Födelse- och dopböcker or birth and baptism registers begin in 1869 in the Tånnö church archives at Riksarkivet. This can be a challenging area for research because of fires that destroyed a number of church records.

However, it is possible to verify the 1863 birth date of Anders Gustaf Linnell, the firstborn child of Johan Andreasson and Christina Andreasdotter, because of numerous other records in which he appears.

Anders Gustaf is listed on line 10 of page 108 in the 1861-1873 Husförhörslängder. He lives at the torp or small farm called Källaremon. Every person on this page is related to Anders Gustaf in some way.

His grandparents are on lines 2 and 3. All Anders Gustaf’s paternal aunts and uncles are here as well; Elin Maria (line 4), Anna Cathrina (lines 5 and 14), Sven Gustaf (line 6), Anders Håkan (line 7 and 17), Johanna Kristina (line 7), and of course Anders Gustaf’s father Johan (line 8) and mother Christina (line 9).

Johan Andreasson’s torp is recorded as Under Kyrkovärden (church warden), Following line 8 to the right, we see Johan and Christina were married in November 1861. That could have been verified in the lysnings- och vigselböcker (banns and marriage books), however those books were destroyed by fire in 1869.

The Johan Andreasson family grew during the period recorded on this page. Anders Gustaf’s sister Mina Lisa was born 04 Nov 1865, and brother Carl Alfred was born 19 March 1868.

To continue following Anders Gustaf and his family, we turn to this page which directs us to the Torpet Hyltan on page 103 to which the family moved in 1869. Another child, Frans Emil, was born 02 Jan 1871. Then we must go to a new volume of the household books; the one that covers the years 1874 to 1880. First I looked for the torp Hyltan on the register page which directed me to page 134.

The family had grown some and sadly, suffered the loss of one of the twins born in 1875. I couldn’t quite make out the name of the youngest child, so I took a quick detour to page 17 of the födelse- och dopböcker or birth and baptisms book. I’m still not sure; maybe you can make it out?

This is a perfect example of why it’s so challenging to focus on just one ancestor at a time!

Turning my attention back to Anders Gustaf, I see he is 15 or 16 years old in 1880, the year in which this household record ends. Not much information here. On to the next volume!

Again, I started with the register of the 1881-1891 household record book and looked for the torp called Hyltan. There’s been quite a lot of activity in the family (!) and it is all recorded on page 123.

Or is it?