Sweden Judicial Jurisdictions

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Why Judicial Jurisdictions?
There are many reasons why you might want to search the Swedish court records for information about your ancestors. The courts were responsible for the processing of criminal and civil cases, but also for the recording of property transactions, the division of estates (probates and wills), and even death lists that were sent in by the parishes. Plus there is often a wealth of supporting documents for the cases. It is generally believed that most of the population can be found in the court records for one reason or another. But to search the court records, you have to know what judicial jurisdiction that your ancestor lived in. This article should help to sort that out.

Mid 1600's - early 1900's
By the 1630's the aministrative levels of government were organized as outlined in the chart below. These levels remained the same up to the beginning of the 1900's.



To print a copy of this chart with the definitions see:.