Jonas Jonasson is listed as the owner of the farm in Nykulla - Södergård in Tjureda parish, Kronobergs county, Smaland province, Sweden. Södergård means south farm. Norregård is north farm. They are terms used commonly throughout many Swedish parishes records to designate two separate areas of a village. There are also several other terms. The number of residents includes owners, tenants, and workers and their families living on the farm with the owners. It can also include other owners of a portion of the original farm.
"Krono-Skatte" is written at the top of the page in the 19th century years for this Södergård parish record. It is an older term referring to the notion of the king / government as the "superior" owner of all land and also to the fact that all "skattejord" state-owned land was once "kronojord" land owned by the nobility.
The nobility land owners had a frälse privilege. This is defined as an exemption from state tax in return for military service in the cavalry. In the beginning this frälse privilege could be acquired by anyone who could afford the cost of horse, armour, weaponry etc. Since the obligations (rusttjänst) often were taken over by sons of the families ,the noble status soon became inherited and confirmed by law in 1569. Besides the exemption from basic state tax the privileges also often included hunting rights on own and state land and reduced rates (often half) for extra taxations. The latter were at times very heavy, often to pay for war efforts
Frälse privileges were enjoyed by the land owner and all the farmers on his lands. To varying degrees, the land owner demanded compensation from the farmers on his land, ränta (rent), usually paid in kind or as dagsverke (mandatory work for the land owner other than farming the allotted land).
By 1654, (Queen Kristina's abdication) 72% of Swedish land was owned by the nobility. This drastically reduced the state's revenues. Through another reduction in 1655 and in the 1680's, most of the land given to the nobility was taken or bought back by the state, leaving only the inherited estate with the nobility. While we have birth records of probable ancestors dating to 1687, the family farm records that we have researched record landowners born in 1731. A law in 1809 stated everyone's right to acquire privileges and the system was in effect abolished.
The 1890 Census designates Johannes Petersson as "hemmansägare" - a farm owner¨of Södergård, i.e owner of both land and buildings. A hemman was a farm estate where the buildings and the land have the same owner and large enough to be taxed by a mantal, a measure of farm land. Each family living on the farm has numbers opposite their name less than 1/1, e.g. 1/4, meaning one fourth of the total (original) farm. The total adds up to 1/
The size of the farm is designated "1:1/2". This is followed by the number "1550". It probably refers to 1550 tunnland. Tunnland was the cultivated land area (about 50 acres) to which one tunna (barrel) of seed was determined to be enough to support one family. Therefore, 2026 tunnland = 113 400 sq feet = one hectare = 100 acres. My calculations would put the family farm at approximately 77 acres.
