Need a translation please

[Carol Hardin]

I do not know if anyone has access to the Genline Records, but I am in need of a translation on a household examination for my Great-Grandfather.
There appears to be a notation of some type of criminal record. I did some Google Translate and it appears to be some type of theft and prison time.
My great-grandfather, Herman Sjöholm, was born in 1851 in Stockholm. His was a difficult childhood - he had 2 brothers, 2 sisters and 1 half-brother.
All of his siblings died at very young ages. His father died in the Cholera epidemic. His mother remarried but passed away within a year of the marriage.
He was in a foster home for about a year, then in an orphanage for a month before going to Dimbo, Skaraborg to live with a foster family. It is here, in
the days of his early youth, that he got into a little trouble. From what I can tell, he served his time, moved on, married my Great-Grandmother and lived
a very good and upstanding life.  
The problem is, I am limited on my language skills in Sverige, so I am not getting a complete picture of the notations.
The household examination record is GID 976.7.62400, Volume AI:15, Number GO-516, page 75/0 from Dimbo, Skaraborg 1866-1875.
The head of household is Johannes Martensson and Poppa is listed with his orphan's number - W-11167.
Thank you....this is a great service/website. I thank you for it.

[Marie Bråthen Birath]

Hi Carol! I will try to help you with the text: (He was a drummer at the Skaraborgs regiment - in the army.)
In 1868 he did something that wasn't allowed. In 1870 he was arrested in Linköpings county for walking around and doing bettings.
In 1872 he was convicted for petty theft, 1 month in prison.
 
Convicted the 25th of Sept in 1876 - for stealing the first time - he did penal servitude for 4 months - and he also lost his citizen trust for 3 years after that.
He was arrested in Linköping in 1879 once again, for doing something not allowed.
 
In 1877 he was comvicted for defencelessness to do 2 years social work that ended the 10th of Dec in 1879.
 
Best regards from Marie

[Carol Hardin]

Thank you so much Marje. That gives me alot more insight into what his charges were and his penalty. Can you explain to me what is losing his citizen trust.  
I am mildly surprised about him being a drummer in the army. I have a picture of him on a horse leading a parade of some sort. My mother had said he was in the Kings Army Band, but my cousin said he was leading a temperance parade. Either way, he was much older than when this occurred.  
Poppa had always been somewhat of a mystery to us. His children always had contact with their mother's family, but never saw any family of their fathers'. They only knew he was born in Stockholm. It has only been the last few years, and because of the Genline Records, that we knew his background. I will present this to the other great-grandchildren. Thank you very much!

[Anders Hedgren]

Hello Carol
 
Interesting notation. I will give it a try!
Te houshold examination record for Dimbo. AI:15 p .75 says: Enlistet 1(one) year,(Row .  
Row 9.orphan child and drummer boy at Skaraborgs Regiment No. 11,167 Herman Justus Sjöholm. Born 1851-08-08 in Stockholm
Moved in from Karlsborg in dec. 1869.
 Nextpage row 9. Konfirmation at Waneholm (?)1872-1-20.
Then there is a lot of notation one over another depending on space in the record. Therefor I will start With the oldest, beginning in 1868.
1868:taken for in dentension for unlawful taking. in dec.?? Moved out from Karlsborg 1869.
1870: in custody in Linköping for moving around and begging, Convicted to laber facilities.  
1872: in custody in Linköping för unlawful taking, convictet for minor theft to 1 month inprisonment.-72.
1876; Convicted 25 sept. 1876 for first time theft to 4 month hard laber and 3 year of lost citicenship thereafter.
1877: Convicted 1877 for defenslessness (No work, No place to live etc), to general laber, ending dec.10 1879.
people
My  comments: In Sweden in the year 1867-68-69 it was very hart time, vith starvation, o works etc. Important för people to live in a social  connection. As an orphan, to survive you were predistined to end up in prison or laber facilities in those days of hardship.
 
Regards
Anders Hedgren.

[Marie Bråthen Birath]

Hi again Carol!
 
I believe that he lost the right to vote, the right to get marry and so on... He wasn't legally competent.
 
Good luck with your research!!
 
Marie

[Håkan Bergström]

Lost his citizen trust
Förlust av medborgerligt förtroende = loss of one's civil (civic) rights.

[Håkan Bergström]

A person who had lost his civic rights could not hold a public post, for example as a teacher, he lost his right to vote, was barred from testifying before the courts and could not get a job that required a good reputation.

[Carol Hardin]

Oh, thank you so much Marie, Anders and Håkan. This tells me alot about what I have heard about Poppa Sjöholm. I had found him in Karlsborg Garnisonsförsamling, I believe as inmate status, in 1874 and released in 1876. From there, I'm not sure where he went until he shows up in Sil marrying Mama Sjöholm in 1883. So, I am now one step closer to having a timeline for Poppa from birth to death.  
I cannot help but wonder why the examination taker would note this record on a household examination. I have poured through hundreds of pages looking for family and have never come across notes on criminal records. But I am sure glad it was there.  
Thank you again so very much!

[Ingela Martenius]

Like Marie says here above, not legally competent - he was returned to childhood quite simply.
Loss of civic privileges was an automatic consequence of being sent to jail. You spent a certain time in jail, followed by 3 or 5 or 7 or even in some (severe) cases 10 years loss of civic privileges. The length of time was not subject to the judge's discretion but was set out in the penal code.
 
A criminal record had to be entered into the household examinations. If, after his release from prison, he managed to get a job in another part of the country the vicar would issue a migration certificate and it of course had to state the exact dates since his loss of civic privileges meant that he e.g. couldn't marry. The vicar in the next parish had to have this information.
Notes about criminal records are very common.
 
Also, to be a vagrant was a criminal offense. If you had no job and no other means of support (you were allowed to be rich and not work) you could be put in a workhouse. In Swedish the word used was often försvarslös (defenceless) since you had no one to answer for you, no one who could defend you. In practice you were put in the workhouse only if you had no place to live. If you had somewhere to live - or you had lived a normal life for a long time in the same parish - you would be taken care of by the parish; they would try to find somewhere for you to live, if you had somewhere to live you would be eligible for pauper's aid etc.
 
Anders Hedgren writes about the hard times at the end of the 1860's. This is true - in parts of the country; some parts of the country had perfectly normal harvests and a few even had good harvests. People didn't starve as during the Irish Potato Famine - when no help was sent from England to Ireland until much to late - because aid was distributed, but yes, in some areas people became very thin and malnourished and of course fell ill with all kinds of infections (mainly TB of course) they normally would have withstood. Not a good time in Sweden, and cause for the first big, serious wave of emigration from Sweden.
Being a drummer boy meant that the Army looked out for you; the Army couldn't have men who weren't fit to fight.
 
Ingela

[Carol Hardin]

Thank you for the unique insight on Poppa's early adulthood. He would have been in his late teens/early twenties during this time.
I am trying to get the chronology straight - I am thinking that he was in the army after all of these convictions/sentences. Could it have been his sentence of 3 years for defenceless or could the judge have mandated his service in the army? Everything I have read so far on the Skaraborg regiment is recent information and gives only general descriptions of their history.  
I had read that, in Karlsborg during that time, they had used prisoners to help with continued construction on Karlsboorg Fortress (I believe that is what it is named). I am thinking that, maybe, he was sent to Karlsborg to help with construction. Because they began to use it, I believe, around 1870 or so, and construction continued until completion in the early 1900s, I am thinking that he helped on construction while incarcerated.
Do you think there are more detailed records of his army service and criminal record in Sweden's National Archives? And anyway I could get copies or access to them?
Once again, I could never thank you enough for the insightful information. I hope all of you are having a very good beginning to the new year.

[Marie Bråthen Birath]

Hi Carol! I am glad you got such good and full information from Ingela Martenius!! Great!!
 
There is a register called Swedish soldier's register and I just searched for your Herman Justus and found that there is a file there!
 
I can't tell you how much information one can get from it, but sometimes it could be very good! If you need help with ordering it I will be glad to help you. The mailaddress is: soldat@dis.se and his filenr is: SK-00-0173-1865. (My mailaddress is: mariebrathenbirath@yahoo.se if you would like me to help you with it!)
 
Best regards from Marie
 
Best regards from Marie

[Ingela Martenius]

Just the filenumber tells you a great deal: Skaraborg Regiment, 2nd company. His regimental number was 173, his company number was 23. He joined in 1865.
Normal regiments had 1200 men, divided into 8 companies of 150 men each.
Since he was born in 1851, he joined at 14 to become a drummer boy.
 
No, the Army didn't accept convicts. Quite the reverse. You had to be of good character to join up, and if you misbehaved you could be booted out (dishonourable discharge). The American system of training delinquents to become killers is something I have never understood.
Yes, convicts sentenced to hard labour were used in building fortifications, canals etc. - sometimes their own prison.
 
In actual fact, this guy started misbehaving after he had joined the Army. He was never - according to the table done by Anders - sentenced to three years in jail for vagrancy (which included defencelessness). He was sentenced to four months of hard labour (maybe building that fortress!) which was followed - as hard labour always was - to loss of civic rights for three years.
 
As you can see by the nice simple table Anders has made, he was first taken into detention in 1868 and was picked up for vagrancy in 1870.
So, he joined the regiment in 1865, got into trouble three years later, was probably thrown out of the Army, didn't get a job after that which is why he was picked up for vagrancy some time later. And after that it was something of a revolving door in and out of labour facilities, jail etc.
 
Ingela