2 Swedish American Genealogist 2004:3

Great Grandpa was a Soldier– How can I find out more?

From the late 1600s until 1901 Swed-en had its very own system of re-cruiting soldiers. In Swedish it iscalled Indelningsverket, which hasbeen translated as “The AllotmentSystem”. In short it meant that agroup of farms (a rote) hired a youngman to be the soldier for them. Hissalary was the use of a cottage andsome farming land, some victuals inkind and a small sum of money, andmaybe also he could borrow a horseor a pair of oxen when he needed to.The rote farmers took care of thefarming when the soldier had to goto war. If he died, his family had tomove elsewhere, as the new soldierfor the rote needed the cottage.

During the centuries it is esti-mated that almost 500.000 men ser-ved as soldiers for the various rotar,which means that most families haveone or more soldiers among the an-cestors.

Swedish MilitaryRecordsThe Swedish army and navy keptdetailed records about their soldiersand boatsmen, but how can you ac-cess them?

The basic record is the General-mönsterrulla [General Muster Roll,GMR], which was renewed everythree years in peacetime. In the GMRyou can find information on when thesoldier was accepted and when hewas discharged, his height, marriedor not, age, and from where he came.During the later 1800s his previousname is listed and also his exactbirth date and parish of birth.Duringearlier times one only gets to knowthat he was an östgöte or smålän-ning, which is not much help, when

you try to trace him. Also his patro-nymic is probably missing, butgenealogy is not supposed to be easy,or it would not be a sport.

The GMRs and lots of other mili-tary records are microfilmed, and canbe bought on microfiche from SVARin Sweden. The Family History Li-brary [FHL] has most of the recordstoo.

In the FHL catalog you go to, foinstance, the “Place search” andenter “ostergotland”, and then godown the page to “Military records”and Bingo! there you have the GMRfor the Andra Livgrenadjärrege-mentet.

A normal regiment in the old daysconsisted of 1200 men, divided into8 companies, so do you have to readthrough all 1200 individuals? No, thecompanies were made up by soldiersfrom the same area, a härad [legaldistrict] or two, and the name of thecompany often pointed to that area.

But that is still 150 men to lookthrough, is there no extra help in fin-ding great grandpa?

What is Grill?Yes, there is a most useful book calledStatistiskt sammandrag af svenskaindelningsverket, by Claes Grill, firstpublished in 1855-1858 in four volu-mes. This work, usually just calledGrill, was thus printed while the sys-tem still worked, and still was notmuch changed from the way it wasin the late 1600s.

Grill has been reprinted in twovolumes during the 1970s, and againin the 1980s. When you want to useGrill, be sure to get hold of one of thereprints, as they contain a mostuseful parish index which is lackingin the original.

The FHL catalog has the followingcall number for the reprint:948.5 H27g v. 2, but it is not avail-able on microfilm. They do have theoriginal on microfilm: FHL INTLFilm 84652, but then you miss theparish index.

How to use GrillNow, supposing your ancestor beingthe soldier Sven Ring from Ringa-rum in Östergötland, this is what youdo:

Step 1Find Ringarum in the parish indexin the front of the first Grill volume.See next page.

BY ELISABETH THORSELL

A link to a good web site on theAllotment System is found on theWeb Site Page.

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Step 1

Ringarum has three references, and you start by looking up page 157 in thefirst volume.

Step 2

Here you find first the name of the härad (legal district), Hammarkind,then the parish, and within the parish the names of three rotar, and yourecognise the Sven Ring lived at Fastebo, and thus had number 31. The nextquestion is which company did he serve for? Follow the Ringarum line to theright, until you come to the number of soldiers for the parish. then followthat column upwards until you reach the company names. Sven Ring wassoldier #31 of the Lif-Companiet (Life Company), which was commanded bythe colonel himself.

Step 3The first part of each regi-ment has a very short historyof it, where you can find namechanges, and changes fromcavalry to infantry etc.

Step 4Now you have your Sven Ring assoldier #31 of the Lif-Companiet ofthe Second Regiment of Life Grena-diers (Andra Livgrenadjärrege-mentet). Next step is to find the GMRand follow him through his service.

When you do this, it is wise tocheck a Swedish history and find outwhich years Sweden was at war, asthe rolls often are missing duringwartime, and you may not find himwhen you expect to. Instead there isa new soldier, and sometimes thereis a note that he succeeded SvenRing, and sometimes not. The easiestway to find out when Sven Ring diedis to check the Probate index for thehärad (legal district) where he lived.

If you do not find the notes aboutyour Sven under #31 in the GMR,look around under neighboring num-bers, as those could have changed alittle during the centuries.