socken

A socken was the area whose people belonged to one parish church. It ran local affairs through the parish meeting, the sockenstämma, until civil matters were moved to new rural municipalities under the reform of 1862. Towns had parishes but no socken.

For research the socken is the key place name: Swedish church records are kept and indexed by parish, so you need it before you can find any birth, roll or death. If an American record names only Sweden or a province, finding the socken is the first research goal.