Engångers Socken Records

Contains information about Enånger parish, from about 1520 until 1960 including a description of the settlement of the area, the Middle Ages, taxes, and wars. Also contains an alphabetic list of the names, and a linear list of the different families. The material is in Swedish.

Historical Note

The name Enånger is believed to come from the giant En/Enar and the ancient word for bay in Swedish, anger/ånger. Enångers socken (parish) is located in Gävleborgs län in Sweden and is surrounded by the parishes: Norrala, Trönö, Nianfors and Njutänger. In the east the parish borders to Bottenviken. The people settled chiefly in the valley surrounding Enånger River. Finnish settlers founded the city Grängsjö in the 1600s. A settlement close to Grängsjö was wiped out during the Black Death of 1350. No one wanted to live there afterwards so the city went to rack and ruin. A new plague devastated the parish in the early 1700s. Russians attacked the parish in 1721. The main trades in the are were fishing, lumbering and the ironworks. The number of inhabitants grew during the 1700s and a lengthy quarrel about building a new church started in the late 1700s/early 1800s. The church burned down in 1879 and a new church was dedicated in 1881. They received their first post office in 1874. The first ironworks was built in 1689. The main work was Långvind ironworks, but other jobs also existed in the area. The works were destroyed by the Russians in 1721 and was rebuilt shortly after. The ironworks became a public company in 1766, and was owned by a consortium. The prime time for the company was when Lars and Solomon Von Stockenström owned the company. The works closed in 1884, and the company land was split in 1913.