Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part I - Docent Arvid Edin, Uppsala, The Swedish Church Registers and the Demographical Science
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE SWEDISH CHURCH REGISTERS
AND THE DEMOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE
BY
Docent K. ARVID EDIN
UPPSALA
The official swedish demographical statistics, in
contrast to those of most other countries, exhibit the peculiarity that they
rest, all the way through, on a continuous, as far as possible, closed eccle*
siastical record*keeping, comprised in the so*called parish registers (forsamlings*
böckerna, in older times catechetical meetings registers), where, with complete names,
with exact dates — registered at the same time in the birth*, marriage*, death*,
and removal registers — one can follow every person’s demographical fate, as long
as he lived in the parish: birth or entrance into the parish, with information on
the parish of birth and that of removal, civil status, and eventually year and date
of marriage, entrance into or withdrawal from marriage, the birth or death of
children (removal from or entrance into the parish), removal, with the name of
the parish, or death. The church registers also, of course, contain information
respecting occupation; their value here, however, stands far behind what it does
from a pure demographical point of view; the parish registers also contain in*
formation respecting defects, race (for example Lapp), religion, and nationality,
and eventually sentence of punishment.
The recurrent censuses of the people rest upon the returns given in the
parish registers for the 31st of December in all years ending with 0, the last
being thus 1920. Especially respecting their completeness and their exactness con*
cerning age, they may probably by considered unique. By means of more rigorous
regulations as to the taking out and issue of certificates for removal — high fines for
neglecting to report removal within a short time of respite, measures to ensure that
entrance into one parish shall be brought to coincide as far as possible with removal
from another parish — and by arranging that the non*existence of persons, about
whom it has not been possible for a long time — since 1894 during three con*
secutive assessments (»mantalsskrivningar») — to obtain any information as to
their actual presence in a parish from which they have not taken out a certificate
for removal, shall be notified in the registers (the parish registers and the registers
of non*existence), the closed keeping of the parish registers has during the last gene*
ration been brought to the highest possible perfection. Special certainty has been
gained that persons cannot — as not seldom happens in Finland, where the keep*
ing of the parish registers has been neglected and not as in Sweden altered to
suit the needs of the time — during any longer period of time live only a sta*
tistical life. The assessment is the Swedish equivalent to the »momentary, real
(actual) census» (on oral statements) taken in foreign countries; the parish registers
must be corrected and completed yearly in connection with the assessment. It
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
