Swedish to English (Ägarbyten)

[dlfallen]

I am attempting to translate part of a book on family history. It's a lot of fun given that the book is written in Swedish and I don't speak the language! I have pretty much translated the following sentence except for the first word:

Ägarbyten, amerikaemigration, sjukdomar och död blir några av trådarna, som bildar väven av människoöden.

I used an electronic dictionary to check Ägarbyten and it seems to break down into the root words äga (own/possess) and byte (exchange). I believe it is a reference to the period of time when the village cluster was broken up into separate farms. This translation makes sense to me given what I know about the family history. In fact, in the previous paragraph the author stated that the book started with that point in time. Can anyone verify the translation of Ägarbyten for me?

[Cãlin]

Wll done! "Ägarbyte" (plural form ägarbyten) means change of owner. It´s one of those compounds that one can never find in dictionaries. I believe that I have 8 Swedish dictionaries at home, and none of them contains this compound.

[solbjerg]

If the book starts with explaining ägerbyten, it probably refers to the time where the great landholders partly was forced and partly saw their interest in parceling out part of their estates to farmhands that were able to pay for their parcels by running their small farms themselves.
Forced labor is never as productive as voluntary labor on your own farm.
It must have taken place in England and Ireland, France and other countries too, so you should be able to find the common English expression for parceling out or outparcelling.
The time of the great allotment. maybe?
Quite a project you have set for yourself!

I am attempting to translate part of a book on family history. It's a lot of fun given that the book is written in Swedish and I don't speak the language! I have pretty much translated the following sentence except for the first word:

Ägarbyten, amerikaemigration, sjukdomar och död blir några av trådarna, som bildar väven av människoöden.

I used an electronic dictionary to check Ägarbyten and it seems to break down into the root words äga (own/possess) and byte (exchange). I believe it is a reference to the period of time when the village cluster was broken up into separate farms. This translation makes sense to me given what I know about the family history. In fact, in the previous paragraph the author stated that the book started with that point in time. Can anyone verify the translation of Ägarbyten for me?