Swedish Farms-How to Locate

[Candace Roberts]

I am looking for information on 2 Swedish farms, Nolgarden, Sonarp in Brismene parish and Skattegarden, Gunnestorp in Borstig parish. I know in Norway there is something called bygdeboks which have a history for each farm...who lived there over the years, etc. I am wondering if something like this exists in Sweden or where I would find some information.
 
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Candace Roberts

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

Try asking for a lookup in the thread Sveriges bebyggelse. It's a series of 1950s books listing facts and pics of houses in the countryside. Don't set your hopes too high though - the photos in the books were taken at the time that the book was compiled, and of course many old houses had been improved or replaced so they probably don't look like they did when your ancestors lived there. I don't know if the books list every single farm there was, and I think the facts included are just the present and previous (?) owner, and perhaps the size of the house and the land. Also, whoever published the series didn't follow through on all the provinces, so most but not all of the country is covered.  
 
If they're not listed in that book series, your best bet would be to locate the closest folk museum or other organisation for the preservation of local history; they might have archives or know who has. You could try asking in the parish thread for Börstig (the Brismene discussion doesn't look very promising - not a single post ever).  
 
BTW, posting in English in Swedish threads is quite accepted.

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Many of us go to Salt Lake City's Family History Library to see the wonderful parish history books which are never lent to Family History Centers.
 
I have seen those Norwegian books and I haven't seen too many like those in Sweden. The Swedish books I have seen usually don't go too deeply into the genealogies of those living in the farms and villages, but there are often pages about the history, etc. of those smaller locations in the village. (in Swedish, of course). I have sometimes found photos of relatives in those books. I was thrilled in one book to find a few  paragraphs about my farfars far (father's father's father) and many paragraphs about an ancestor of my mormors mor. I don't remember, offhand, what the connection was, but he was a direct ancestor and the stories told about Stärke Erik (Strong Erik) were very interesting. (True? I have no idea. Interesting? Absolutely.)
 
On the other hand, some similar Swedish books do exist and I found two wonderful books with those family trees plus photos (The photos in those two books were not for my family, alas, but some of the family trees were for distant ancestors.) in Salt Lake City last year. I used those books to guide me when I was looking for microfilms. They were amazingly helpful, but I think the Norwegians did that more often.
 
Much more may be available in Sweden. The Family History Library has a lot of books but they certainly don't have all of them.
 
Judy