Fattigvården i Praktiken : En undersökning av Lycksele sockens fattigvård 1823-1873

Sammanfattning: The poor relief has been, since the early Middle Ages, the church´s responsibility.  The poor would be treated in a good Christian way. Some regulations were introduced during the 1600-1700s that had some effects on the care of the poor. In 1847 a new Poor Law Regulation was introduced. It was in a time when Sweden struggled with an increasing poverty. This law included the first changes in 200 years. Even though the regulations during 1700 century gave every parish the right to decide on the methods of how to provide the necessary care , it still was the responsibility of the parish. As a consequence, there were many local variations of how the poor relief was practiced in the country. This essay examines how Lycksele parish designed their poor relief and what local and external factors affected it in the years of 1823-1873.  This period of time was marked by crop failures, parish breakout, social changes and new laws to adapt to those circumstances. The result of the investigation present that local factors had a bigger impact on the poor relief than the external factors. The most important factor was the crop failure periods that occurred three times and forced the parish to develop new methods to help the people in need.