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*
