Kvistofta

[Karen Van Etten]

In early 1800s records I have seen several hfl. and utflyttninglängd,
wherein persons state they are going to Kvistofta.  However, those
same people never appear in Kvistofta hfl. or inflyttning.  More often
they next appear in hfl. for Fjärestad, Bårslöv, or Hässlunda, and even
further away. Does anyone know of a reason for that ?  If Kvistofta was
some kind of entry point, why are the persons not listed in Kvistofta
inflyttninglängd?

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

In the Swedish state church there's an administrative unit called pastorat - it may equal a single parish, or a few small adjoining parishes that share a single vicar (this was a continuous arrangement, not something that tended to change). My impression is the pastorat is often named after the largest or most important of the parishes, hence the risk of confusion (sort of as if there was a US county that had the same name as the state it was in). When people moved away, it was often recorded which pastorat they were going to, instead of which parish.
 
 
 
(Meddelandet ändrat av acb 2012-09-02 18:41)

[Karen Van Etten]

Your explanation was great!  Your information, and that word pastorat, enabled me to  
locate additional information in Google.  Thank you again, Anna-Carin.
Karen V.

[Bo Johansson]

http://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/omfolkbokforing/folkbokforingeni garidag/sverigesforsamlingargenomtiderna/forteckning.4.18e1b10334ebe8bc80003999. html
 
1600-1899 the Kvistofta pastorat was Kvistofta and Glumslöv, so this is a stranger case.
 
Bårslöv pastorat was Bårslöv and Fjärestad, and Hässlunda pastorat was Hässlunda and Risekatslösa, until 1929.
 
// Bo Johansson

[Ingela Martenius]

There's also the possibility - frequently occuring - that the migrants changed their minds. They meant to go to Kvistofta (or wherever) but in between demanding their migration certificate and actually moving they had a better offer somewhere else. This happened particularly often if there was some sort of factory (proto-factory) involved. But also for other reasons, e.g. that they found out on arrival that their new employer had the worst reputation in the parish and so they chose to accept another offer that had been previously rejected because the nasty employer offered slightly better wages - or something like it.
 
Sometimes you can see that the migrants spent maybe only a couple of days (in at least one instance I've seen just a single day) at their declaed destination and then moved on. They may actually appear on opposite pages in the migrations ledger (moving in to the right, moving out to the left or v.v.). In one case it looked as if they moved out of the new parish before moving in! (The explanation being that lots of people moved in so the parish office didn't have time to register all who moved in at the same time while few people moved out so that was expedited at once.)
 
People in Skåne had the habit of moving often, while people in many other parts of Sweden moved quite seldom; this meant that the Skåne people were used to moving and making very fast decision about it while in some other county / province moving was a momentous decision that may have been pondered for years before being executed, and then people were of course less likely to change at the last moment.
 
Ingela

[Karen Van Etten]

Thank you Bo and Ingela for the additional comments.  Yes, Bo, it was
strange.  And also - yes, Ingela, the persons I am mentioning did
move a LOT !  Sometimes it seems as if they didn't want the Pastor to
know where they were going !  Didn't they realize they were hampering
our research today  
Karen V.

[Ingela Martenius]

Don't think they minded about the vicar knowing per se, but this was of course the basis for taxes...
 
Yes, I think our ancestors can be very inconsiderate! Also the vicars who didn't always write too legibly...  
 
Ingela