Sweden Probate Records: Difference between revisions

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.  

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

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

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

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