Jan-Olof Arnäs Family Tree Information

The following information was donated by Jan-Olof Arnäs of Sweden. Jan-Olof is descended from a family tree branch different from the Severinsson Branch. The common ancestor is Antonius Bengtsson. One son, Nils Ludvig Antonsson, started the Nilsson family branch to which Jan-Olof belongs. A second son, Severin Antonsson, started the Severinsson branch.
Because of the file sizes involved, we have broken the information into separate zipped files (.zip). Most of the information is in Swedish, including some biographies. However, we have also included explanitory text from Jan-Olof's emails. Each generation is numbered - starting with the grandchildren of Jan-Olof (Generation 0). The following is an explaination of some of the source material provided by Jan-Olof:

Now I have found time to do some research myself and what I find most interest in, is to learn more about how our ancestors lived their lives. Therefore, I have started to go through the original documents such as our different church-books and original records. I don’t know if you are familiar with the Swedish church-books, but they are quite unique.
From around 1650 the priests in Sweden were ordered by the king to make notes of every person in the country concerning birth, marriage, knowledge in Christianity and death. The kings wanted this information to be able to tax the people. The books are a “gold mine” when you want to know more about your ancestors, and today you can get them over the internet. In time the priests developed the books to contain more and more information. For example if something out of the ordinary had happened to the family there is very often a note by the priest about it. This together with some other sources makes it very often possible to write a short biography of most of our ancestors at least down to 1750.
What I am doing for the moment is to search in the original sources for every ancestor and copy the documents where they occur. Then I try to write a biography. This takes a lot of time, but I find it very interesting.

I have to tell you more about the church books.
As I told you earlier the priests were ordered to keep control of every citizen from about 1650. They did this by writing records, in Swedish called husförhörslängder. They had to visit every family or household each year to check their knowledge in Christianity (that was the official explanation). They also had to register when people were born, moved, married and died. One record usually extended five to ten years, and that is why you often see that the record is scribbled. If you are to study the records you must know that if the name of a person or family is cancelled it could depend on one of several things, such as:
- the person had died (you mostly get a date of death beside the name, or in the margin).
- the person or the family had moved elsewhere (the whole family is cancelled and there is often a new farm or parish given).
- the priest had run out of space so he had to cancel the family and put it further down on the page (mostly in the old records from 1700-1750).
This means that you, very often, have to look behind the cancellations in the records.

I also have to tell you about the structure of Halland in the old days (perhaps you already know). Halland is what we call in Swedish a landskap, a region or compared to the U.S a state (but much smaller). Halland was up until 1900 a very poor part of Sweden. It was divided into a lot of socknar, a kind of small communities or parishes. A “socken” usually didn’t have more than a thousand inhabitants in the 1800th and 1900th century. Today Halland is one of the most wealthy parts of Sweden.
In the material I will send you I will use the word Hfl short for husförhörsländer and the word socknar. I will also use the word torp [small farm or cottage, usually a tenent farm].

Jan-Olof Arnäs Family Documents

Family Names	Title	Family Branch File Size
Arnäs, Nilsson, Jönsson	Generation 3 - Bengt-Olof Arnäs	Nilsson 1.8 MB
Johansdotter, Bengtsson, Andersdotter, Johannson, Eliasdotter	Generation 4 - Charlotta Elisabeth Johansdotter (married Adolf Severinsson, moved to America)	Severinsson 770 kB
Nilsson, Antonsson, Svensdotter, Christiansson, Soderholm, Olling	Generation 4 - Jenny Elisabeth Nilsson	Nilsson 2.4 MB
Johansdotter, Nilsson	Generation 5 - Beata Albertine Johansdotter	Severinsson 1.6 MB
Johansdotter, Nilsson	Generation 5 - Nils Ludvig Antonsson	Nilsson 1.3 MB
Johansdotter, Antonsson, Severinsson, Carlsdotter, Persson	Generation 5 - Severina Matilda Johansdotter	Severinsson 2.2 MB
Bengtsson, Antonsson, Severinsson, Nilsson, Nilsdotter, Eriksdotter, Ollson	Generation 6 - Anton Bengtsson	Nilsson & Severinsson 1.6 MB
Bengtsson, Andersdotter	Generation 6 - Inger Britta Andersdotter	Severinsson 1.6 MB
Bengtsson, Andersdotter	Generation 6 - Johannes Bengtsson	Severinsson 1.5 MB
Bengtsson, Nilsdotter	Generation 6 - Neta Gustava Nilsdotter	Nilsson & Severinsson 1.1 MB
Olsson, Bengtsson, Ericsdotter	Generation 7 - Bengt Olsson [Revised 8 Jan 2011]	Nilsson & Severinsson 1.2 MB
Olsson, Bengtsson, Ericsdotter, Alfsson	Generation 7 - Anna Greta Ericsdotter	Nilsson & Severinsson 2.0 MB
Marcusson, Carlsdotter, Andersdotter	Generation 7 - Anders Marcusson & Anna Carlsdotter	Severinsson 790 MB
Johansson, Bengtsson	Generation 7 - Bengt Johansson	Severinsson 520 kB
Johansson, Eliasdotter	Generation 7 - Elin Eliasdotter	Severinsson 520 kB
Michaelsson, Nilsdotter, Eliasdotter	Generation 8 - Elias Michaelsson & Inger Nilsson	Severinsson 520 kB