Illegitimate births in Västbo district : A study of seven parishes 1860-1939

During the 19th and 20th century, Sweden saw a dramatic increase of illegitimate children. The phenomenon was not however equally distributed, as the frequency was much lower in the western parts of the country. In several doctoral thesis, the development has been explained with the advancing industrialization of the modern society. The primary aim of this study has been to test this thesis in Västbo district 1860-1939. The district, which is located in the heart of the south western parts of Sweden, had around the turn of the century 1900, several more or less industrialized towns, but was still strongly influenced by the surrounding agrarian parishes. As expected, the parishes with an established industry, tended to have a higher proportion of illegitimate births than those of agrarian character. Therefore, the same thesis that has been accepted on a national scale, can also be applied on a local scale, even within the region that represents a low proportion of illegitimate births. The study has also proven that the majority of the illegitimate children’s fathers were unknown, which often put the mother in a difficult economic and social situation. On the other hand, a bigger proportion of the fathers were identified from 1926, when each municipality was obliged to institute a child welfare committee. The main material of the study has been the birth books and the child welfare committees’ protocols