Search Tips

Here you can find search tips for our service Historical Maps.

It is possible to search in three different ways

You can search among the historical maps in three different ways.

Search by map by highlighting an area and see the various historical maps which have a connection to the area. Searching by map does not give a comprehensive result list for maps and dossiers, since Historical Maps search by place names rather than georeferenced maps (maps which have coordinates).

Therefore, we recommend you try searching via the register, you can then choose either search general maps or search detailed maps. You choose which registry you search in and find drop-down menus with pre-selected options on the counties, municipalities, civil parishes, district names and places which are found in our registers.

Instructional videos 

Here you can see three videos that show how you can "Search via map", "Search general maps" or "Search detailed maps" (the videos are in Swedish).

Search via map

Search general maps

Search detailed maps

Updates in the Historical Maps service

On October 14, 2022, the Historical Maps service was replaced with a new version. The changes we have made to the service affect the search and presentation of files.

The content of the service is the same as before

We still only show files up to and including 1928 and have not supplemented with any material, that is to say that it is the same beautiful maps as before.

Division between general and detailed maps

Previously, you had to choose between our four archives to search for maps and files. Now you can choose whether you want to find overview maps in smaller scales such as 1:20,000 to 1:100,000 from the National Land Survey Agency's archive and the Swedish National Map Agency's archive.

If you want to find detailed maps in larger scales such as 1:4 000 or 1:2 000, they are files from the Land Survey Office's archives and the Land Survey Agency's archives, here you will also find our Djurgårds maps.

New sorting in lists of parishes and tracts

When searching for detailed maps, files from different archives may be marked with different variants of a parish name or tract name. You may therefore need to do more than one search to find all maps and records of a historic area.

Example of what it looks like when you may need to do multiple searches. Click on image to enlarge it.

We now use the My Map service to search for historical maps and files via map image. As in the previous version of the service, this search method tries to find both general and detailed maps of the area. However, you will not get as many and accurate hits as if you search specifically for overview maps or detailed maps.

Do the following:

  1. Click on the map to open a new box right of the screen.
  2. In the box that appears, you can click on the option "Historical maps" to perform a search in the immediate area around the point you clicked on in the map image.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Click in the map.
Click on "Historical maps".

Sorting and filtering of results

Sorting

You can choose to sort your result by clicking on the header buttons.

Filtering

You can choose to filter your search result in the default fields that appear. For example, you can choose to only see files from one of our archives, or from certain years. You can also choose to only see the search results whose description or designation contains a certain word or place name. If you don't want to see the filtering options, you can click the Hide Filtering button.

Once you've searched for Overview maps, you can for example use the filter to find all search results containing the General Staff map or Gävle.

If you have searched for Detailed maps, you can use the filter to find, for example, all search results containing Laga Shifte.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Download high-resolution image directly

Once you have opened a file, you can download the page you are viewing as a TIFF file, instead of ordering previously to email address.

What's going on?

We now display the files in PDF format instead of the previous DjVu format. It will soon be possible to search for all maps and files via free text.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you searching for a specific map sheet in the Häradseconomic map? If so, you can use our template to see what the sheet is called. Each map sheet has its own id-number, for example J112-54-10. The number 54 symbolizes the large square as seen on the image below. The number 10 symbolizes the location within the larger square.

For Halland, Skåne and Blekinge counties, the page division for the Häradsekonomiska map does not correspond with the page number of the large box. In those counties, you should only look at the map sheets within the large box.

Look which sheet is next to it

You can also use the template to see which sheets are next to it. Look at the last number on the map sheet. It represents which location the map has in the larger square. In the example of J112-54-10 the sheets are next to 5, 9 and 15.

Example of an index map for häradsekonomiska kartan.

The Civil parish maps and parish descriptions are in the LMS archive and are found by searching detailed maps and choosing the civil parish both under Civil parish and Place.

If you know in which county the economic map is that you are searching for you can look in the list, it contains one or two sheet classification per county. The sheet overview for Kopparbergs county in scale 1:10 000 is missing.

Sheet classifications by county:

County – Tif-image’s size 

Are you searching for a specific map sheet from the Economic map? If so, you can use our service Geolex to find the sheet number on the map sheet.

Do this: Open GeoLex

Screenshot example from the GeoLex e-service showing which fields and buttons should be used to perform a search on a map sheet.

  1. Move on the map to the area you are interested in.
  2. Click on Index in the left margin, see the black arrow.
  3. Choose RT90 in the left drop-down menu.
  4. Choose Index 5 km in the right drop-down menu.
  5. Mark the tool to be able to select map sheet, see the round circle.
  6. Click with the pointer tool on the map and a square with the sheet number in the center will be displayed.

Are you searching for a specific map sheet from the generalstabs map? If so, you can use our template to see what the sheet is called. You can also use the template to see which sheets are next to it. Each map sheet has its own id-number, for example J243-76-1. The number 76 symbolizes the map’s sheet name.

View the template over our historical sheet classifications (in Swedish, pdf, new window).

Example of an index map for generalstabskartan.

Often the name of the civil parish corresponds to the current name of the parish, so keep trying.

Often there is an alphabetical or chronological register for each civil parish. Shown below is an example for how you may search, remember to click on Civil parish/archive series.

At the top of the search result list there is a dossier which ends with ALFxxx (for the alphabetical register) or KRON (for the chronological register), they have no year attached and will therefore show at the top of the list.

faq detaljerade kartor-min.png

faq sökresultat-min.png

Search detailed maps, choose county, Municipality + Place or Civil parish. Thereafter you choose the action “Laga skifte” in the drop-down menu under actions.

faq sökresultat-min.png

To search directly for a dossier designation first you must choose Search detailed maps, then press on Civil parish / archive series and then press dossier.

Type the dossier designation, e.g.,13-ULL-21. If you are not certain about the complete dossier designation, you can use a wild card search, meaning that part of the dossier designation is written with a star, e.g., 13-ULL-*

söka på beteckning faq-min.png

There are scanned registers for each civil parish/archive series in the Cadastral authorities’ archives. Some dossiers do not have complete metadata to search for. Then you can often find the dossiers in these registers, instead of searching through all dossiers in a civil parish / archive series.

Bild 1.png

The chronological register is a register of all dossiers made in a civil parish. The register is sorted by chronological order after year up until the year in which the county stopped making analog registers. Example of a dossier designation is 07-väj-kron, the chronological register for Växjö civil parish.

Bild 2.png

The alphabetical register is a register of all dossiers made in a civil parish. The register is sorted by alphabetical order for each village/place in the civil parish up until the year in which the county stopped making analog registers. Example of a dossier designation is 16-syn-alfs, the alphabetical register for Synnerby civil parish and every place/district for the letter S.

The search option Action which is found in the Cadastral Authority (LMS) and in the Cadastral authorities’ archive can be selected in the drop-down menu.

Action generally refers to the cadastral procedure by which the map was created. Examples include various land reformations and tax reformations. If you do not choose Action but only search for the place name, all implemented actions in the place will be displayed.

A civil parish was an administrative division of the Swedish countryside and functioned as a registered area for the property unit division. A civil parish was often made up of several villages with a church in its center.

A market town and municipal settlement (station settlement) were a densely populated area within a civil parish which did not have town privileges but could still have town statutes.

The towns were the registered areas which had town privileges.

An example search of the difference between civil parish, market town and town in Bollnäs civil parish.

Search for dossiers for Bollnäs:

  1. Dossiers before 1906/1923 are available in Bollnäs civil parish, see the first image.
  2. Dossiers between the years 1906/1923 and 1941 are either in Björkhamre or Bollnäs market town, see the second image.
  3. Dossiers after 1941 are in Bollnäs town, see the third image. No dossiers after 1928 are shown in Historical maps but you can find registers on the dossiers available in Lantmäteriet’s archive.

Bilden visar Bollnäs socken

1. Bollnäs civil parish.

Bilden visar Bollnäs och Björkhamre sockens utbredning 1923

2. Expansion of Bollnäs and Björkhamre civil parish 1923.

Bilden visar Bollnäs stads utbredning 1941

3. Expansion of Bollnäs town 1941.

Contents of this page may be automatically translated, we take no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation. Feel free to contact our customer support centre if you have any questions.

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