Military Service and pension...

[John Anderson]

One of my ancestors has the following notation about his military service:
 
Avsked med underhåll samt betyget Tjänt utmärkt väl 1873.  
 
Best I can figure out, it says he was discharged from the military with pension and a certificate saying that he distinguished himself well in his duties...  or something to that effect.  
 
Can someone help me with a more accurate translation?
 
Also, on a related note, where would one look up Swedish military records on an ancestor?
 
Thanks,
 
John

[Ingela Martenius]

Well, your own translation is accurate enough:
Discharge with maintenance (a sort of pension) and a certificate of served with distinction.
Usually a soldier who was honorably discharged and received a pension would be termed a gratialist.
 
For military records (including such things as physical characteristics!) you pull the Generalmönsterrulla - general muster roll. These rolls are deposited both with the National Archive and the War Archive and are also microfilmed which means that they should be available through an FHC (though not on Genline).
You must know regiment, company and the soldier's company number, as well as having a pretty good idea when the soldier enrolled and when he was discharged.
 
Ingela

[John Anderson]

Thank you Ingela,
 
I could not quite get the sound of it right, but served with distinction, as you provided above, is what I was looking for.  
 
Thank you very much for that and the information on where to get the Muster Roll information.  
 
Sounds like I have some more digging to do!  ;-)
 
Thank you again,
 
John

[Christina Backman]

John, it?s always a good idea when asking for information to provide names, dates and places. You never know, somebody may have come across that particular ancestor.

[Jeff Benson]

Hi John,
 
Here is a link to a web page that has very detailed information (in English) about Swedish military records and how to research them for genealogy purposes.
 
http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/soldiers_research.htm
 
Regards,
 
Jeff

[John Anderson]

Christina,
 
This information was regarding one Anders Pettersson Sundell, son of Peter Carlsson Krantz Ljundahl and Helena Christina Johannesdotter.  Here is the biographical information I have on him, including the passage I was asking about at the end:
 
Anders Pettersson Sundell. Soldat nr 133. Born 1817-03-14 in Åkerödja dragontorp nr 124, Skaftarp, Rydaholm (F). Moved 1834 from Rydaholm (F) to Rickelsboda, Slätthög (G) [Husf. i Slätthög 1831-37 s.179]. Tjänade hos bonden och lantmätaren Sven Almark och h. h. Lena Westberg in Rickelsboda, Slätthög (G) [Husf. i Slätthög 1831-37 s.178]. Moved 1835 from Rickelsboda, Slätthög (G) to Hässleberg, Slätthög (G) [Husf. i Slätthög 1831-37 s.179]. Tjänade hos bonden och kyrkovärden Johannes Svensson och h. h. Anna Ericsdotter i Hässleberg in Hässleberg, Slätthög (G) [Husf. i Slätthög 1831-37 s.278]. Moved 1836 from Hässleberg, Slätthög (G) to Rydaholm (F) [Husf. i Slätthög 1831-37 s.278]. Moved in 1837 eller 1839 to Soldattorp nr 133 (Sundelltorpet), Sjuhult, Mistelås (G) [ ]. Anders blev soldat 1839 in Soldattorp nr 133 (Sundelltorpet), Sjuhult, Mistelås (G). Lived som soldat före vigseln 1840 in Sjuhult, Mistelås (G) [Vigselbok i Mistelås för år 1840 s.208 Nr 3]. Lived med familj in Soldattorp nr 133 (Sundelltorpet), Sjuhult, Mistelås (G) [Födelse- och dopbok i Mistelås 1841 s.119]. Avsked med underhåll samt betyget Tjänt utmärkt väl 1873.  
 
Thank you,
 
John Anderson

[John Anderson]

Thank you Jeff for the link.  I will definitely explore that avenue.
 
John

[Ingela Martenius]

So, what you have is this:
* Soldier Anders Sundell
* Born 1817-03-14
* Enrolled 1839
* Soldier no 133 at Sundell croft in parish of Mistelås, which means either SMÅLANDS GRENADIER-BATALJON Sunnerbo Kompani or KRONOBERGS REGEMENTE Norra Sunnerbo Kompani
* Discharged 1873
 
To decide which regiment you have to ask someone to look up Grill for you. The data above will be more than enough to identify the correct regiment.
Grill is Statistiskt sammandrag af svenska indelningsverket (statistical representation of the Swedish allotment system).
 
Or you could just contact the Soldier Registers:
Soldatregistret Kronoberg, email ai.sandahl@swipnet.se  (this one is specific to the part of Sweden where Anders lived)
Centrala Soldatregistret, email bjorn.lippold@mil.se  (this one is general, perhaps they will just refer you on to the specific one above)
They will charge you a small fee, but you will get everything there is on your soldier.
 
Happy New Year from Sweden!
Ingela

[John Anderson]

Thank you very much for that information Ingela.  I have several other soldiers in my lineage, so that information will come in very handy indeed.
 
Gratefully,
 
John

[John Anderson]

Hej Jeff,
 
I am still reading that information on that link you provided about soldiers.  It is quite alot to digest but VERY informative and comprehensive!
 
Thank you again for providing the link.
 
John

[Lars Skillius]

And in Grill?s book (written 1855-1858) you will find that rote (I don?t know how to translate, if at all possible, this word into English) no 133 in the parish of Mistelås belonged to the Kronobergs regemente.
Happy New Year
Lars

[Jeff Benson]

Hi John,
 
You are welcome. Yes, Hans' research page has a lot of stuff. I think much of it is probably for the advanced researcher. Don't sweat it if you feel you don't want to look at all those different kinds of records. For what its worth, I am just now (hopefully Monday) going to try to research my first generalmönsterrul microfilms. We'll see how it goes.
 
To Lars Skillius: According to the SweGGate dictionary, 'rote' translates in English to a small district or area. However, it is probably best to just use the Swedish word so one doesn't lose its very precise meaning. Most English speakers, I think, will be able to guess the meaning from sentence context.
 
Jeff

[Hans Högman]

More information about the “rote”.
A regiment normally had 1200 soldiers. Therefore each province was divided into 1200 districts (allotments) called rote (its one “rote” but two “rotar”).
The farmers within each rote (district) had to provide one soldier to the regiment of that province. In return the farmers were exempted from having to serve as a soldier (as long as they provided a soldier).
The number of farmers per rote depended of the “mantal”.
Mantal was a tax code and every farm that had to pay taxes was assigned a mantal. In the beginning one mantal meant a farm with a yearly return big enough to support the farmer's family and their farm hands.  
It was estimated that a ”rote” had to be of 2 ”mantal” in order to afford the cost of providing a soldier.
In some areas there could be two farms per rote (the two farms together had a return of 2 mantal).
In other areas there might be 5 - 6 farms per rote, while a wealthy farm of 4 mantal alone had to provide two soldiers.
However, in many areas there were two farmers per rote.  
Not all farmers were obligated to participate in the Allotment System. For example, the estates of the noblemen and the farms on noble land were exempted.
This had to do with the classification of land and the land ownership. Basically it was the people that lived on their own land, skattebönder and farmers that lived on land owned by the Crown, kronojord that provided the army with soldiers. Other groups like police officers, priests, innkeepers etc were also exempted.
 
The term “rote” is not exclusively used for the Allotment System; there were other types of “rotar” as well. However, since the Army rote is so special for Sweden and really has no equivalent in other armed forces it is my opinion, like Jeff's, that it is best to keep the Swedish word for it instead of inventing an English word.
Hans Högman

[John Anderson]

Thank you Lars for that very useful information.  And Jeff, do please let us know how it goes with researching the generalmönsterrul microfilms.
 
And finally, Hans...  Do you know how valuable your research is to us Americans of Swedish descent?  Thank you so much for your in-depth analysis of the Swedish military and the rote system.
 
John