Copyright © Hans Högman 2017-08-10
Research of Soldiers,
Sweden
The Army Rolls
The General Muster Rolls
(Generalmönsterrullorna, GMR)
The first military source the genealogist
normally comes in contact with is
Generalmönsterrullan (GMR) or in English:
the General Muster Roll.
A general muster (GM) was called at
each regiment every 3rd year (later every
5th year). The general muster rolls were
kept at the regiment s and since a new
general muster roll was set up at each
general muster you must know the time
frame when your soldier served in the regiment.
A general muster was an inspection of the regiment,
where its strength in numbers, equipment, etc. was
noted.
The GMRs are a part of förteckning nr 23 (Catalogue
No 23) and covers, with a few exceptions, the years
1685 to 1885. This is most of the period of the new
Allotment System (1682 - 1901). There were no
general musters called during the last years of the
Allotment System, which was abandoned in 1901
and replaced with a conscript system.
For the last year of the Allotment System you can
instead use the rolls "stamrullorna".
Within each general muster roll the soldiers were
listed company-by-company. So it is a good thing if
you know the company name of your soldier.
Higher ranked officers, the so-called regimental
officers, are listed in the beginning of the GMR.s In
the Swedish Army the officers, from the rank of
Major to Colonel, were called regimental officers -
they were on the staff. The First and Second
Lieutenants plus the Captains were called company
officers. They were listed in the beginning of their
respective company.
The NCOs are also accounted for in the beginning
of their respective companies in the rolls. The lower
ranks are listed among the men.
The information you need to do research in the
GMR is: the regiment, company, the soldier's
number, parish and, of course, the soldier's name.
You also have to know the time frame so you can
order the right GMR for the regiment.
The Grill books are the best source for finding the
regiment of your soldier. Observe that the Grill
works were written in the middle of the 1800's and
therefore reflect the names of the regiments and
the companies at that time. In early years, the
names of some companies within the regiments
might be different. How companies or soldiers were
numbered within the regiment could also have
been different in the early days.
The General Muster Rolls were kept in four copies:
1.
One copy was sent to Krigskollegium - War
Office (these copies are now at the KrA)
2.
One copy was sent to the Landshövdingen (the
County Governor) of the County (these copies
are now at the Landsarkiven - The Regional
Archives)
3.
One copy was kept at the Regimental
Commander's office (these copies are now at
the KrA)
4.
One copy was split into 8 parts, one for each
company, so each Company Commander had
his own copy (these copies are now at the KrA)
Information you will find in the GMR
In the general muster rolls you will find information
about the soldiers/cavalrymen, all listed company-
by-company as mentioned above. For the soldiers
you will find information such as:
•
soldier names
•
soldier numbers (both within the company and
within the regiment)
•
the name of the rote
•
place of birth (normally just the name of the
province, not the parish)
•
age
•
number of years in service
•
height (normally in feet and inches)
•
former occupation as a civilian
•
civil status (married or not)
Further, you will find notations on how well he had
served/conducted as a soldier (normally at
discharge), information about the campaigns he
participated in, wounds and injuries, if he was
absent or present at the general muster, etc. These
kinds of information were kept in a special remark
columns called "annotationer" in the roll. There were
two Remarks columns. The first remark column
contains notations from the previous general
muster and the second column from the current
general muster. In those columns you will find the
remark "approberad" if the recruit had been
approved as a soldier. If the soldier was present at
the GM you will see the remark "presens" or if he
was absent; "absens".
After 1810 you will also find information on medals
for bravery and other medals.
From 1850 onward the GMRs are much more
detailed. The soldier's patronymic name is in the
rolls from the first half of the 1800's.
In the GMR of the cavalry regiments there are also
information on each horseman's horse.
If you study the GMRs from different periods of
time you will get information on how the unit has
changed over the years. After a war there could be
many changes to the regiment and a lot of newly
recruited soldiers. However, there are no
summaries of what happened to the regiment
during the years of war.
When a new soldier was recruited and approved by
the Company Commander he became a recruit. He
did not become a soldier until the next general
muster of the regiment. It was at the GM he was
accepted or "approberades" as it will read in the
rolls.
It was the same routine when a soldier was
discharged. A soldier didn't formally get discharged
until the next GM. The discharge could be on
request from the soldier or an order from the Army.
The reason would be advanced age, war wound or
sickness. A regimental Commander could also
discharge a soldier between two general musters if
the rote farmer supported the proposal or if the
rote farmer brought forward such a suggestion.
This was called an "interimsavsked" (interim
discharge) and it had to be approved at the next
GM.
The information about the age of the soldier
should not be accepted without further checking.
The reason for that is different among the allotted
regiments (indelta regementen) and the enlisted
regiments (värvade regementen). In the allotted
regiments the young recruits often stated a higher
age than his real age just to be accepted as a
recruit. Normally a recruit in an allotted regiment
had to be between the age of 18 and 30. The
Company Commander was often aware of this but
could keep it to himself in order to sign up a good
recruit.
For a soldier approaching the age of discharge, he
could suddenly become older or younger in the
rolls depending on whether he wanted to be
discharged or not.
In the enlisted regiments the situation was a bit
different. It was much more difficult to enroll
soldiers in the enlisted regiments than in the
allotted regiments, the discipline and moral wasn't
as good.
In the enlisted regiments the soldier had the same
reason to lie about his age in order to be accepted
as in the allotted regiments, however here they
stated a younger age than their real age.
At a GM with an enlisted regiment they wouldn't
normally accept a recruit older than 20 - 23 years of
age. To be enrolled, a man older than 23 could lie
about his age. In order improve his chances to be
approved, the enlisted recruit could also lie about
his civil status and state that he was married even if
he wasn't. It was common to first of all enroll
married soldiers since they were less prone to run
away.
A change of the soldier's name can cause a lot of
problems for the genealogist. The soldier's number
belonged to the rote. If the soldier was transferred
to another rote he always got the soldier's number
of the new rote. If the soldier moved to a new rote
within the company he kept his soldier's name.
However if he was transferred to another company
he might have to change the name if there was a
soldier in the new company with the same name. A
soldier's name had to be unique within a company.
A soldier could also change his name on his own
request without moving to another rote.
A young soldier could also be forced to change his
soldier's name if a corporal or an older soldier was
transferred to his company and had the same
name as he had. In situations like this it was
common that the younger soldier had to change his
name.
It was common that the children of a soldier kept
their patronymic name. However this could vary in
different provinces but it became more common in
the 1800's that the children adopted their father's
soldier's name. At this time it also became common
for the soldiers to keep their soldier's name when
they were discharged from the military.
You also have to be aware that when a soldier was
discharged, the new soldier of the rote could be
assigned the same soldier's name as his
predecessor. This was quite common.
If the new soldier on the rote also had the same
Christian name (given name) as the former soldier
it could be difficult to observe the fact that there
was a change of soldiers on the rote. It would be
even more difficult to observe the change of
soldiers if the new soldier also had the same
patronymic name as his predecessor.
Another situation that could mislead the
genealogist is the situation where the soldier had
died and the predecessor married the former
soldier's widow.
A soldier that was promoted to corporal for
example had to move to the rote of the corporal he
was succeeding.
One way of keeping track of a soldier, especially
when he was transferred a lot, is to check his age
and the number of service years in all GMRs, in
order to secure the identity of him. The soldier's
name and number is not enough since they could
change.
For the enlisted regiments, the general muster rolls
are only preserved for the regiments that were
garrisoned in Sweden/Finland and in Swedish
Pommern (Pomerania, Northern Germany).
Brödmönstringar (Interim Musters)
Between each General Muster
there were so-called
"brödmönstringar" ("bröd"
musters). After each GM a
"brödmönsterrulla" ("bröd"
muster roll) was set up at the
regiment where current notes
were made until the next GM.
So, this roll will cover the
periods between the GMs. It
contains the same type of
information as the GMRs. In addition to this they
also contain notes about military peacetime works
(arbetskommenderingar) like construction or
repairing of fortresses, bridges, canals and other
public works facilities. These type of notes also
contains specifications of the length of these works
plus information on possible personal injuries.
These rolls were kept for the allotted regiments
between 1820 and 1901.
The military peacetime works are accounted for in
more detail in the so-called kommendörrullorna
("kommendör" rolls) where you will find
information such as dates, types of equipment
used, injuries incurred by soldiers, etc.
If you know the year of the soldier's recruitment
you can have a look at the
rekryteringsrullan/inmönstringsrullan (recruitment
rolls/enrollment rolls) where you might find
information about the soldier's patronymic name
(his surname before he joined the Army), date of
birth, place of birth and sometimes the soldier's
father's name. Here you also might find the
certificates presented when he was recruited,
certificates from his parish minister, previous
employer and medical certificates. These rolls are
not as well preserved as other rolls and there are
very few of them around before the 1800's.
Rullor 1724 - (Rolls starting from 1724)
Another source of great value and a complement to
the GMRs is the series "Rullor 1724 -", förteckning
nr 450 (catalogue no 450). This series of documents
might cover possible gaps in the respective
regiment's rolls.
These rolls contain similar information as the
GMRs.
Rullor 1620 - 1723 (Rolls 1620 - 1723)
For the period covering the older Allotment System
and for the period of the new Allotment System
until 1723 there are a series of rolls in förteckning
nr 22 (catalogue no 22). This series is the most
important source regarding the Swedish Great
Power Period. There are, however, great gaps in
these rolls. There is no information for the period
1708 - 1709, since most of the rolls for this period
were destroyed at the Swedish surrender to Russia
after the battle of Poltava in 1709. Much
information regarding the Swedish regiments in the
Baltic countries are also missing since the Baltic
states were lost to Russia in 1710.
However for the Swedish/Finnish regiments these
rolls are excellent sources of information.
Krigsmanshuskontoret (Pensions)
This series contains information regarding the
pensions of soldiers and officers. Some series start
in the 1630's and 1640's. The series is in
förteckning nr 14 (catalogue no 14).
From the 1680's there is a number of alphabetical
indexes covering the "gratialisterna" (the grantees).
These indexes are split into different groups. First
there are the veterans at the Vadstena
Krigsmanshus (Vadstena Veterans house) in the
province of Östergötland. Then there are the
veterans that lived in the Vadstena area, next a
series of tax collection districts and last the largest
part of the pensions that were distributed via the
regiments. The division of the indexes depends how
the pension was distributed. The tax collection
districts were responsible for the pension to the
veterans that had moved far away from their
former area where they lived as a soldier. The
regiments (the regimental clerks) were responsible
for the pension to the veterans that still lived in the
regimental area.
In these series you can follow the destinies of
soldiers after they have been discharged. Before
1730 there was very little monetary support to the
ex-serviceman unless they had been wounded.
They also had to have a good conduct during the
service years in order to get an allowance. There
were very few officers at the Krigsmanshus, only the
poor ones.
In 1757 the officers and the NCOs were separated
from the Krigsmanshus when the "Pensionskassan"
(the Pension Funds) was founded. After that year
the Krigsmanshuset only handled the lower ranks
and the soldiers. In 1783 the Krigsmanshus was
reorganized into Krigsmanshuskassan.
In these rolls you also might find information about
the soldier's wife and children.
Regementsräkneskaper, 1654 - 1723
(Regimental Accounts, 1654 - 1723)
This series contains information valuable for the
genealogist researching officers and NCOs at the
allotted regiments during the period of the Swedish
Great Power Period. They are a part of förteckning
nr 24 (catalogue no 24) plus supplements in
förteckning nr 451 (catalogue no 451). In these rolls
you can follow the careers of the officers and NCOs.
These rolls contain information regarding
enrollment, discharge, promotions, signatures or
owner's marks etc of the officers and NCOs. If an
officer's next of kin, his wife for example, has
cashed the officer's salary in his absence you might
get information on the officer's family affairs.
This series is not complete for years of war since
the clerks in Stockholm didn't have full details of
the changes in these matters if they happened in
the field army.
Avlöningslistor (Payroll Lists)
The payroll lists in the Militiekontoret's (Militie
office) register 1636 to 1865 (G.IV:b) is a valuable
source of information. This series contain annual
figures about officers, NCOs and the staff at the
allotted regiments.
Roterings och utskrivningslängder
(Conscription Rolls)
The series "Roterings och utskrivningslängder"
(Conscription Rolls), förteckning nr 25 (catalogue no
25), is organized province-by-province and contains
above all census information (mantalslängder). The
series starts in the 1620's. These rolls contain
information about all men above the age of 15
liable for conscription. At the muster the armed
forces enrolled every 10th man as a soldier. The
men chosen were noted in the rolls.
Within each province the rolls were organized
härad-by-härad (härad = administrative county
district) or parish-by-parish.
Soldatkontrakt (Soldier Contracts)
When a soldier was recruited, a contract was made
up between the recruit and the rote. In the contract
was information about the terms of agreement like
salary, recruitment money (lega), annual supply of
hay, seed ("hemkall"), etc. There are not many
contracts preserved from the 1700's, however in the
1800's they are better preserved.
Torpsyneprotokoll (Soldier croft inspection
records)
At regular intervals, especially when a new soldier
was moving in to the soldier croft, an inspection
was made of the croft and a report was drawn up.
During the inspection all deficiencies and faults of
the croft that needed to be addressed was noted in
the minutes. This could be faults like a leaking roof,
a broken window, a door needed mending etc.
These records are much more detailed for the
officer's homesteads and better preserved,
sometimes even back to the 1720's.
The inspection records are kept, besides at the War
Archives, also at the Provincial Archives.
Övriga rullor (Other Rolls)
In the Punishment Rolls (straffrullor) you will find
information about the soldiers that were punished
because they had broken some military regulation.
The rolls contain information like type of
misdemeanor and punishment.
The punishment rolls are considerably thicker for
the enlisted regiments.
From the 1800's there are also the medical rolls
(sjukrullor). They were kept chronologically as the
soldiers got sick. Each soldier's entry tells the
sickness or disease they had (often in Latin) and the
type of treatment they received.
At times of war, rolls were kept to record the men
being shipped to the war zone, the so-called
Embarkation rolls (Embarkerings- eller
inmönstringsrullor). Similar rolls were made up at
different occasions in field and also when the
regiment returned home. These rolls are very
variously preserved, but when you find them they
give great information about the campaigns and
battles the soldier have participated in. You will also
find notes if a soldier had been wounded, killed or
taken prisoner of war.
For prisoners of war (POW), there are as a rule
only information about when they were taken
prisoner and when they returned back home.
However, for many POWs even this information is
missing, they just "disappear" from the rolls.
One exception is the Swedish prisoners of war in
Russia after Poltava 1709 during the Great Nordic
War. These Swedish POWs are very carefully noted
in the rolls and for them there is a lot more
information. Among other things, there is
information regarding how long soldiers were in the
hands of the Russians in order to pay them a
correct salary when they returned home.
Whenever a soldier was killed in war, taken prisoner
or passed away, there is a chance you might find
information about his family. The soldier's wife or
children could claim the salary that was due to him.
On such occasions, his family might then show up
in the rolls. A large collection of petitions with these
requests ("suppliker") are kept at the War Archives.
Finska regementen (Regiments in Finland)
Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809 when we
lost the Finnish part of the nation in a war with
Russia. There were a lot of regiments established in
Finland and the majority of them were allotted
regiments. So, there are also rolls to be found for the
regiments in Finland. However the regimental
archives for the Finnish regiments are relatively small
and in some cases poorly preserved. Many archives
were lost in the war and when Sweden surrendered
Finland to Russia the regiments in Finland were
disestablished. According to the peace treaty of
Fredrikshamn in 1809 a lot of regimental archive
material was to be handed over to the Russians. This
material hasn't been that important to the
genealogist since it was mostly maps and charts that
were handed over.
There are not only Army archives for the Finnish units
but also Navy archives. The Navy's naval stations
were in Sweden but there were allotted båtsmän in
the Finnish coastal areas belonging to different
båtsmans rotar. The Galley Fleet (The Army Fleet)
however had two squadrons in Finland, The Finnish
squadron or the Sveaborg squadron from 1758 and
the Åbo squadron from 1793. In the Navy archives
there are also the Sea Artillery regiments garrisoned
at Sveaborg, Kristina and Varkus.
The Swedish name for the Galley Fleet is
"Skärgårdflottan" and the two squadrons in Finland
are called "Finska eskadern" or "Sveaborgseskadern"
and "Åboeskadern". A "båtsman" is the Navy's
counterpart to the Army's allotted soldiers.
Stamrullor / Stamkort (The Successors to
the GMRs)
Stamrulla:
The general muster rolls were kept until the 1880's.
They were then replaced by the "stamrulla" ("stam"
rolls and "stam" records).
The "stamrulla" was introduced in 1885. They were
organized as the company rolls or the
"annotationsrullorna" (note rolls) but they also
contained notes about the soldier's private
circumstances, craftsmanship etc. At this time, such
rolls were only kept at the enlisted regiments (värvade
regementen). In 1889, they were introduced to the
allotted regiments as well.
The "stamrulla" contains information like name, date
of birth and rank or position. After 1885 the stamrulla
is the most important source of information for the
research of soldiers and officers.
The "stamrulla" were kept until the end of World War
II and contained between 1919 and 1945 only regular
servicemen, i.e. officers and NCOs, not draftees. In
1945 the "stamrulla" was replaced by the tjänstekort
(Service Records).
Stamkort:
Sweden got a Universal Conscription System in
1901 when the Allotment System was abandoned.
For the "värnpliktiga" (conscript soldiers or draftees)
the stamrulla was replaced with the stamkort
("stam" records) in 1919. The stamkort are also called
"värnpliktskort" (draftee records).
The stamkort contains information on the draftee like;
name, date of birth and from 1947, when the
"personnummer" (Personal identification number) was
introduced.
Here you will also find information about which
branch of the army (truppslag) he served in and any
possible misconduct.
Lantvärnet - (An Forerunner to Beväringen)
The soldiers of the "Lantvärnet" are in the collection
"Lantvärnet". These general muster rolls contain the
same type of information as the GMR for the allotted
soldiers.
Beväringen - (An Early Forerunner to the
Universal Service System)
"Beväringen" was an early conscription system and
was introduced in 1812. It was a forerunner to the
universal Conscription Service System of 1901. Every
male between the age of 21 to 25 was required to
serve in the military as conscripts (draftees). For
some reason, the hiring of substitutes was allowed,
i.e. to pay someone to do the service in his place.
This was a demand from the farmers. The first
muster for the "beväringen" was held in 1813.
Initially they were trained together with the soldiers
from the Allotment System. The conscripts of
beväringen was kept in the so-called
beväringsmönsterrullorna (Conscript rolls). These
rolls are from 1886 called inskrivningslängder
(Enrollment rolls). From 1886 were all draftees assigen
a inskrivningsnummer (enrollment number) at the
time of the registration (muster).
Värnpliktstiden - The period of the Universal
Service System (1901 - 2010)
The Allotment System was abandoned in 1901 and
replaced with a Universal Service System (draft
service) with a conscript army ("värnpliktsarmé"). The
system is called "Allmän Värnplikt" in Swedish and a
draftee (conscript) is called "värnpliktig".
Like during the Allotment System, in order to find a
draftee in the inskrivningslängderna (enrollment rolls)
you must know the parish where he lived at the time
he was drafted (registered). Between 1902 and 1952
these rolls were, like the earlier rolls, organized
geographically. From 1953 these rolls are organized
by the draftees "personnummer" (a national personal
identification number).
Like prior to 1902, the draftees (värnpliktiga) were
assigned an enrollment number
(inskrivningsnummer). This enrollment number was
a three-part registration number with one part for
the place in the roll, one part for the roll area and the
third part for the year of enrollment.
For more information, see inskrivningsnummer
(enrollment numbers).
In 1919 individual stamkort/värnpliktskort (draft
card) were introduced which contained similar
information as the earlier stamrulla.
Collections Regarding Officers and NCOs
There is much richer trove of material regarding
officers as compared to that of the soldiers. In these
collections you need to know the regiment in order to
find your officer. If you don't know the name of the
regiment you can search him in some of the many
indexes at the War Archives, for example in the index
of the "Biograficasamlingen" (the Biography Collection)
or in the index of the "Arméns pensionskassas
meritband" (The Army's pension fund's list of
qualifications).
As mentioned earlier, officers and NCOs are listed in
the general muster rolls (GMR). GMRs were kept until
the 1880's when they, for the officers and NCOs, were
succeed by the so-callled "stamrulla" ("stam" rolls). In
1945 the "stamrulla" were replaced by the
"Tjänstekort" (Service records). In 1959 the name of
the "tjänstekort" was changed to "Rullkort" (Roll cards
or Roll records).
Salary documents can give you some information
about an officer's military career. The collections
Meritförteckningar (List of qualifications) and
tjänsteförteckningar (Service records) are valuable
sources of information. NCOs are not normally
represented in these collections.
In the "meritförteckningar" you will find information
like place of birth, education and latest duty or
service. The Army's officer's "meritförteckningar" will
be found in the Army's Pension Fund's (Arméns
pensionskassa) collection which stretches from 1757
to 1937. The merits were sent to the Pension Funds
to be a base for upcoming pensions. For the time
between 1757 and 1895 there is a personal index at
the War Archives.
Other collections with listings of qualifications is
"Meritförteckningar" for the 1600's to 1800's,
"Tjänsteförteckningar för i armén kvarstående officerare
1815 - 1883" (Service Records for Army Officers in
active service 1815 to 1883) plus "Tjänsteförteckningar
1886- 1940".
The "Biograficasamlingen" (the Biography Collection) is
an interesting collection for the genealogist. The
collection consists of documents sorted
alphabetically on family name and concerns officers
from all of the fighting services. The content of the
collection varies and you might even find letters,
clippings from newspapers etc. If you are lucky you
could find a private archive for an officer. The odds
for this are bigger if the officer had a higher rank.
There is an archive register for every private archive.
At the War Archives there are also two portrait
collections; The "Porträttsamlingen" (The portrait
collection) and the "Flottans porträttsamling" (The
Navy portrait collection). Here you will find photos of
officers or photos taken of portrait paintings. There is
also a collection of group photos, "Gruppfotosamling".
The allotted officers received a fringe benefit in the
form a officer residence and its associated farmlands.
Every officer and NCO had a residence granted from
the Crown. In the regimental roll "indelningsverk" (The
Allotment System) or "jordebok" (Property register)
you will find information about each officer's and
NCO's residence.
Like the soldiers' crofts, the officers' and NCOs'
residence were inspected now and then. The
protocols from these inspections can give valuable
information about an officer's residence. A very large
number of inspection records were preserved.
However there is a homestead index at the
researcher’s hall at the War Archives.
The officers were trained at different military schools
or academies in order to be more qualified,
promoted and get a higher rank. In the school's
archives you might find grades and certificates and
sometimes also different examination papers.
An officer wrote many reports and documents during
his daily work. In the collection "order, rapporter"
(orders and reports) you can see what was going on
at the regiment and thereby what the officer did in
his line of work.
Related Links
•
The Allotment System
•
Swedish Regiments
•
Swedish Military Unit Numbers
•
Tutorial: How to Research Soldiers
•
Tutorial: Conscription Enrollment Numbers
•
Example of soldier rolls & documents
•
About the enrollment Numbers (Conscripts)
•
Examples of different notations in general muster
rolls
•
Terms, soldier research
•
The rote numbering of the Södermanland
regiment
Source References
•
Krigsarkivet och släktforskaren, Christopher von
Warnstedt, SSGFs skriftserie, nr 1. 1989.
•
Släktforskaren och Krigsarkivet by Lars Ericsson,
article in Båtsmän, ryttare & soldater, Årsbok
Sveriges Släktforskarförbund 1988.
•
Soldatforska, Lars Ericson Wolke, 2012
•
Soldatforskning, by P Clemensson, L Ericsson, P
Frohnert and B Lippold. Krigsarkivet 1995.
•
Släktforskarna och Krigsarkivet, en vägvisare till de
militära källorna. Message from Krigsarkivet XIX,
2000.
•
Beståndsöversikt Krigsarkivet
•
Inskrivningar av värnpliktiga 1812 - 1969, en
översikt av Evabritta Personne, 1968.
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My own experiences
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