Sweden Probate Records

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In Sweden, at the time of a person’s death, it was common practice to conduct an inventory of the estate of the deceased. This post mortem inventory is called in Swedish “bouppteckning”. All household items, as well as personal effects of the deceased were inventoried and assigned a monetary value. The inventory was conducted by court-appointed appraisers called “värderingsmän”. At the conclusion of the inventory, the appraisers turned the probate (inventory) over to the court for probate.

Court was held on a quarterly basis and each session took its name from the season of the year in which the court was held:

Vintertinget – winter court (December, January, &amp; February) Vårtinget – spring court (March, April, &amp; May) Sommartinget – summer court (June, July, &amp; August) Hösttinget – autumn court (September, October, &amp; November)

At death, the deceased’s estate was sealed for 30 days to allow all legal heirs the opportunity to assemble at the home of the deceased prior to the inventory. Heirs were permitted to be physically present for the inventory, if they so desired. If heirs were living overseas, then the estate could be sealed for up to a year.

Personal effects and household items were grouped by subtitles for the inventory. For example, probate subtitles might include: Gold (guld), silver (silfver), pewter (tenn), books (böcker), clothing (gångkläder, sängkläder) linen (linnetyg), cattle (kreatur), horses (hästar), debts (skulder), assets (tillgångar), etc.

The “preamble” of the probate contains the most genealogical information. In the preamble, you will normally find: a) the name of the surviving spouse b) the names of sons, their ages, and residences c) the names of daughters, their ages, and residences d) the names of sons-in-law, if any daughters are married e) the names of guardians for under-aged or minor heirs f) the names of grandchildren, if their related parent to the deceased is dead g) the name of the guardian of the widow h) the name of the place of residence (farm or village) of the deceased

Some important insights to remember about probates: a) male heirs became of age at marriage or if not married, at age 25 years b) female heirs became of age at marriage, of if not married, they remain minor regardless of their age c) make it a practice to scan the debts/assets sections of the probate. As it is true today, so it was then, money was often loaned/borrowed by relatives d) half of the value of the estate went to the surviving spouse e) male heirs received a double portion to the inheritance female heirs received f) a surviving spouse could petition the court for a special status called “utskifte bo”, which means that for as long as the widow remained unmarried and had one minor heir in the household, the probate could be held up indefinitely. Note: a stepmother could delay the probate for stepchildren by petitioning for “utskifte bo” status g) based upon which spouse predeceased the other, guardians were usually chosen from the paternal side of the deceased according to the following order: grand- father, brother, uncle, male cousin h) only between 1/4 and 1/3 of the Swedish population was ever probated. There needed to be adequate holdings to justify the holding of a probate inventory i) At the end of the probate document, the following persons normally signed: (a signature infers that each heir is in agreement with the inventory) surviving spouse, sons, sons-in-law, appraisers. Note: most of the population of the late 1700s and early 1800s could not write. Therefore, one of the appraisers guided the heir’s hand while he held the pen. Often signatures were simply initials. For example, Jöns Andersson might write his name as J (öns) A (nders) S (on)

Finding a Probate
In order to find a Swedish probate record, you must know the name of the court district (härad) to which the parish belonged at the time of the ancestor’s death. Most härads consisted of between 3 to 8 parishes.

To find a probate record, go to the Family History Library Catalog (www.familysearch.org) and do a “place” search. In the space for the name of the place, type in the name of the härad, including the Swedish word “härad” after the name of the court district. For example, Vintrosa parish is located in Örebro härad. If you want to find probate records for Vintrosa parish, you would do a place search for Örebro härad, and then look for the subject heading of “Probate Records”.

Once you have found the catalog entry for your particular härad, note whether or not you see the word “register” in the body of the catalog citation. A register indicates that there is an index to the persons whose probates are found in this härad. By the person’s name, you should find a volume number and a page number indicating where the probate can be found. Check the catalog entry again; determine if the year of the person’s death corresponds with the probate year indicated by the volume number in the register. Then it merely is a matter of turning to the correct page number to find the desired probate.

As is generally the case, if the husband pre-deceases the wife, there is usually a probate done for the husband. If the wife remains a widow and never remarries, then the possibility that there will be a probate taken at her time of death is greatly diminished. On the other hand, should the widow remarry and have additional offspring by a subsequent spouse, the chances are enhanced that a probate exists for her.

There are certain life circumstances which suggest to the researcher that there is a strong likelihood that a probate exists and therefore, should be looked for. Some of these circumstances are:

a) Before a surviving spouse could remarry it was required by law that a probate be completed.

b) If the deceased is survived by minor children and these children are under the age of 25.

c) If the deceased is unmarried.

d) At the time of the first spouse’s death, the probability of a probate is greater than at the time of the surviving spouse’s death, providing that the surviving spouse did not ever remarry.

e) If the deceased leaves behind a large estate of property and personal effects

Vocabulary
The following Swedish words may assist you in understanding better the content of the genealogical information found in the probate’s preamble:

• Afvlidna (Avliden) -- departed • Efter sig lemnade -- survived by • Arfvingar (Arvingar) -- heirs • Enkeman (Änkeman) -- widower • Enke (Änke ) -- widow • Med honom under äktenskapet sammanaflade --  children produced together in marriage • Myndiga  -- of age • Omyndiga  --  under age (minor) • Närvarande -- to be present • Förmyndare -- guardian • Vägnar -- on his/her behalf