History of Swedish Counties: Difference between revisions

Whether you are studying old family group records, looking for original sources to check or running a search in a database, knowing the county (the ''Län'') and the parish (the ''socken ''or''församling '') your ancestor lived in is vital to your Swedish family history research. It is also important to understand the difference between a County ([[Swedish Län|Län]]) and a Province ([[Swedish Landskap|Landskap]]) in Sweden. Although a Swedish ''landskap ''had political authority prior to 1634, they were not known as counties. This article offers a good introduction to the counties of Sweden with reference to changes through the years.<br>  

| Kalmar County was created with the county organization of 1634, but did not have its current borders until the 1700’s. In many ways the county was divided in two areas a northern and a southern half until the 1970’s. The northern half had Västervik as its capital with Kalmar city as a capital for the southern half.

| existed as one county between 1634 and 1641 and was called Upplands län. Between 1641-1654 the counties were seperated. The counties were combined between 1655-1714. In 1714 the decision was made to reorganize Upplands län into the counties of Stockholm and Uppsala.

| was the name of the highest civilian management authority (a governor) for the City of Stockholm between July 29, 1634 and 1967. The Överståthållarskap was closed down by the end of 1967. In 1968, Stockholm City was merged with Stockholm County.