Swedish Code of Statutes 1880, appendix 17
Statistics Sweden's circular letter
To all vicars and parish priests, except in Stockholm and Gothenburg, regarding the general census to be taken at the end of the year 1880;
Issued in Stockholm on the 17th of April 1880
The government has through a letter of the 13th of February, regarding the census for the entire country, to be taken at the end of the present year, decided to authorize the Statistics Sweden to perform the measures necessary and to issue the necessary instructions for the preparation and taking of the census, in accordance with the general announcement of the 4th of November 1859 and with the announcement of the 23th of November 1869 describing adjustments regarding the information to be taken in the census. As a result of this the Statistics Sweden hereby states the following:
b. That the census information, which should be provided by vicars and parish priests, should be extracted from the catechetical register [Husförhörslängd] and recorded in the enumeration forms which will be provided by the Statistics Sweden.
c. That the extracts should be provided for every parish or denomination that has a catechetical register or a similar list of persons. When a deanery consists of several parishes new forms should be written for every parish.
d. That if a parish is divided, between two or more counties, extracts should be provided for each part of the parish, as if the parish part was a parish of its own. In these cases the word ?parish? in the heading of the form should be changed to ?parish part?.
e. That the heading of every census enumeration form should contain the parish name. Furthermore it should be noted how many pages that is provided for each parish or parish part.
f. The enumeration form is divided into 14 columns with the following content:
Col.2:That the names of villages or other places of residence (blocks or wards in cities) should be written on a special row and underlined. It should be noted if the village or place of residence belongs to another judicial district than the rest of the parish.
That for every village or place of residence follows the list of persons that should contain the full name of every person. There should also be a note about the person?s position within the family, for example wife, son, daughter etcetera. Appropriate abbreviations may be used. No person may occupy more than one row in the enumeration form.
Col. 3:That, if possible, an accurate and complete information should be provided about occupation, office, service or trade (for example farmer, tenant farmer, crofter, settler, shoemaker, tailor, shoemaker apprentice, tailor apprentice, domestic worker, servant, poor, vagrant, prisoner etcetera). An occupation should also be recorded for a woman if she exercises an occupation or a trade. If someone has more than one occupation they should all be recorded. The first occupation should be regarded as the main occupation. Also if a person formerly has had an occupation, but currently does not have an occupation, the former occupation may be recorded. An occupation can also be recorded, to ensure the possibility of future identification of a person, if the person is commonly called by the name of a profession. Similarly some titles can be recorded (for example farmer, former sergeant, landlord and chamberlain) while other titles that do not give information about service, occupation or trade are of no value for the listing of occupations.
Col.4: That only the following disabilities are to be recorded: mental illness, blindness and if a person is deaf-mute. When recording mental illness, ?mentally ill since childhood? should be recorded for those whose mental illnesses were discovered already in their childhood. Those who have a periodic or intermittent illness should be recorded as mentally ill. Regarding ?blindness? it should be observed that also small children should be recorded as having this disability. For others only those who are unable to orientate themselves with their eye sight (lacking locomotor vision) should be recorded as blind. Similarly persons who are only deaf should not be recorded as deaf-mute. It should be recorded if a disability is known to be hereditary or if it is shared by close relatives.
That in column 4 it should for foreign citizens, living in the parish, be recorded as accurately as possible to which foreign power the person is subject. Recording names such as ?Germany?, ?The German Empire? or ?Austria? is not sufficient, instead a state should be recorded, for example Prussia, The kingdom of Saxony, Hamburg, Bavaria, Hungary etcetera. It should be observed that if a note about nationality is missing it is assumed that the person is a Swedish citizen. A note should however be made if a person has become a Swedish citizen but has a birth place which can lead to believe that the person has a foreign nationality.
That for every Swedish citizen who belongs to a foreign ethnicity a note should be made in column 4 using the words Finn, Sami, Roma etcetera. It is to some extent possible to determine the ethnicity from the language commonly used in the household. For the Sami population it is of special interest to record their different forms of trade (for example mountain Sami, forest Sami, fishing Sami etcetera). This should be recorded in column 3.
That for those persons living in the parish and have a foreign religious belief, and not belong to a denomination who independently report population statistics to Statistics Sweden, the foreign faith should be recorded in column 4. In the same column ?not baptized? should be noted for those children who, for confessional reasons, haven't been baptized within the Swedish church. For persons having a foreign faith it should be observed that according to §8 in the government decree of the 31st of October 1873 these people should be recorded in the catechetical register. The list of them should be included at the end of the extracts, but before the final summation so they won?t be excluded from the summation of the population for the parish and the country.
That for those persons who are recorded in the catechetical register but are known to be living outside the parish a notification using the word ?absent? should be made in column 4.
Col.5: That the information about birth year must be recorded with the accuracy needed for the summation of the Swedish life length tables and mortality tables. Special consideration should be given to information about very old people (over 90 years).
Col. 6: That even if the exclusion of birth place normally implies that the person is born within the same parish for which the extracts are made it is better to explicitly record the birth parish name, appropriately abbreviated, even in those cases, in the same way as it always must be done if the birth place is outside the parish. For rural parishes the county must also always be recorded.
Col. 7-14:That for a correct distribution of sex and marital status a stroke should be made in the proper columns in accordance with the column heading. The strokes should be made also for small children. It is of utmost importance that no confusion is made between the columns.
h. That, in accordance with the governments circular letter of the 20th of January 1865 regarding exclusion form the catechetical register of persons not present in the parish, the extract from the catechetical register should, under the heading ?remaining nonexistent?, include a list containing full name, occupation and birth year for those people who at the end of the year 1880 remain on the list of ?nonexistent? in the catechetical register. It is also desirable if a note stating the probable new place of residence could be recorded for persons in this list.
i. That the correctness of the extract should be confirmed by the vicar or parish priest with a signature.
k.That the extracts from the catechetical registers should be sent to Statistics Sweden together with the aforementioned summaries for the year 1880 from the books of births, marriages and deaths. The information should be sent within the stipulated time that is before the end of February 1881. However if there are obstacles one month's grace may be given for the delivery of the extracts and the summaries.
The aforementioned enumeration forms will, during the summer to come, be sent by Statistics Sweden, in necessary numbers, by the postal service, to every vicar and parish priest, who are called upon to, if a shortage of enumeration forms should occur, immediately report this to the Statistics Sweden which will promptly remedy the shortage.
For the taking of the census in the cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg special instructions will be communicated.
Stockholm, at the Statistics Sweden, on the 17th of April 1880
Karl Sidenbladh