The Kristdala genealogy cookbook



For those of you who are doing genealogy research in the Kristdala area, here is some information, which could be useful.

Organisation.

Rural Sweden was (and for the most part still is) organised in four levels. 

1. County (län) 
2. Parish (församling)
3. Village (by)
4. Farm (gård)

There are of course also towns and cites, but also here people were listed in parishes.

Kristdala parish is located on the Swedish East Coast, in Kalmar Län (Kalmar county), some 200 miles south of Stockholm and about 15 miles inland. Kristdala is a parish but also the name of the small town. There are about 20 villages outside the town, most of them containing multiple farms.

Most villages started as single farms but were split between family members repeatedly through the generations and eventually developed into villages. Farms were often kept in the same family for generations.

On the lowest level in the hierarchy we find the people who did not own land themselves, but rented a piece of land from a farmer, and put up a house. As population grew, this became common towards the mid of the 19^th century. These people were often the poorest, and when the great emigration started they were the first to go.

Up to the latter part of the 19^th century, most people in Sweden used patronymic naming. This meant that the family names changed for each generation, as opposed to what we are used to today. For example, if Sven Karlsson had a son who was named Lars his full name became Lars Svensson. Lars was Sven's son and therefor a Svensson. Note the double ss. Genitive in Swedish adds an s (just like in English) so Sven's son is simply Svensson. A daughter would be named Svensdotter (Sven's daughter) in the same manner. When a lady married she kept her maiden name.

Keep in mind that spelling of names has not always been consistent through the centuries. In earlier days ordinary people were normally not able to read and write. Therefor different persons may have written their names at different occasions using his personal touch of the spelling. A s an example Kristdala can be found with the following spellings: Krisdala, Christdala, Krigsdala Chrisstdala, Chresstdala and more.

Apart from Kristdala you may find the following parishes in the area:

Döderhult
Misterhult
Döderhult
Tuna
Mörlunda
Hjorted