. In the intervening years only entry rolls were maintained.

1849-1861 Main rolls were conducted every sixth year. In the intervening years only entry rolls were maintained.

1861-1871 Transition Period. The main rolls should be compiled only once every 10 years, and these should not include the last five years.

1871 The last main roll.

Entry rolls (or Supplemental Rolls)

Entry rolls contain those who joined the rolls in a given year, either because they reached the registration age or because they moved to the lægd, or already was enrolled in the roll of a lægd from which they had moved.

Below is an overview of the use of entry rolls:

1795-1861 Entry rolls were kept in the years when the main roll was not kept.

1861-1871 A transitional period where principient each year was led entry rolls.

1871-1956 Entry rolls were kept each year.

Rewritten rolls

All rolls are rewritten 11 years after their creation. The rewritten rolls contain information about the conscripts, who had lived in lægdet in all 11 years or who were still conscripts. For example an entry roll from the year 1897 would be rewritten in 1908.

1871-1956 rewritten rolls each year.

After 1956 lægdsrullerne entered unto cards.