Terminology

[Harald Hille]

I am extremely grateful to several members of Anbytarforum for help with specific  details of my Swedish ancestors.  One problem I have encountered in research is terminology.  There are some collections of Swedish words and English notes and translations that are downloadable from various genealogy sites, but they vary in completeness and accuracy.  There seems to be a lot of wisdom in this forum, as well as knowledge of English, and it would seem valuable to have an updateable glossary managed by someone the Forum trusted.  I know it's a nuisance to have someone propose more work from you excellent people.  I would be willing to contribute (by say sifting through this English language forum) and sending in submissions to the glossary editor.
I do have some terms that concern me now:
socken vs. foersammling (rural vs urban parishes?)
oevre trakt vs. nedre trakt (see Adolf Fredriks foers. records)
rote (part of parish?, separate system? sequentially numbered within a parish? i.e. if there is a rote 7, there will be rote 1-6 as well?)
mvh
Harald Hille
Riverside CT USA

[Jan Jutefors]

Harald,
 
Socken = Parish
Församling = Community. Orthodox or unorthodox.
Övre / nedre trakt = Upper district vs lower district
Rote = It's a district, used more in the town administration. If you found a Rote 7, there is a Rote 1-6 as well.
 
English-Swedish genealogy dictionary:
 http://hem.fyristorg.com/Brylling/diction.htm
 http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/sldict.htm
 
 
(Meddelandet ändrat av Janj den 03 maj, 2008)

[Harald Hille]

Jan,
Thanks for your help. I see you have helped many here with such questions.
 
I am still wondering whether a socken (parish) is not typically or even exclusively rural, where the socken is the old church and administrative unit in the countryside that eventually becomes the kommun. The försammling, in the State Church context, would then be a church subdivision in a larger town or city, more urban, still a parish in English or maybe a congregation.
 
You explain that övre / nedre trakt = upper district vs lower district. OK, but upper in altitude? or northern, as in upper on the map?
 
You also explain that rote = district, used more in the town administration. I guess rote is more detailed than trakt (the records for Adolf Fredriks försammling in Stockholm seem to be organized by trakt and then by rote and then some of the addresses (hemort?) give kvarter but not streets. Are there any maps online of these old urban subdivisions?
 
Thanks
 
mvh
Harald

[Ingela Martenius]

Socken = parish
Församling = congregation
 
Your observation that församling refers to towns and socken to the country is correct. The difference was that a socken wasn't only a congregation - a set of people worshiping at the same church - but just as much an administrative unit. In the administrative reform of 1862 (kommunreformen 1862) all socknar were cut in two: the secular matters that hade been handled by the parish council were transferred to the new, secular municipality (kommunen) while church matters were handled by the new congregations. This was the way it had always been done in towns: secular business belonged to the town magistrate while church business was the responsibility of the various congregations.
So, from 1862 there are only församlingar.
 
A rote is a team. In towns this was transferred to mean the geographical district where the team lived while in the country it retained its original meaning and was used for many things, the best known being the rote that supported a soldier. These rotar were roughly in the same part of the socken as the soldier they were supporting, but they were not necessarily neighbours: all the taxed farms in a socken had to support a set number of soldiers, depending on the tax they paid. It was then up to the parish council to see to it that the rote division was fair (the burden was divided fairly), and in order to do so they might have to put together a rote where the farms weren't situated very close together.
Other rotar in the country were e.g. the ones for paupers (fattigrote), mail - farmers were responsible for forwarding the mail (postrote) and household examinations (husförhörsrote).
Today the word rote is mostly used in the Air Force - it designates the team of planes that go up together.
 
Ingela

[Eva Dahlberg]

But to add to the confusion we translate a församling into parish when we refer to them in our research ...
for some online translations see the website of Family search (LDS).
 
There is supposed to be a good printed dictionary by the late Phyllis J Pladsen:
 
Pladsen, Phyllis J., Joseph C. Huber, and Eric B. Pladsen, comps. Swedish Genealogical Dictionary 4th ed. White Bear Lake, MN: Pladsen Sveria Press, 2000.  
 
regards,
Eva
 
(Meddelandet ändrat av edah den 03 maj, 2008)

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Ingela,
 
It was nice to read your article Birth, Baptism, and Churching in the latest Swedish American Genealogist journal. I have enjoyed your informative and interesting posts for a long time and it was indeed a pleasure to see that you wrote an article in my favorite journal.
 
Judy

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Eva,
 
Swedish Genealogical Dictionary is a very useful dictionary for those of us who don't have Swedish for a native language. However, its definitions are short and certainly the discussion in this thread expands greatly upon the information in that book.
 
I enjoy your helpful posts.
 
Judy

[Ingela Martenius]

Eva, that is just a sloppy practice on our side, wouldn't you say?  
 
Ingela

[Ingela Martenius]

Judy,
 
Thank you very much for your kind words! As a matter of fact, I've already submitted part two, confirmation, to the editors.
 
The articles, a little shorter (not quite so many genealogical references), are also published in Swedish by  Hembygden, the magazine for Svenska Folkdansringen (no, I'm not a folkdancer - much - but I'm very much into national costumes).
Hembygden 2007/4 and 2008/1 (2008/2 - weddings - haven't been published yet); each page is downloadable in pdf-format...with pictures in colour.
 
And before anyone asks - part 4 (death&burial) will have all citations for all four articles (both magazines are rather short on space).
 
Ingela

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Ingela,
 
I'm glad to hear that more articles will be coming from you. Thanks for telling me.
 
Judy