Daily Ancestorby
By is Swedish for a village or hamlet; household rolls are arranged by by and then by the farms in it.
A Swedish by was a cluster of farms that shared fields and common land. Most hemman, the assessed farms, lay in a by and were identified by the village name and a number, such as Viksjö nr 1.
In a household examination roll the pages are usually ordered by village, then farm, so knowing the by is the fastest way to find a family. Do not read it as the English word by: in a Swedish place column it means a village.
As seen in a recordHeading in a Swedish household examination roll, 1850s
Västra Ryds by, Hemmanet nr 3, Bonden Erik Larsson
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How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "by." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/swedish/by. Last checked 2026-10-28.