This thesis investigates inheritance among landowning families in the parish of Estuna in east-central Sweden between 1810 and 1930. The patterns of action examined in the study are analyzed as strategies in terms of objectives and principles on the one hand, and means towards these objectives and principles on the other. Before 1885, strategies were based on family interest. The individual’s dependency on inheritance was strong: a fact manifesting itself e.g. in the strong connections between inheritance and matrimonial patterns. The principal goal of the family strategies was to accomplish a transfer of the estate under sustainable conditions to one of the heirs, preferably – but not necessarily – a son. After 1845, as a response to institutional and social change, forms of conveyance changed. For example, after the introduction of equal rights of inheritance between sons and daughters in 1846, the number of quasi-commercial sales of land directly to sons increased, as a way of circumventing judicial demands. Yet this change of action in no way counter-acted the comprehensive goals and principles of inheritance. On the contrary, it was a means to overcome new difficulties in accomplishing these goals. After 1885, inheritance strategies reflected individual, rather than collective, aims. Estates were parcelled and the lots sold by the heirs at a profit. Furthermore, matrimony no longer showed connection with the spouses’ respective inheritance. This development was a result of institutional developments as well as of economic change, both diminishing paternal power. Industrialization had created openings outside domestic agriculture, and so individuals became less dependent on family and family resources. During this period, the older generation tended to keep their estates as long as possible, and this was read as a defensive strategy aimed at continued maintenance of estates within the family.