L-Swedish Patronymic and Common Name

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Norma Lawson on August 24, 2009 at 10:27am

Sven Oscar Lawson (Larsson) b 14 Feb 1857 in Grenna, Smolland, Jonkoping, Sweden, immigrated about 1879 to the Brockton, Plymouth, Massachusetts and d 7 Aug 1934 in Brockton, Plymouth, Mssachusetts. (His wife was Matilda Nelson was also from Sweden) He worked in the shoefactories and was a preacher.
My questions are
1: is the place name for his birth a valid one? If so what are the different parts called (here it would be town, county, state etc.)?
2. Where can I find a good map of Sweden that I can use to locate this and other places?
3. Is there a tutorial or class where I could learn enough Swedish to find basic facts written in Swedish?

Permalink Reply by Lynn Anderson on August 24, 2009 at 1:58pm

Norma,

1 Yes, there really is a Grenna. Here are some details.
Grenna, Smolland, Jonkoping, Sweden should be written Gränna, Småland, Jönköping, Sweden

but you should verify it really is his birthplace before you rely on it. Immigrants and even more often their descendents Americanized place and personal names and also localized places to the nearest significant place. He may have been born in Gränna or in a nearby village or farm. What you need to know for research is the PARISH. Records are kept by parish.

The correct call out for the town would be Gränna, Jönköping, Sweden... town, county, country. Grenna may very well be an old spelling I have not checked. Pronounce it about the same. Småland is a LANDSKAP province and has no leagal meaning BUT people identify very strongly with their province. Jönköping (say Yoon-shooping and you will be close) is the county or län in Swedish. Like most Americans (sorry if you dont live in USA) we would never tell an aquaintance in Europe we came from Grant County, MN... who knows and who cares where Grant Co is. If we have to go to court, now we care.

You will find Gränna on most reasonably good maps on the east side of the second biggest lake in Sweden about 30 km north of Jönköping. Unfortuantely I never got there when I lived in Jönköping 40+ years ago. It is said to be totally charming!

2 for a good map, I love my KAK Atlas from the Swedish auto club KAK. Do you want to buy a map or just use one on line? For locating places we need to find Svensk Ortförteckning. No one seems to know of one on line. Eniro mentioned on this site (a Swedish Mapquest) can help but you need a good name spelling. Then there is always google.

3 I have been thinking of putting on a Swedish class for researchers. Ive done it live but never on line. It is not hard. Got any ideas.

You did not say where you got the data you have. That would give us a better understanding of credibility. Maybe there really is a Grenna, Smolland but for now I wuold not spend my time searching. I can give you surrounding parishes if you like. Also, see my Geography Discussion on this site.

NOte Matilda was very likely not Nelson but Nilsson at birth.

Permalink Reply by Norma Lawson on August 25, 2009 at 12:36am

The information on Sven came from his son Elmer b.15 Oct 1892. in Brockton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and from a short bio from the Swedish Congreational Church (written in Swedish which I had a friend translate for me).

On the map I would be willing to buy one if I need to. There are several people in this line that emmigrated from Sweden.

The class would need to be basic for me. I have put off researching in Sweden because I feel so unsure of myself. I know I can do it if I train myself.

Permalink Reply by Richard Dahlqvist on August 24, 2009 at 2:17pm

Norma,

Lynn did a good job explaining to you about the different parts in the birthplace information.
So I will not say anything about that.

The best place to check for different locations on a map online is as Lynn wrote Eniro.
Here is the link for the map-section of Eniro.

http://kartor.eniro.se/

But for the most bigger places Google maps works as well.


Now for a more important part about Gränna. What is Gränna famous for? =)
Mention Gränna to any Swede an he or she will almost immediatly taste peppermint in his or her mouth.
It is the Candy Cane capitol of the world!

If you want to know more, here is a link telling you about Gränna and its Polkagrisar.

http://www.communityofsweden.com/Pages/Stories/Story.aspx?storyId=772

And one last thing, Mathilda was probably not Nelson nor Nilsson at birth, but most likely Nilsdotter.
However, she probably took the name Nilsson or Nelson when she emigrated.

Permalink Reply by Magnus Hallqvist on August 24, 2009 at 2:12pm

https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Portal:Sweden
This site have a lot of stuff that you want, Parish list for instance

Permalink Reply by Betsy Mickey on November 4, 2009 at 11:41pm

Magnus, this site was a great help! Thanks.
I was able to copy the parish lists to a spreadsheet and sort them by County and district. It may not sound like much, but it helped me isolate those parishes closest to where the family came from. Given that they were mostly tenant farmers working 8 days a week for the landowner, they didn't have much opportunity to travel, so my first searches will be in the nearest parishes.
I can hardly wait to check those parish records.

Permalink Reply by Norma Lawson on September 19, 2009 at 1:17pm

Thanks alot for your help with this. I do have another question. How do I put the .. etc over the letters when typing them in?

Permalink Reply by Lynn Anderson on November 8, 2009 at 6:16pm

Norma,
May I reword your question from Sep 19? You do not put .. over letters. You use unique letters Å Ä Ö. (They appear at the END of the Swedish alphabet, after Z and are not accents on letters they may look like to you.)

Please see the Learning Swedish discussion on this group. I posted a helpful note there.

I recommend you load the Swedish keyboard if you are using Windows. You will switch back and forth between EN and SV keyboards. Please ask if you have questions or email directly.