Preists and Soldiers who became farmers in Sweden.

In the course of my research I have realized that many of my earliest Swedish ancestors were priests in the Catholic church prior to 1530 and Lutheran's after that. There was even one who had to face the ecclessiastical court and then the King's court to prove he didn't have Catholic leanings although he was ordained in the Lutheran church.

If I ever traced all of their descendants(which might take several lifetimes lol) I would have distant relatives all over the world as if I didn't already.

What this means is that those ancestors are quite well documented back into the late middle ages possibly as early as 1200 CE in Stugun, Jamtland, There is also some possibilty that I am related to people who could be traced to the Viking age  (c 900 CE) in Norway.

The Soldiers come into the picture when they married the daughters of priests. I have at least 3 ancestors who left young families behind when they died in Arnfelt's retreat from Norway in the winter of 1718-1719 after the King of Sweden died. Arnfelt himself survived but he lost at least 3000 men in the mountain passes between Nord Trondelag and Jamtland.

The children of those men became settlers(*nybygare) in the parish of Follinge in Jamtland, Soldiers often got land grants in less populated areas in exchange for long service.