Treatment of Our Poor Swedish Ancestors

Just like most families, we have had our share of ancestors who were unable to care for themselves. And, as you might expect, family members often helped one another in Sweden, taking in their poor relatives or finding a way to care for their basic needs.

In Sweden before the mid 1800's, the poor were cared for in the following way:

1. Relatives were to care for their poor family members when possible.
2. Parishes were directed to build a facility to house the poor, but in rural Sweden, this was often not done.
3. Without a facility, members of a Parish Board made a list of the paupers in their parish, and the paupers were assigned to a place in that parish that was responsible for the pauper.
4. The pauper was given a piece of wood on which the names of the various farms in the assigned area were written and the amount of time a pauper could stay at each location. Food and clothing and shelter were provided before the pauper then had to move on to the next location.

In 1847, a Poor Relief law was passed to standardize care across the entire country. And under this law, the following additional rules were added:

1. Only those unable to work, who could prove they were from that specific parish, and whose relatives had exhausted their ability to help were eligible for relief from the parish.
2. If a person moved out of the parish, the new parish would NOT care for the person until the pauper had lived in the new parish for at least 3 years. This discouraged people from moving just to receive aid.

All of this probably seems reasonable. But added to this were the "pauper auctions" in which an individual or a family would "bid" on a pauper who would be under their care. Bidding was kept as low as possible because the family winning the "bid" and providing the care would receive a stipend from the Parish Board to provide food, clothing and shelter to the pauper. This was clearly a money-making effort on the part of some Swedes.

And so, in some places there was a centralized poor house. In others, the poor were given a piece of wood with the names of various farms they could stay in for a short time before moving to the next. And in other cases, paupers were "bid" on and often mistreated as the care was kept to a minimum to increase the profits a family might make off of the care.

My 4th great-grandmother, Ingeborg Ingedotter, became one of the paupers who needed care. She was the mother of Carl Lundblad, and the grandmother to Catherine Lundblad Linn (Gus Linn's wife). Ingeborg was born in 1768 in Malexander Parish in Ostergotland County. She gave birth to Carl, her only child, as a 25-year old unwed woman, and she never married.

For a time in the 1820's and 1830's she lived with her son Carl and his family, but when Carl's first wife died and Carl remarried in 1839, Ingeborg left.

I don't know her experiences as a poor person in Malexander Parish. But based on what I do know about the Swedish poor laws and what I've seen in clerical records and her death record, I would guess that Ingeborg was one of the people who roamed from farm to farm with a piece of wood that was provided by the Parish Board. Her death record below states that she died in the poor house in Malexander and came there from Brannstugan farm where I find NO record of her ever living. Ingeborg also died before the change in laws in 1847 that included "bidding" on paupers. Thus, I feel confident in my guess. 

I picture Ingeborg walking from one farm where she had received food and shelter to the next farm listed on her piece of wood, walking on dirt roads during very cold Swedish weather, a woman in her 70's. It's a visual that is hard to get out of my head.

I wonder about Ingeborg's life. From a single mother who never married, to living with her son until he remarried and may have felt she needed to leave, to roaming from farm to farm with a piece of wood that told her how long she could stay in each place, having to rely on parish members for food and shelter, to dying in the Poor House, she seems so very sad and alone. 

Every ancestor we have can't have a story that is only positive, only happy. I hope that Ingeborg took great pride in the one son she raised, a son who was a soldier. I know that I'm thankful for the gift of his life and for what that meant for those of us who follow.

Ingeborg Ingedotter from Fattighushet (poor house) died December 6, 1844; born May 14, 1768 and came from Brannstugan. She was buried on December 15 died of a breast fever (pneumonia) at age 76 and never (o) married (gift)