Tuesday

The Estate Inventory "bouppteckning" of the deceased Robert Albin Abrahamsson

The weekend of the 14th-15th Arkivdigital offered free access to their premier site for scanned Swedish church records. I took good advantage and concentrated on getting records that I could not have access to elsewhere. Estate inventories (bouppteckningar) were my focus that weekend.

Upon a person’s death, the minister of the parish recorded the death and burial of the deceased in the church books. The surviving spouse or heirs would request that an estate inventory be performed. On an assigned date, the heirs along with court appointed appraisers would meet at the deceased person’s home and conduct an inventory and assign a value to all items in the estate. Afterwards the appraisers would turn the estate inventory over to the court for probate. The court then determined the distribution of the estate and this was recorded in a document called the "arvskifte". This inventory can tell you quite a bit about a persons family, life, wealth and social standing in their community.

The following is the estate inventory for my great grandfather Robert Albin Abrahamsson. My genealogical Swedish is about as good as my medical Spanish is (I am a nurse). Not so great but with the help of ArkivDigital tutorials, Google translate and various online genealogical Swedish dictionaries I have managed to translate the preamble to his estate inventory pretty well I think.
well here goes..........

On February 8, 1924, the estate inventory was performed for farm owner Robert Albin Abrahamson who lived in Stommen in Østra Frölunda and died November 10, 1923 leaving as his heirs
widow          Anna Abrahamson
Sons            Gustav Abrahamson  Sep 15 1887
                     Seth Abrahamson   May 17 1892
Daughters    Hilma Abrahamson   Aug 23 1881
                    Ester Abrahamson   Aug 11 1896
                    Märta Abrahamson   Jul 8 1899
                    Tyra Abrahamson   Aug 27 1901
married to Svän Edvin Johanson from Östra Frölunda
                    Anna Abrahamson  Jul 31 1885
married to Johan Emil Jakobson and living in America
                    Lydia Abrahamson  Feb 25 1890
married to Richard Källman and living in America
                    Ruth Abrahamson  Jun 3 1894
married to Andrew Söderström and living in America
Those three that live in America have requested by notarized power of attorney that the son Gustav Abrahamson act as proxy to represent and guard the interests of those not present.

Albin's assets and debts and his will/requests on how monies should be distributed then follow.

I find it interesting how just about everything is listed and I mean everything, even clothing. I love seeing the signatures of my grandmother and her sisters. There is also a certified copy of Anna Karolinas birth certificate. It seems most of Albins assets would stay with Anna for her use during her lifetime.


There is much in this inventory that I still need to ponder. Other questions come to mind. I do understand how the majority of property is left to the sons in that time. It seems that Seth was left more than Gustaf but perhaps Gustaf had already been given the land or cash to build his home Aveholm previously and Albin took that into account? Gustaf and Emil Jakobson are listed in the assets. Did they owe Albin money? It seems the girls got very little and in different amounts and I am curious how each amount came to be. It does not appear that Tyra or Ruth is given anything?

I am still (and probably will be for a good while) working on understanding this document but for now I am a bit pooped. If I come to any conclusions I will certainly post them on this blog and if any others reading this come to some answers? Please forward your insight, ideas or thoughts to me and we can share them on this blog?

Thanks! - Ranae

*click on the following pages of Robert Albin's estate inventory to enlarge for easier viewing*