The chapelry of Boda before 1795
Version D - 2004
Historical outline
In 1875
the chapelry of Boda was constituted a parish of its own under the dean of
Rättvik and a
separate municipal community. It is
situated in the eastern part of the so called Silurian ring, or the
Siljan ring, a circular rift in the granite rock resulting from a meteorite
downfall 360 million years ago.
Their
tilted layers of limestone have escaped from being sliced off by the land ice.
The villages are
mainly situated along the fertile strip. Occasional
archaeological finds from the Stone Age bear
witness of old colonization.
The Boda
area is mentioned for the first time in a court book from
called Solberga quarter and included Born, Gärdsjö, Östbjörka
and a few other neighbouring villages.
As from
the 17th century it was called Ovanhed quarter and was identical with the
chapelry. A chapel
is mentioned as early as in 1586. On Feb 24, 1618,
the chapelry obtained permission to build a new
chapel on condition that all farmers confirmed by their
owner’s mark that they would not try to diminish
the support to the parish church. Nevertheless, in
1640 the chapelry asked to be transferred to the parish
of
chapel more than once a month. Up to around 1730 many of
the inhabitants of northern Boda had their
children christened in the
The farm
names are unique for Dalarna. Family names were not used by the peasantry. You
added “-son”
or “-dotter” to your father’s name (patronymicon). As people could have similar names, they
were held
apart by an extra initial name, which could be the name
of a person, a profession, the village from which
he came, or a soldier’s name inherited from an
ancestor. You could be called “Carl’s Erik”, “Snickar
(Carpenter)
Olof”, “Röjås (a village) Anders”, “Sparf (soldier’s name)
Hans” etc. It was not only the
carpenter’s children that were called
Snickar, but also their descendants. A man who moved to his wife’s
farm adopted her farm name (”the petticoat name”).
It seems
that, for a long time, the priests met the farm names with some suspicion. They
may have believed
them to be nicknames, which they might well have been
sometimes. It is only in the second half of the 18th
century that they are normally used in the household
ledgers, and it was only well after 1800 that they were
noted in the books of christening, marriages and
deaths.
The reconstruction of the church records.
This is
a revised edition of earlier accounts of the population of the chapelry of Boda
before 1795, to which
we have added some later information which we have
obtained on various occasions.
Since
spring 2002 the work has been done in cooperation with a relative of mine,
Karin Jegelius,
She has
entered the whole material in a genealogical computer programme which
facilitates search for people
and identification of names. The text is now also
available on her website: www.jegelius.se
My
second cousin, Ingemar Goliath, of Sollentuna and Västanå, has also
contributed, particularly concerning
southern Boda.
In the
church registers of the parish of Rättvik, including the chapelry of Boda,
household registers are missing
for the period 1720 -
also missing for the villages of Osmundsberg, Solberga,
Västanå, half the
in Gulleråsen. We have tried to fill in the gaps.
In 1890,
the church started to register the parishioners under the official property
numbers, which were created
at the general redistribution of land in 1836. We
have used the census records for 1890 and 1900. They give only
the property number, the names of the inhabitants
without indication of kinship and the year of birth without date.
For easy
reference to the various household registers we have added letters as follows:
A |
1673 -
1691 |
AI:1
3/9 |
Microfiche
Rättvik |
B |
1692 -
1699 |
AI:1
5/9 |
Microfiche
Rättvik |
C |
1701 -
1719 |
AI:2 |
Microfiche
Rättvik |
D |
1722 |
AI:1
6/9 |
Communion
book, containing household numbers and names of those admitted to communion only,
also, in AI:1 1/9, a list of books drawn up 1725 -
1731 for the villages of Kärvsåsen, Änderåsen and Ovanmyra. It gives only
names of those admitted to communion, no dates or household numbers |
|
1729 –
1740 |
DII:2 |
Communion
registers in the form of yearly lists of the heads of every household. No dates.
We refer to them as "the householder lists" |
E |
1742 -
1755 |
AI:3 |
Microfiche
Rättvik |
F |
1760 -
1767 |
AI:1 |
Microfiche
Boda. For that part of the chapelry included in the household register |
G |
1775 –
1784 |
AI:2 |
Microfiche
Boda |
H |
1787 -
1795 |
AI:3 |
Microfiche
Boda |
J |
1796 -
1805 |
AI:4 |
Microfiche
Boda |
K |
1806 -
1815 |
AI:5 |
Microfiche
Boda |
L |
1816 -
1825 |
AI:6 |
Microfiche
Boda |
M |
1826 -
1835 |
AI:7 |
Microfiche
Boda |
N |
1836 -
1846 |
AI:8 |
Microfiche
Boda |
O |
1847 -
1856 |
AI:9 |
Microfiche
Boda |
P |
1858 -
1867 |
AI:10 |
Microfiche
Boda |
Q |
1868 -
1877 |
AI:11 |
Microfiche
Boda |
R |
1877 -
1888 |
AI:12 |
Microfiche
Boda |
S |
1890 |
Census |
CD
record |
T |
1900 |
Census |
CD
record |
Other
sources:
Baptism
registers of Rättvik up to 1741, thereafter the register of the chapelry. Up to
around 1730 some
children from the northern part of Boda
were christened in
of Rättvik until around 1700. The mother's name was
not entered until after
The
marriage registers of Rättvik. Many marriages are missing. The chapelry may
have had a marriage register
of its own, which has been lost.
The
death registers of Rättvik up to 1733. No information is available on persons
deceased in Boda 1734 - 1772.
For the
period 1773 - 1808 Boda has a book of funeral orations.
The
History of Boda, part 2, gives information on church wardens and parish clerks.
It seems that no chaplain
or other priest was settled in Boda before 1785.
Muster rolls for the Rättvik Company of the Dal Regiment 1714 - 1767.
“Dalregementets
Personhistoria” (biographical notes on officers and
warrant-officers of the Dal Regiment)
A list
from 1663 - 1664 of summer stables, water mills etc, published by Bror Lindén at the Record
Department
for Geographical Names at
The tax roll for 1613.
The
letter of undertaking from
the support to the parish church in exchange for a
permission to build a new chapel.
The assessment
of 1695 for establishing each farmer's contribution to the remuneration of
officers and soldiers
at the Rättvik Company. The remuneration of the
officers was based upon the yearly tax, which was paid in
cash (the currency was 1 daler at 32 öre at 24
farthings). At this time a barrel of rye (around
15 daler. The remuneration of the
soldiers was based on the assessment of the farms, expressed in sheaf land
reduced area. One sheaf land is
according to a coefficient based on the
fertility of the soil. A lot of 100 sheaf land with the coefficient 0.5
(= grade
5) was assessed to 50 sheaf land reduced area.
We have
made the references to the church records as simple as possible. The households
are identified by the
village, our letter indicating the ledger, and the number
of the household (which is not a property number). Up to
1785 the
household numbers often vary from ledger to ledger. Therefore we have made a
survey of the household
numbers up to that point for each village. Dates taken
from the household ledgers, which are often approximate,
are given in italics, whereas dates taken from the
books of baptism, marriages and deaths are given in upright style.
Farm
names which have been dropped at marriage are put in parenthesis. In the
household ledgers, farm names
are given only to the head of the household, but like
other genealogists we have indicated the farm names also for
the children.
When
households have been split up we have in certain cases found it convenient to
leave them under the same
heading. In other cases we have placed either of them
under a separate heading. If either of the households has
changed the farm name, we have assumed that they have
left the site. In other cases it is usually impossible to see
who remained on the site and who built a new home,
and the decision has had to be arbitrary.
At the
end of each village chapter you will find a list of those entries in the books
of baptism, marriages and deaths
that we have not been able to identify, either because
we have not been able to find the person or because there is
more than one person that fits the description.
We hope
that our work will be of use to those who are not in a position to do the
search on their own.
Leksand, 21st of April 2004
Olof
Hansson
Movägen 3B
SE-793 31 Leksand
SWEDEN
Telephone: +46 247 13835
olof.hansson@delta.telenordia.se
Karin Jegelius