Sweden and Swedish Ancestry

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Comment by louise duncalf on August 9, 2009 at 11:07am

i grew up in the quad cities. it was a community that bordered the mississippi river that part was in illinois and part in iowa. there was a big community of swedish people who came to the area. the cities were rock island,illinois and moline,illinois. there is a college that is called augustana college that in 1981 swedish america received its first full-time research center and it is located there. known as swenson immigration center. i got this information in a booklet i was sent. ive had it for years but never did anything with it. its called tracing your swedish ancestry by nils william olsson

Comment by Shelly Bonstrom Geurts on August 9, 2009 at 9:47am

Laura, It is very difficult to find someone in Sweden if you only have the name, especially a common name. It would much easier if you could find more information. Do you have a date of birth? Have you looked at the following records to see if they indicate a specific Swedish origin - naturalization records, birth records of children, census records, local church records, death certificate, probate records? How about the information on the relatives he came to meet? They are most likely from the same area or close to it. Where were most of the Swedish immigrants in that area of Illinois from? Sometimes they immigrated from close geographical areas. Where were most of the Swedish immigrants in the local church from? If you check all of this information, you may find a link to a specific area in Sweden.

Comment by Laura Schnabel on August 9, 2009 at 5:55am

I have a problem with my Swedish research. My great great grandparents came to America in the 1850's. They arrived in Boston and traveled to meet up with family in Illinois. The husband's name was Olaf Johnson. My family members and I can not find a trace of them before they came to the US. We think they came from Stockholm but not sure. We really need some direction. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Comment by Max Bancroft on August 1, 2009 at 12:22am

Hello Jim Erickson, I have a question, please contact me off line by emailing
maxwell1 at bigpond dot net dot au
Note I have altered my email address to defeat the spammers

Comment by Shelly Bonstrom Geurts on July 31, 2009 at 10:24pm

Keep in mind that many immigrants changed their name more than once or may have used different variations. My great-great grandmother was born Inga Maja Jonsdotter. She switched her first and middle names, at one time used her grandfather's surname (Erickson), then, after marrying, used Nilsson. The entire family changed the name to Bunstrum (her husband's mother's maiden name), then Nelson, then, finally Bonstrom. It's listed in all of these names on various documents (birth records, marriage license, church records, census & death certificate.)

Comment by Max Bancroft on July 27, 2009 at 1:31am

Many thanks Jim

Comment by Jim Erickson on July 26, 2009 at 10:04pm

I recomend this site Cimorelli Immigration Manifesto for looking up ship information, possibly passenger lists and schedules. Some of the links or searches may not work.
I ran into the name change problem with my uncles. Both Changed their names from Olsson to Nisser. Their names were Niss Per Olsson and Niss Viktor Olsson, The sisters kept Olsson but dropped an s in the spelling. Their father was Niss Olof Matsson, Son of Nissanas Mats Olsson and the mother was Tjäder Kerstin Andersdotter, daughter of Tjäder Anders Olsson. You can see how the names worked up through the generations. The other problems I found is the brothers and sisters when they died listed on the death certificate the mothers maiden name as either Tjäder or Andersdotter. One of the the girls, my Grandmother also has records of her using the last name of Mattson as well as Olsson.

Comment by Max Bancroft on July 26, 2009 at 9:45pm

I am researching Ollie Berntsson born about 1900 in Sweden. He travelled to Australia as a crewman on one of the last of the Windjamber Sailing Ships that arrived in Sydney Harbour about 1920 where he jumped ship and later became an Australian citizen

Comment by Lynn Anderson on July 26, 2009 at 5:50pm

Mary,
When you start talking about American name changes, do not make any assumptions. I would say the majority did what ever they wanted with no legal process involved. Many did change name or spelling on the boat or the dock. This means the manifest may show their Swedish name but the first records in the US show the Americanized name.

There are some common changes which would be a placed to start like Nilsson to Nelson and Bengtsson to Benson or Lundgren to Londgreen. But I have a friend Leonard Smith, as Swedish as can be, but his grandfather (or was it father) decided Smith was more American than Andersson in Iowa! Americanized names keep genealogists awake at night. Sometimes they did it to simply fix the spelling but sometimes thay just wanted a change... to something Swedish/American or something totally different. I have a relative Johnnesson came to Minnesota and simply spelled the name Johnson but the son picked the last name Skarp (made up from Skarpåsen, the locallity the family came from a generation earlier).

If you have some specific names, do post them and members can speculate some name mappings to TRY. Getting across the Atlantic is the biggest challenge. If you have a parish in Sweden you have the best link. If you have multiple immigrants, you can sometimes get a few clues here and few there.

Comment by Larry Bowles on July 26, 2009 at 4:30pm

Mary: Immigration into the U.S. can be very difficult to find when prior to 1892 and Ellis Island. Beth is quite correct when she states that many came into U.S. after first going to Canada. Others came in through the Great Lakes and went to the state they lived in. Castle Garden Records have not been completely indexed as yet. The only Nilson, Nelson I found in Palo Alto was not your family. Can't explain why. If they settled there around 1890, they should be there on 1900 census. The spelling change you refer to could have been done by the family itself and no government agency. Some just got tired of constantly having to spell their name the Swedish way and just went along with what the American spelling was. Good example is the "sen" on many Danish and Norwegian surnames gets changed to "son" just because it was Americanized. Best papers you should try to get would be the Declaration of Intent to become American Citizen. Often they show the name of the ship, date of arrival, place of arrival, etc. The Declaration is the FIRST papers filed when they intended to become U.S. citizen.

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